Fathers who picked up smoking as teenagers could be cutting years off their children’s live, a new study shows.
Smoking cigarettes has long been shown to cause long-term health issues, including heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
It’s also the number one cause of America’s deadliest cancer, lung cancer, which takes more than 100,000 lives every year.
But a new study from researchers in Norway suggests smoking even early in life could have consequences for future generations.
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After taking blood samples from nearly 900 people ages seven to 50 and conducting questionnaires about their parents’ health habits, the team measured participants’ biological age, or the age of the body’s cells, which is influenced by habits like diet and chronic conditions.
They found people whose fathers started smoking during puberty were biologically up to 14 months older than their actual age.
However, there was little difference in people whose fathers started smoking when they were older, and no change in those whose mothers picked up the habit before they got pregnant.
The team suspected boys who smoked as teenagers may have suffered changes to their sperm cells, which then get passed to their children.
Researchers in Norway found people whose fathers began smoking as teenagers were biologically older their actual age (stock image)
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Dr Juan Pablo López-Cervantes, lead study author from the University of Bergen in Norway, said: ‘Our research group has previously shown that smoking during puberty may harm not only the person who smokes, but also their future children.
‘In this new study, we wanted to explore whether parental smoking in puberty may also influence the biological aging of their future children.’
The findings come as nearly one in eight Americans report smoking cigarettes.
Meanwhile, fewer than one in 50 teens smoke cigarettes, though eight percent use e-cigarettes.
While e-cigarettes have long been marketed as a healthier alternative to smoking and a method for cigarette users to quit, numerous studies have shown these devices have harmful health effects and contain thousands of chemicals that may damage sperm and affect offspring health.
The researchers in the new study specifically looked at cigarette smoking, as e-cigarettes did not enter the market until the early 2000s.
The study, presented Monday at the European Respiratory Society Congress in Amsterdam, looked at 892 people ranging in chronological age from seven to 50 years. The average age was 28.
Participants were recruited from the RHINESSA study, an international project that studies asthma, allergies and lung health across a person’s lifetime and throughout multiple generations.
Researchers took blood samples from each participant and analyzed them for epigenetic changes, which are gene modifications caused by reversible factors like diet and stress.
They then used those blood samples to estimate biological aging, or the age of the body’s cells. Biological age measures the damage done to cells over time through chronic health conditions, weight, cholesterol and diet.
Participants also completed questionnaires about their family’s lifestyle habits, including if their fathers smoked at any point.
The researchers found people whose fathers started smoking later in life had only a small increase in biological age, and there was no clear relationship between biological aging and people whose mothers started smoking before pregnancy.
However, participants whose fathers began smoking during puberty were about nine months older in biological age than their actual, chronological age.
It’s unclear exactly how old the fathers were when they went through puberty, but it typically occurs between ages nine and 14.
And when researchers accounted for whether or not the participants themselves had ever smoked, the gap between biological and chronological age grew to 14 to 15 months.
Researchers suspect teen boys who smoke may suffer damage to sperm cells that gets carried on to their children (stock image)
Dr López-Cervantes said: ‘This accelerated biological aging is important as it has been linked to a higher risk of diseases such as cancer, arthritis and dementia in previous research. Our results suggest that boys who smoke during puberty may be unknowingly creating harm for the children they go on to have.’
The researchers said it’s unclear exactly why boys smoking during puberty affected their children’s biological age, but they suspected that smoking may alter epigenetic material in the father’s sperm cells and make them seem biologically older. These would then get passed down to their children.
Dr López-Cervantes said: ‘Although this research is still in its early days, we believe our findings are important for young boys who smoke or consume other types of nicotine products. Stronger efforts to prevent tobacco use in adolescence should be a priority for policy makers.
‘Such efforts could benefit not only the current generation but also those in the future.’
The findings come as smoking has been shown to cause nine in 10 cases of lung cancer, America’s deadliest form of cancer. The disease is strikes 226,000 Americans per year and kills 130,000.
Smoking has also long been shown to cause heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other lung diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by damaging cells and increasing blood pressure.
Now, experts reviewing the study have noted smoking even early in life could have generational consequences.
Dr Stamatoula Tsikrika, chair of the European Respiratory Society’s expert group on tobacco, smoking control and health education, who was not involved in the study, said: ‘We all know that smoking causes diseases such as asthma, COPD and cancer. What we’re starting to learn is that the damage caused by smoking can persist across generations.
‘This study suggests that boys who start smoking at 15 or younger can pass the damage on to any children they have many years later.
‘Although rates of smoking in teenagers seem to be declining, rates of vaping are generally increasing, and we don’t yet know the long-term impact of vaping on children and teenagers.
‘This research is another reminder that we need to protect children and teenagers from nicotine addiction, smoking and vaping.’
