Alcohol Exposure
By: Olajumoke Bamgbose
It is well known
that drinking when pregnant is not in the best interest of the child and
drinking during pregnancy can lead to a child having fetal alcohol spectrum
disorders. Fetal alcohol disorders can affect the development of a child’s
brain, as well as the rest of development. This disorder can lead to
abnormalities in the organs, the child’s physical appearance, as well as
cognitive abilities. Fetal alcohol syndrome disorders encompass all of the
possible side effects of fetal alcohol exposure. According to a new study
published by The JAMA network there
is a larger amount of children effected by FASD than once thought.
The authors of
the studies conducted an experiment, using research on over 6,000 first grade
children. The research showed that between 1.1% and 9.8% of children are
affected by a fetal alcohol disorder in some way. The research features
information and data that shows that children with fetal alcohol syndrome
disorders, which is an umbrella term for various types of issues that can occur
in a child exposed to alcohol so early, are more prevalent in the United States
of America than expected. This is important due to the numerous amounts of
problems that it can cause in a child’s life. These abnormalities that come
with having a fetal alcohol syndrome disorder can lead to a lot of problems
that follow a child for a large amount of their life, if not the rest of it.
This study is
very similar to Dr. Toni Pak’s, who explored the effects of alcohol exposure to
the offspring of adolescents with parents that exhibited binge drinking
behaviors. In this study, one of the main conclusions was the data that showed
that adolescent binge pattern drinking has the ability to effect the genetic
makeup of the offspring as well as have long term effects of the drinker. In
this study the link was seen heavily in males and FASDs are more targeted
towards women but both show the long term affects of alcohol and how it cam
affect children.
References:
1.
Amanda
Macmillan. “Fetal Alcohol Disorder May Be More Common Than Previously Thought” Time
Magazine, February 6, 2018
2.
Philip A. May, Christina Chambers, Wendy Kalberg; et al. “Prevalence
of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders in 4 US Communities”. JAMA.
2018;319(5):474-482.
3.
Anna
Dorothea Asimes, Audrey Torcaso, Elena Pinceti, Chun K. Kim, Nancy J.
Zeleznik-Le, Toni R. Pak. “Adolescent binge-pattern alcohol exposure alters
genome-wide DNAmethylation patterns in the hypothalamus of alcohol-naïve
maleoffspring” Alcohol 60 (2017) 179e189
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