Some days, with all the research headlines, it can feel like we are controlled by the gut bacteria in our colons. News headlines keep talking about dysbiosis and the effects of antibiotics on gut health. Now we have one more twist that even surprised me a little. I did not see this headline coming, the fact that a dad’s antibiotic intake with resulting dysbiosis might affect the outcomes of a baby’s pregnancy. That’s right, in a mouse model, male mice with bad gut bacteria tended father mice pups who were born with low birthweight or died prematurely.
The researchers gave the male mice an antibiotic which did not enter their bloodstream. The antibiotic simply passed through the gut, killing bacteria, without affecting any other body tissues directly. This created a bacterial imbalance in the gut we call dysbiosis. When these dysbiotic males sired pups with the untreated females, the resulting babies were born at lower weights and died sooner than non-dysbiotic dads. Several antibiotics were tried as well as laxatives which also caused dysbiosis.
This seems a little strange at first, until they reported that a hormone associated with weight and appetite called leptin were found to be different in the dysbiotic dads. Both in blood measurements and in levels in the mouse testes, leptin was different than for the normal control mice. Just to be sure, they reversed the dysbiosis and tried again. Once the gut bacteria were back to normal, the low birthweights and prenatal mortality went back to baseline normal.
Some of the changes appeared to occur in the placenta of the mom during the pregnancy. The dysbiotic sired pups were surrounded by placentas with less vascularization. This means they had fewer blood vessels bringing nutrients and oxygen to the developing pup fetus. This likely led to the smaller size and poorer health.
So many women come to us not only wanting to restore health, but to also prepare for an optimal pregnancy in the coming months or years. We work to detox them and fill up their tank of nutrients, but we have to think about the guys in the equation too. While we don’t want to add any stress to couples wanting to conceive as that can make things more challenging in some cases, we do want both contributors to the pregnancy to be healthy. While it is not the most romantic thing to ask about, if a couple wants to have a health baby, she may have to ask if he has taken any antibiotics in the past month. Or maybe she needs to buy him a probiotic bottle a month ahead.
Either way, on a daily basis guys should be taking care of their gut health if they want to do their part in their spouse’s healthy pregnancy and future descendants. Leading a healthier, more abundant life for one’s family takes effort and preparation.
Original Article:
Ayele Argaw-Denboba, Thomas S. B. Schmidt, Monica Di Giacomo, Bobby Ranjan, Saravanan Devendran, Eleonora Mastrorilli, Catrin T. Lloyd, Danilo Pugliese, Violetta Paribeni, Juliette Dabin, Alessandra Pisaniello, Sergio Espinola, Alvaro Crevenna, Subhanita Ghosh, Neil Humphreys, Olga Boruc, Peter Sarkies, Michael Zimmermann, Peer Bork, Jamie A. Hackett. Paternal microbiome perturbations impact offspring fitness. Nature, 2024; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07336-w
Thanks to Science Daily:
European Molecular Biology Laboratory. “Father’s gut microbes affect the next generation.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 1 May 2024. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/05/240501125733.htm>.
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
