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.
