Khaberni - A recent scientific study has unveiled a worrying relationship between parental smoking in adolescence and accelerated aging in their future children.
Researchers at the European Respiratory Society conference in Amsterdam found that children whose parents smoked during their adulthood show signs of biological aging faster than their actual age.
According to the research led by Dr. Juan Pablo Lopez-Servantes from the University of Bergen, Norway, this acceleration in aging is clearly evident among children of parents who started smoking before the age of fifteen, where these children age biologically between nine months and one full year compared to their actual chronological ages. This gap widens to 14-15 months among children who smoke themselves as well.
Researchers explain this exciting phenomenon by stating that smoking during adolescence—a critical period where reproductive cells are formed—can cause genetic changes in boys' sperm. These environmental-linked genetic alterations do not change the DNA itself but affect how genes function and can be passed across generations.
The danger of this phenomenon lies in that accelerated biological aging is scientifically linked to an increased likelihood of age-related diseases, such as cancer, arthritis, and dementia. This turns the issue from merely an interesting biological phenomenon into an urgent health warning.
Dr. Stamatoula Tsikrika, an expert in smoking cessation, commented that these findings represent a new addition to the mounting evidence that the harms of smoking extend not only to the smoker but also to future generations. She also expressed concern about the rising use of e-cigarettes among teenagers, while the long-term effects are still unknown.
Researchers urge for a concerted effort to prevent smoking among teenagers, not just to protect their immediate health, but as an investment in the health of future generations. Protecting against nicotine addiction in youth has become not just a personal matter, but a responsibility towards future children who may pay the price of this habit with their health and lifespan.
