Second Nature Care Blog

Fathers are Passing Down more than Blue Jeans

[fa icon="calendar'] Dec 18, 2015 10:30:00 AM / by Isadora Guggenheim & Winter Ninivaggi

Fathers are Passing on More than Their Blue Jeans

 

New research has found links between a man's life experiences and changes in his sperm. Dad could be passing down his old fat blue jeans and obesity genes. 

Experiences men have throughout their life extend further than genes and are possibly being passed down to their children through their sperm.

A sperm cell delivers DNA to an egg. Those genes are regulated by swarms of molecules called epigenetic factors. The molecules in the sperm can be influenced by outside factors that can silence or activate different genes.

Although people inherit genes that predispose them to obesity, or stress, or cancer, but could a father's high fat diet without a gene for obesity cause his children to develop more fat more easily? A number of research studies are being conducted to connect the dots on this new hypothesis. 

These new theories run counter to the standard thinking of how gene inheritence is looked at. You either inherit it or you don't, but you cannot create new genes. 

 

 

In a 2010 research experiment, male rats were fed a high-fat diet and then mated with females. Compared to male rats fed a regular diet, those on the high-fat diet fathered offspring that tended to gain more weight, developed more fat and had more trouble regulating insulin levels.

Does this look like your Dad?

Eating a high fat diet is not the only experience a father can have and ultimately pass down to his children. Stress seems to have the same effect. If a father experiences a lot of stressful situations throughout his life, he may pass this on causing the child to experience a more dampened response to stress like a flat affect. 

When studies were conducted on rats to test this theory unusual levels of epigenetic molecules were found in the sperm.Offspring developed with altered stress responses.

The idea that a father's environmental factors may influence a child's health and responses could have major implications. 

The studies have also been extended to human fathers and children. Epigenetic differences have been found between children who have obese fathers as compared to children who do not. One type of epigenetic factor they looked at involved molecular caps that are placed on DNA in a process called methylation. The molecular caps create a pattern that is different in the sperm of obese and lean men.

Obese men whose sperm was studied for these molecular patterns was also studied a year after and showed significant changes. These patterns in genes affected appetite control. 

Scientists are still skeptical. Tests are being done to see if these changes in sperm are carrying over into the blood cells of their children; however, epigenetic experts say it is possible that genetic differences between the men were mostly to blame for the differences seen in their sperm.

Are changes like these actually caused by men’s obesity? At Second Nature Care we can discuss your weight, stress and genes. 

Book Today!

Check out some of Dr. G's other blogs on men's health!

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 2010, for example, Dr. Romain Barres of the University of Copenhagen and his colleagues fed male rats a high-fat diet and then mated them with females. Compared with male rats fed a regular diet, those on the high-fat diet fathered offspring that tended to gain more weight, develop more fat and have more trouble regulating insulin levels.
Isadora Guggenheim, ND, FNP, RN, MS, CNS, LMT, owner of Second Nature Naturopathic Care, LLC
For all appointments: Tel: 845 358-8385 Fax: 845 358-2963 drguggenheim@msn.com