Jul 31, 2015 01:55 PM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

New research suggests that women who drink alcohol around the time of conception dramatically increase their offspring's risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Researchers at the University of Queensland found that events -- particularly alcohol consumption --before and during pregnancy affect the long-term health of offspring.

"Before the egg implants, before any organs start to develop, alcohol consumption somehow causes changes to the embryo," researcher Dr. Karen Moritz said in a statement. "Anything that affects fetal development can cause long term programming, which means offspring can be born with increased risk and susceptibility to disease later in life.

In their rat study, researchers discovered that the equivalent of five standard drinks consumed around the time of conception altered the development of the fetus.

"Monitoring the offspring of the laboratory rat model, we found the risk of becoming obese and developing type 2 diabetes in early middle age dramatically increased," Moritz said. "The usual risk factors of these two diseases are attributed to poor diet and lack of exercise, but our research showed exposure to alcohol around conception presents a risk similar to following a high-fat diet for a major proportion of life."

Moritz said the study was particularly important as 50 percent of pregnancies in Australia were unplanned.

"Although most women stop drinking once they discover they are pregnant, a significant proportion are consuming alcohol at the time of conception, before they even know," she said. "Our future research will be focusing on the possibility of administering preventative interventions.

The findings are detailed in The Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.

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