When fathers exercise, children are healthier, even as adults
October 22, 2018
Science Daily/Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
Most parents know that the diet and exercise habits of a pregnant woman impacts the health of her baby, but little is known about how a father's health choices are passed to his children. A new study finds that lifestyle practices of fathers prior to conception may have a major impact on the lifelong health of their children.
In a new study led by Kristin Stanford, a physiology and cell biology researcher with The Ohio State University College of Medicine at the Wexner Medical Center, paternal exercise had a significant impact on the metabolic health of offspring well into their adulthood.
Laurie Goodyear of the Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School co-led the study, published today in the journal Diabetes.
"This work is an important step in learning about metabolic disease and prevention at the cellular level," said Dr. K. Craig Kent, dean of the Ohio State College of Medicine.
Recent studies have linked development of type 2 diabetes and impaired metabolic health to the parents' poor diet, and there is increasing evidence that fathers play an important role in obesity and metabolic programming of their offspring.
Stanford is a member of Ohio State's Diabetes and Metabolism Research Center. Her team investigated how a father's exercise regimen would affect his offspring's metabolic health. Using a mouse model, they fed male mice either a normal diet or a high-fat diet for three weeks. Some mice from each diet group were sedentary and some exercised freely. After three weeks, the mice bred and their offspring ate a normal diet under sedentary conditions for a year.
The researchers report that adult offspring from sires who exercised had improved glucose metabolism, decreased body weight and a decreased fat mass.
"Here's what's really interesting; offspring from the dads fed a high-fat diet fared worse, so they were more glucose intolerant. But exercise negated that effect," Stanford said. "When the dad exercised, even on a high-fat diet, we saw improved metabolic health in their adult offspring."
Stanford's team also found that exercise caused changes in the genetic expression of the father's sperm that suppress poor dietary effects and transfer to the offspring.
"We saw a strong change in their small-RNA profile. Now we want to see exactly which small-RNAs are responsible for these metabolic improvements, where it's happening in the offspring and why," Stanford said.
Previous studies from this group have shown that when mouse mothers exercise, their offspring also have beneficial effects of metabolism.
"Based on both studies, we're now determining if both parents exercising has even greater effects to improve metabolism and overall health of offspring. If translated to humans, this would be hugely important for the health of the next generation," Goodyear said.
The researchers believe the results support the hypothesis that small RNAs could help transmit parental environmental information to the next generation.
"There's potential for this to translate to humans. We know that in adult men obesity impairs testosterone levels, sperm number and motility, and it decreases the number of live births," Stanford said. "If we ask someone who's getting ready to have a child to exercise moderately, even for a month before conception, that could have a strong effect on the health of their sperm and the long-term metabolic health of their children."
Other Ohio State researchers involved in the study were Lisa Baer, Adam Lehnig and Joseph White.
Funding from the National Institutes of Health supported this research.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181022085844.htm
Study links irregular sleep schedules to adverse metabolic health in women
Study is first to examine individual differences in habitual sleep timing in relation to indices of metabolic health
February 1, 2016
Science Daily/American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Frequent shifts in sleep timing may be related to adverse metabolic health among non-shift working, midlife women, new research shows. Results show that greater variability in bedtime and greater bedtime delay were associated with higher insulin resistance, and greater bedtime advance was associated with higher body mass index (BMI).
Results show that greater variability in bedtime and greater bedtime delay were associated with higher insulin resistance, and greater bedtime advance was associated with higher body mass index (BMI). In prospective analyses, greater bedtime delay -- for example, staying up 2 hours later than usual -- also predicted an increase in insulin resistance 5 years later. The cross-sectional and prospective associations between these measures were significant only when both weekdays and weekends were included in the analysis, suggesting that large deviations in bedtime between work days and free days contributed to impaired glucose regulation.
"Irregular sleep schedules, including highly variable bedtimes and staying up much later than usual, are associated in midlife women with insulin resistance, which is an important indicator of metabolic health, including diabetes risk," said senior author Martica Hall, PhD, professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. "We found that weekday-weekend differences in bedtime were especially important."
Study results are published in the February issue of the journal Sleep.
"This study emphasizes the important health benefits of keeping a regular sleep schedule," said American Academy of Sleep Medicine President Dr. Nathaniel Watson, who was not involved in the study. "In addition to sleeping 7 or more hours per night on a regular basis, adults should strive to maintain a consistent schedule by going to bed and waking up at the same times on weekdays and weekends."
Led by Hall and lead author Briana J. Taylor, the research team analyzed data from the SWAN Sleep Study, an ancillary project to the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN). The community-based sample comprised 370 Caucasian, African American and Chinese non-shift working women between the ages of 48 and 58 years. Daily diary-reported bedtimes were used to calculate four measures of sleep timing: mean bedtime, bedtime variability, bedtime delay and bedtime advance. BMI and insulin resistance were measured at baseline and again an average of 5 years later.
"The results are important because diabetes risk increases in midlife women," said Hall. "Our study suggests that irregular sleep schedules may be an important piece of this puzzle. The good news is that sleep timing is a modifiable behavior. Metabolic health was better in women who had more regular sleep schedules, including regular bedtimes across weekdays and weekends."
According to the authors, irregular bedtime schedules expose the body to varying levels of light, which is the most important timing cue for the body's circadian clock. By disrupting circadian timing, bedtime variability may impair glucose metabolism and energy homeostasis.
The authors suggest that future studies of sleep timing and metabolic health should examine potential mechanisms including melatonin as well as other hormones that are relevant to metabolic health and sensitive to circadian misalignment, including leptin, ghrelin and cortisol.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160201125510.htm