Men wishing to become fathers should avoid alcohol consumption until six months before conception. This is to avoid the risk of congenital heart defects in babies.
Congenital heart defects (abnormalities in the heart) affect over a million babies in the world every year. They are the leading cause of perinatal death and can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease later in life. We also know that one in four children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) also have congenital heart disease. Enough to consider that alcohol seems to be involved in the development of these disorders.
This link between alcohol and congenital heart disease has often been studied in mothers. A team of researchers recently looked into future dads. Study details are published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology .
For this work, these researchers examined data compiled from 55 studies on the subject. All were collected between 1991 and 2019. Just over 41,000 babies born with congenital heart disease, and nearly 300,000 born without heart disease were affected. The researchers then observed a progressive increase in the risk of heart disease as the alcohol consumption of the parents increased.
On the mothers' side, we learn more precisely that drinking alcohol regularly three months before pregnancy increased the risk of congenital heart disease in children by 16%. to be born. For future dads, the risk was 44% higher . For occasional binge drinking (five or more drinks per "session"), the risk was consistently 16% higher for women. And higher by 52% for men.
“ The occasional excessive consumption of alcohol by prospective parents is a high-risk and dangerous behavior, which not only can increase the chances that their baby will be born with a heart defect, but also significantly damages their own health ” , explains Dr. Jiabi Qin, from the Xiangya School of Public Health in China.
In view of these results, the researchers still encourage men who would like to become fathers to stop drinking alcohol at least six months before conception . Moms should, according to them, stop drinking at least a year before .
Note that this study only makes an observation and only establishes a link. Further work is needed to try to understand the underlying mechanisms linking parental alcohol consumption and the risk of congenital heart disease in babies.
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