Author: Michael Golding, Professor of Physiology, Texas A&M University

The conditions within a person’s home, family and community affect their ability to stay healthy. Scientists studying these social determinants of health are trying to understand whether nature or nurture has a stronger effect on a person’s ability to fight disease. I am a developmental physiologist studying the ways that drinking affects fetal development and lifelong health. Although researchers have long recognized that a father’s alcohol abuse negatively affects his children’s mental health and social development, it hasn’t been clear if paternal drinking has any lasting biological effects on his offspring’s physical health. My lab’s recently published research shows that…