In 2015 researchers from New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital looked to epigenetic inheritance as an explanation for why Children of Holocaust survivors have an increased likelihood of stress disorders when compared to Jewish families who were living outside of Europe during the war. “Epigenetic inheritance is the idea that environmental influences such as smoking, diet and stress can affect the genes of your children and possible even grandchildren” (Thomson, 2015). This idea of epigenetic inheritance is definitely a new way of thinking which makes this topic a bit controversial.
Conventional science states, “genes contained in DNA are the only way to transmit biological information between generations” (Thomson, 2015). But studies suggest that genes are modified by the environmental all the time by chemical tags that attach themselves to our DNA, switching genes on and off; therefore suggesting that our environment could have and impact on our children’s health.
Other studies have found examples of this phenomenon. For examples, girls born to Dutch women who were pregnant during a severe famine at the end of the second world had an above-average risk of developing Schizophrenia. This study done at Mount Sinai was specifically interested in the gene associated with the regulation of stress hormones, known to be affected by trauma. The study included 32 Jewish men and women who had been interned in a Nazi concentration camp, witness or experienced torture or who had to hide during the Second World War. They found epigenetic tags on the very same part of this gene in both the Holocaust survivors and their offspring, which was not found in the control group.
This study provides demonstration that the transmission of pre-conception stress results in epigenetic changes affecting both the exposed parents and their offspring.
This process of passing on chemical tags from parent to offspring is still being researched but recent research has shown that some epigenetic tags may be escaping the cleaning process of DNA at fertilization. More research needs to be conducted around this idea but this is a great start to understand how one generation responds to the experiences of previous generations.
More information in the link below shared by Sonoma County ACEs Connection member Kellie Noe.
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