Are you overweight? Maybe it was your grandfather’s fault for smoking cigarettes

Recent studies show that grandchildren of prepubescent men who smoke cigarettes, like young women, often have higher body fat levels — meaning that the effects of smoking are visible even generations later.

Scientists are excited by the discovery of what they call “the first human demonstration of the transgenerational effects of environmental exposure in four generations.” In their view, our current habits and environment may affect our descendants, not just our children but our grandchildren as well.

Jean Golding and her team began their study back in 2014 by analyzing data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, which followed pregnant women and their families since the early 1990s .

As early as 2014, it was found that the sons of fathers who started smoking before age 11 tended to have a higher body mass index as adults, with a larger-than-average waist circumference and higher fat content. Now it turns out that this addiction goes even further and is not limited to one gender, affecting granddaughters and great-granddaughters.

“We found that if the paternal grandfather started smoking before puberty (before age 13) compared to starting smoking later (age 13-16), his granddaughters, but not his grandchildren, show increased body fat at age 17-24,” the scientists explained, pointing out that the same is true for maternal grandparents.

It’s worth emphasizing that the situation is similar, even if the ancestors smoked rather infrequently. And although it is difficult to say whether substances other than cigarette smoke have a similar effect, the latter has such a strong influence on the maturing organism that it can be seen in subsequent generations.

This means that our health is only partly shaped by ourselves, and factors we didn’t even know existed may play a role here.

“Obesity in today’s children may not be caused by their eating habits and activity, but by the lifestyle of their ancestors,” the scientists conclude.

Of course, the scientists are aware of the limitations of their own research, and so they urge their colleagues to conduct in-depth analyses. And while they take into account the possibility that people who started smoking before age 13 may also be genetically burdened by obesity a few generations later.