Intergenerational trauma dna4/7/2024 ![]() Odd timing, right? Well, even stranger is that these offspring consistently avoid that specific bacteria-exhibiting what is known as pathogen avoidance-a behavioral trait the mothers learned at the very end of their lives. What’s interesting, though, is that Princeton University researchers noticed that before the worms die from ingesting the harmful bacteria, they often lay eggs. Still, this doesn’t stop the worms from gobbling down all of the bacteria. Unfortunately, the worms can’t always distinguish the good (nutritious) bacteria from the bad until it is too late. But some harmful bacteria lurk in that rotting bounty, which make for a lethal meal when ingested. In other words: a good meal for the nematode worm. No one would argue that decaying organic matter and rotten fruit makes for a rich trove of bacteria. ![]() “The proof may be in the worm,” shared Mason. ![]() Even still, she says it is “premature” to conclude that trauma can cause heritable changes and worries that research may create a bleak narrative that one generation’s trauma may permanently scar future generations. Again, more evidence for the theory of epigenetics. While much of Yehuda's work has focused on the children of Holocaust survivors, she also observed that infants born to mothers who were pregnant on 9/11 had low cortisol levels, which were associated with the presence of maternal PTSD. The study concluded that both parents and unborn children were affected on a genetic level. She also found a distinctive pattern of DNA methylation, another epigenetic marker. She found that they had epigenetic changes to a gene linked to their levels of cortisol, a hormone involved in the stress response. Rachel Yehuda, director of the Traumatic Stress Studies Division at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, conducted a 2015 study on the children of 40 Holocaust survivors. When scientists looked into why, they found that these children carried a specific chemical mark-an epigenetic signature-on one of their genes.ĭr. They also suffered higher rates of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and schizophrenia. (The thinking goes that the mothers, because they were starving, automatically quieted a gene in their unborn children involved in burning the body’s fuel.) When the children reached middle age, they had higher LDL ("bad") cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Scientists found that those who had been in utero during the famine were a few pounds heavier than average. Pregnant women were particularly vulnerable, and the famine impacted the unborn children for the rest of their lives. When the Dutch were liberated in May 1945, more than 20,000 had died of starvation. Mason shared that the field of epigenetics gained real traction about a decade ago, when scientists published seminal research on the Dutch Hunger Winter, an extended period of famine that took place towards the end of World War II when the Nazis blocked food supplies in October 1944, thrusting much of the Netherlands into famine. ![]() How Extreme Situations Have Impacted Offspring Here’s a look at what scientists have learned from both case studies and experiments. There has also been a lot of work in the lab focused on this phenomenon, and that work really accelerated after The Human Genome Project (HGP) was completed in 2003. So, What Exactly Are These Epigenetic Studies?ĭifferences among groups who had gone through extreme physical and psychological stress, like Holocaust survivors, those who were born to parents who lived through “The Dutch Hunger Winter,” and sons of Confederate prisoner-of-war soldiers in the American Civil War, all make the case the most clearly, but they’re not the whole picture. Animal and some smaller human studies have shown that exposure to stressors like immense stress or cold can trigger metabolic changes in subsequent generations. Today the idea that a person’s experience could alter their biology, and behavior of their children and grandchildren, has gained serious traction. What would have seemed preposterous 20 years ago has become a fast-emerging field of study. What does that mean? In essence: epigenetics control how or why your genes are expressed.” He shared that “epigenetics, in simplified terms, is the study of the biological control mechanisms of DNA-the light switches that turn genes on or off. Chris Mason, associate professor at Weill Cornell Medicine, with appointments at the Tri-Institutional Program in Computational Biology and Medicine between Cornell, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Rockefeller University, and director of the Mason Lab. This alteration is not genetic, but epigenetic. This mark doesn’t cause a genetic mutation, but it does alter the mechanism by which the gene is expressed. Here’s how: Trauma can leave a chemical mark on a person’s genes, which can then be passed down to future generations.
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