Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Smoking Grandparents leads to Asthma in Grandchildren

          
  The dangers of smoking while pregnant have been known for years now. A child may have several health complications if his or her mother is a smoker. However, these ailments may be a result of the grandparents smoking and not the mother at all. New research has shown that people who smoke are more likely to have grandchildren with asthma. This is one example of how behavior before conception can affect gene expression. In other study, it was demonstrated that a man’s weight at the time of conception can affect the child’s likelihood of obesity. Now, not only is it apparent that behavior can affect genes from parent to child, but grandparent to grandchild.
            This information may reveal links between genetics and evolution. How an organism behaves in an environment may alter the genes it passes on to the next generation. This can allow us to further understand the past and aid us for the future. If people understood how much their health can affect their children and grandchildren and so on, they may take better care of themselves now.

http://news.discovery.com/human/genetics/smoking-while-pregnant-affects-grandkids-150929.htm


http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/paternal-obesity-at-time-of-conception-can-lead-to-overweight-kids-study-1.1647750

1 comment:

  1. Very interesting article. Its always interesting to learn about how experiences can affect the offspring of an individual, but to discover how the experiences of an individual can affect the offspring of the next 2 generations is very interesting.

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