It's an accepted fact; a mother can pass on a lot of things to her children: her good looks, her eye color and even the occasional rare talent. But who could have known that a mother's unhealthy cholesterol level could be passed on to her child as well?
According to a Reuters article by Lisa Rapaport, mothers who have high bad cholesterol (LDL) levels even before they were pregnant are more likely to have offsprings who will have the same high LDL condition when they reach adulthood. The article cites a study done in the U.S. and published in JAMA Cardiology.
The US study focused particularly on LDL levels, also known as bad cholesterol, because this type of cholesterol are known to cause cholesterol build ups in the blood vessels that could restrict blood flow and lead to clots and heart attacks.
Using 538 parent-child pairs, study was able show that based on the data obtained, "adults born to mothers who had high LDL before pregnancy were 3.8 times more likely to have elevated LDL compared to their peers", according to the Reuters article.
The 538 parent-child pairs were composed of 241 mother-child pairs and 297 father-child pairs. Among these were 116 adult children that were paired with both biological parents. Researches extracted the parent's cholesterol records prior to childbirth while the children's' LDL levels were measured when they reached 26 years old, on average.
Based on the study researchers found out that adults whose mothers had high LDL levels even before pregnancy have higher LDL levels - an average of 18 mg/dL variation - compared to adults whose mothers had normal LDL levels.
Lead study author Dr Michael Mendelson of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute explains that, while still inconclusive, they suspect that high LDL in women during childbearing age has some effect on how well an adult offspring will be able to regulate their own LDL levels.
The recent study joins a similar study done in Canada which observed the same link. An article on Science Daily suggests that a mother's high cholesterol level even before pregnancy could affect cholesterol levels of her child. The study was done by Hearth and Stroke Foundation of Canada and reached an even more starling observation. In this study, researcher found that children of born of high LDL mothers are five times more at risk in developing high cholesterol later in adulthood
Dr. Mendelson concludes that based on the study, it would beneficial for women reaching child-bearing age to control their LDL level not only for themselves, but for the health of their future children as well.
