Father’s Tobacco Use May Raise Children’s Diabetes Risk

A mouse study found that a father’s nicotine exposure can affect the offspring’s ability to process sugar and may contribute to diabetes risk, according to new research published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society . An estimated 40.1 million people in the United States have diabetes, according to the U.S.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Having diabetes puts people at risk of developing other conditions like heart disease, kidney disease and nerve damage.

Since diabetes affects more than 12% of Americans and is a chronic disease, the costs of treatment are high. Tobacco product use is a leading preventable cause of adverse health outcomes, according to the study.

Limiting risk factors like smoking and electronic cigarette use could help address the diabetes epidemic, particularly among men, who consume more tobacco products than women. “When male mice consumed nicotine in their drinking water, their offspring had metabolic alterations that appear to impact the way the body metabolizes sugar,” says the study’s senior author, Raquel Chamorro-Garcia, PhD, of the University of California, Santa Cruz, in Santa Cruz, Calif.