Binge drinking mothers pass on diabetes risk

WOMEN can make their children more vulnerable to diabetes by drinking heavily even before they become pregnant, research suggests.

US scientists have said binge drinking before conception could make children more likely to have high blood sugar and other changes in glucose function.

While the effects of alcohol use during pregnancy on babies are well known, including possible birth defects and learning difficulties, far less is understood about the effects of alcohol before pregnancy begins.

For women, binge drinking is defined as consuming the equivalent of four or more drinks in about two hours.

Researchers at the Rutgers University conducted the study in rats, which have basic processes of glucose function similar to those in humans.

For four weeks, they gave female rats a diet containing 6.7 per cent alcohol, which raised their blood alcohol levels to those of binge drinking in humans. Alcohol was then removed from the rats’ diet, and they were bred three weeks later, equal to several months in humans.

The researchers found that the offspring of rats exposed to alcohol before conception had several signs of abnormal glucose function.

The findings were presented yesterday at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Orlando, Florida.

Ali Al-Yasari, the study’s co-author, said: “These findings suggest that the effects of a mother’s alcohol misuse before conception may be passed on to her offspring.”