Pregnant women are well aware of an extensive list of recommendations to protect the health of gametes and children developing in the womb. However, studies are emerging which substantiate perhaps what should have been an intuitive conclusion from the beginning – the lifestyle choices as well as the age of a prospective father can be linked to “…at least some of the risk of problems ranging from Down Syndrome, schizophrenia and autism to obesity and poor social skills…” (Young, 2009)
Heavy drinking has been shown to increase the occurrence of sperm abnormalities, which is not only possibly a factor in many birth defects but is linked to infertility. Furthermore, smoking has been conclusively linked to “fatter-than-average” sons and fathers who work excessively with heavy chemicals, such as pesticides, were susceptible to develop certain types of cancer.
However, by far the greatest shock by the study was evidence that a father’s age potentially has a greater impact than that of the mother. Indeed, a father’s age at conception of the child is linked to conditions such as Progeria, dwarfism, Marfan and Down’s syndrome. Finally, Avraham Reichenberg if the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York City, has found that while maternal age apparently has no effect, children’s risk of autism was six times greater and nine times greater again when paternal age was over 40 and 50 respectively. Then even if a child escapes without a diagnosable condition children have an increased risk of poor social skills. Recently, John McGrath of the Queensland Brain Institue, Brisbane, also demonstrated also that children of older men score worse on IQ tests.
Photo of Sperm Defects: Photo: http://www.ansci.wisc.edu/jjp1/ansci_repro/lab/procedures/sperm/tertiary_abnormalities.jpg
Article:
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/issues/2009/27/ (was obtained from magazine, need to be subscribed)
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