Share this
Article<\/p>\n
You are free to share this article under the Attribution 4.0 International license.<\/p>\n
A new study finds that regularly consuming high doses of antioxidants negatively influences sperm DNA and may lead to offspring born with differences in craniofacial development.<\/p>\n
Antioxidants have been marketed as miracle supplements, touted for preventing chronic diseases and cancers; treating COPD and dementia; and slowing aging. Antioxidant therapies are also widely used to treat male infertility.<\/p>\n
In the study in the journal Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology<\/a>, a team of researchers led by Michael Golding of Texas A&M University examined the effects of N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) and selenium (Se)\u2014two widely used antioxidants\u2014in mouse models.<\/p>\n They found that offspring of male mice exposed to antioxidants for six weeks exhibited skull and facial shape differences, even while the father\u2019s health didn\u2019t change.<\/p>\n These findings suggest that men should exercise caution when consuming high doses of antioxidants, especially if they\u2019re planning to have children in the near future.<\/p>\n Antioxidants like NAC\u2014which is a key ingredient in many nutritional supplements, including multivitamins\u2014are often used to treat oxidative stress, which can be caused by excessive alcohol consumption.<\/p>\n Because Golding\u2019s lab has been studying the effects of parental alcohol consumption on offspring<\/a>\u2014and has successfully correlated this consumption to a whole host of issues in children born to males who consumed excessive amounts of alcohol, including craniofacial abnormalities\u2014his team was interested in the impacts of adding NAC or Se to a male mouse\u2019s diet.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know alcohol causes oxidative stress and we were looking to push back on it by adding a supplement known to lower oxidative stress,\u201d says Golding, a professor in the Texas A&M\u2019s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (VMBS)\u2019 veterinary physiology and pharmacology department.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we realized that offspring born to males that had only been given NAC were displaying skull and facial differences, it was a surprise because this molecule is universally thought to be good.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we sat down to think it through, we realized that it makes sense\u2014you take a multivitamin to ensure that you\u2019re in balance, but if the thing that you\u2019re taking to ensure you\u2019re in balance is unbalanced (the dose of antioxidants is too high), then you\u2019re not doing a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n It is well established that high doses of antioxidants can have negative impacts; research has proven that antioxidants can diminish the effects of exercise in endurance athletes, for example, and, in the case of professional athletes, can lead to negative outcomes in performance metrics.<\/p>\n \u201cSperm health is another performance metric; it\u2019s just not one that we think about in everyday life,\u201d Golding says.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re taking a high dose antioxidant, you could be diminishing your reproductive fitness and part of the journey toward the bad outcome is going to be the effects on the offspring.\u201d<\/p>\n Among their unanticipated findings was that female offspring, in particular, exhibited significantly closer-set eyes and smaller skulls, which are also symptoms of fetal alcohol syndrome.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a very commonly accepted truism in pediatric medicine that the face mirrors the brain, because the brain and the face form at the same time,\u201d Golding says.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen your face migrates (during gestation), it\u2019s using cues from your brain to know where to go, and if the two things are not aligned, there\u2019s either a delay or some kind of abnormality in brain development.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, if you see abnormalities in the midline of the face, you\u2019re probably going to see midline abnormalities in the brain,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople with these abnormalities typically have problems with impulse control, neurological conditions like epilepsy, and other developmental issues.\u201d<\/p>\n Whether the offspring in this project will exhibit central nervous system dysfunction will require further study.<\/p>\n While the lab continues to research this \u201cunexplored frontier,\u201d Golding says in the case of antioxidants, too much of a good thing can, in fact, be too much, especially in the absence of a medical reason to take an antioxidant supplement.<\/p>\n Because many men regularly take high doses of these supplements\u2014including products that contain antioxidant-rich ingredients\u2014it\u2019s important to pay attention to how much of these compounds are listed on the label. This includes NAC, which is one of the key ingredients in many multivitamins and is often found in high doses in these pills.<\/p>\n \u201cThe larger message here is that there\u2019s a balance,\u201d Golding says.<\/p>\n \u201cThink of yourself as a plant\u2014if you stick your plant out in the sun too long, it\u2019s going to get dehydrated. If you overwater your plant, it gets root rot. But if you have the right balance of sunshine and water, that\u2019s when growth occurs. Health is in that domain.<\/p>\n \u201cIf your vitamins are providing 1,000% of the recommended daily amount, you should be cautious,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you stick to the 100% range, then you should be OK.\u201d<\/p>\n The research appears in Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology<\/a>.<\/p>\n