Researchers smoking grandmothers can lead to asthma in the grandchildren

Study shows ancestors can influence later generations due to unhealthy living conditions
There is evidence of a link between asthma and smoking in previous generations. Asthma is one of the most common childhood diseases. At the 2015 European Respiratory Society International Congress in Amsterdam, research has shown that ancestors are responsible for their grandchildren's asthma.
Asthma is a disease that affects our lungs. It is one of the most common long-term diseases in children. Even adults can get asthma. Affected suffer mostly from shortness of breath and tightness in the chest. Sufferers complain of coughing at night or in the early morning. "If you have asthma, you have it all your life," researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. However, severe asthma attacks only occur when something irritates the lungs. In most cases, it is not known exactly what causes asthma. Unfortunately, it is not yet known how to cure the lung disease.

Asthma can be triggered over generations. Image: Andrey Popov - fotolia

Eight percent of adults and 9.3 percent of children in the US have asthma
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), eight percent of adults and 9.3 percent of US children are affected by the disease. This rate has increased sharply over the past 50 years. It was assumed that environmental influences are responsible for this. Recently, however, researchers began to look for the cause in earlier generations. Now there is growing evidence that grandmothers could be to blame.

Asthma risk for grandchildren increases enormously when pregnant grandmothers have smoked
A recent study from Sweden examined risks across the population. It also includes evidence directly from grandmothers. The data used were collected at the time the grandmothers were pregnant. The result was amazing. Thus, the asthma risk increased by ten to 22 percent when the grandmother had smoked. According to "Medical News Today" 44,853 grandmothers were interviewed for this purpose. The study refers to data collected from 1982 to 1986. In particular, tobacco consumption was accurately recorded during this period. The use of asthma medication was found in 66,271 grandchildren. The results of the study show that children had an increased risk of asthma of ten to 22 percent if their grandmothers smoked during their pregnancy. Regardless of whether the mothers of the children smoked or not.

Harmful behavior in the present can affect future descendants
Environmental factors such as tobacco can influence the activity of genes. This process is known as epigenetic modification. It is becoming increasingly clear that changes can be passed on to subsequent generations. In addition, it is possible that generations are skipped and health problems appear later. Especially tobacco consumption seems to be able to trigger asthma diseases for generations to come.

Dr. Caroline Lodge, one of the authors of the study, stated that "smoking in previous generations affects the risk of asthma in subsequent generations". This finding "could also be important for transmitting other diseases," the researcher added. To understand the asthma epidemic, it is important to know how harmful behavior in the present can affect future generations. The physician called on researchers to include not only genetic predisposition in assessing the risk of asthma. Lodge suggested that there could possibly be a hereditary, non-genetic risk from a previous generation. (As)