Alcohol abuse even before pregnancy may harm offspring
Mothers who binge drink before they become pregnant may be more likely to have children with high blood sugar and other changes in glucose function that increase their risk of developing diabetes as adults, according to a new study. "The effects of alcohol use during pregnancy on an unborn child are well known, including possible birth defects and learning and behavior problems. However, it is not known whether a mother's alcohol use before conception also could have negative effects on her child's health and disease susceptibility during adulthood," said principal investigator Dipak Sarkar, Ph.D., DPhil, a distinguished professor at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., and director of its endocrine research program. Binge drinking is common in the United States. Among alcohol users 18 to 44 years old, 15 percent of nonpregnant women and 1.4 percent of pregnant women report that they binge drank in the past month, according to a 2012 ph...