By Paul McClure

For a long time, the focus has been on preconception maternal health as a crucial factor in pregnancy and child developmental outcomes. Alcohol consumption before and during pregnancy has always been a major concern, as it's associated with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), which causes abnormal facial features, low birth weight and/or height, attention and hyperactivity issues, and poor coordination. The responsibility has always been placed on women to stop drinking to avoid FAS; only recently has the focus shifted to paternal alcohol consumption as a contributing factor.Research has shown that sperm contain a lot of epigenetic information that can be modified by exposure to a range of different stressors, including alcohol. Now, a new study by researchers at Texas A&M University has examined the effect of alcohol consumption on sperm, the epigenetic changes it produces and how long these changes last.