A new study showed that people whose fathers have smoked during adulthood are older than expected, and the researchers found signs of faster biological aging, compared to the age of time, in people whose fathers began smoking at the age of 15 years or less.
The researchers said that smoking during adulthood may cause damage to the developing sperm cells in adolescents, which may be transferred in the future to their children.
The study was conducted by researchers from Bergen University, Norway, and their results were presented at the European Respiratory Association conference held in the Dutch capital Amsterdam during the period between September 27 – October 1, and was written by the Yurrick Alert website.
The researchers call for more efforts to prevent teenagers from tobacco use, not only for the benefit of the current generation, but also for the benefit of future generations.
“Our research group previously showed that smoking during adulthood may harm not only the smoked person, but also his children in the future. In this new study, we wanted to explore whether to smoke parents during adulthood may also affect the biological aging of their children in the future.”
Rapid aging
The researchers conducted the study using a firm scale of biological aging known as the watches above the genetic. With our age, additional particles accumulate on DNA in our cells. This does not change the DNA code, but it affects how our genes behave.
These changes – called changes above genetic – are not a sign of aging, but also related to aging diseases such as cancer and dementia.
The researchers found only a slight increase in biological age in people whose fathers began to smoke late in their lives, and they did not find any clear pattern in biological aging in people whose mothers smoked before pregnancy.
“This accelerated biological aging is important because it has been associated with the high risk of diseases such as cancer, arthritis and dementia in previous research. Our results indicate that children who smoke during adulthood may, without knowing them, are harmful to children who give birth to them later,” said Dr. Lopez Servanz.
He added, “This research does not fully explain the reason for the connection of smoking during the period of puberty with rapid aging, but we believe that when parents start smoking during the puberty period, this may lead to a change in the genetic material of their sperm cells, and that these changes may be transferred to the next generation.”
The researchers pointed out that although this research is still in its early stages, its results are important for young children who smoke or consume other types of nicotine products.