Could Binge Drinking During Teen Years Affect The Brains Of Future Generations? Loyola University Study

In the last few years, it’s become clear that what we do in our lives prior to conceiving a child can affect the health and mental health of the child years down the road. And this goes for both parents, not just the mother. Now, a new study published in the journal Alcohol finds that when alcohol is consumed during adolescence and before conception, it can affect the brains of the offspring—if you’re a rat, anyway. But the researchers say that given the overlap in the two species’ brains, and what we know from prior human studies, the results likely apply to humans. Which means that a few bingeing episodes in high school or college might actually affect the health of one’s child down the road.

The researchers exposed certain groups of male and female rats to the equivalent of six bingeing episodes during their adolescence. Then, after the rats were “sober,” different groups of mice were paired up in various ways to have offspring. For instance, females who’d been exposed to alcohol mated with males who either had or had not been exposed to alcohol. And male rats who had been exposed to alcohol mated with females who either had or hadn’t been exposed.

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