What if I told you that you not only inherited your mother’s eyes or your dad’s chin
but you may have inherited your grandpa Bernard’s stress?
Hey everyone it’s Natalia Reagan guest hosting again for DNews!
Life.
Life isn’t easy.
And it appears that hardships from past generations may have a lasting effects on future generations.
This idea that our current experiences, life choices, and environment could directly affect
the genes of our descendents is called epigenetics.
And new research has found that the offspring of Holocaust survivors have altered stress
hormones, or cortisol.
Cortisol is an adrenal hormone that helps people cope with stress; A.K.A.
maintain homeostasis.
When an individual is stressed cortisol helps regulate various changes in the body.
These changes include fluctuations in blood sugar, immune responses, fat, protein, and
carbohydrates metabolism to maintain glucose, blood pressure, anti-inflammatory actions,
and central nervous system activation.
So, let’s just say, cortisol is an incredibly important hormone in the body.
So when researchers compared stress hormones in Holocaust survivors to those in the Jewish
community who did not endure the Holocaust, researchers discovered they had lower levels
of cortisol.
And those individuals who suffered from PTSD had even lower levels of cortisol.
Researchers also discovered the Holocaust survivors were producing less of the enzyme
to break down cortisol which made sense given that this allowed liver and kidney functions
to operate with lower glucose levels during times of starvation -- something all too common
during the Holocaust and Nazi occupation.
Those who were younger during the Holocaust had the lowest levels of cortisol and produced
the lowest amount of the enzyme to break it down.
When researchers looked at cortisol levels of the children of Holocaust survivors, they
found something disturbing- like their parents, the kids had lower levels of cortisol HOWEVER
they had higher than average levels of the enzyme used to break it down.
In a typical pregnancy, the placenta has higher levels of the cortisol busting enzyme to protect
the fetus, but if holocaust survivors had lower levels of this enzyme that would mean
more cortisol would reach the fetus.
So the fetus reacted by upping their enzyme protection.
This made their offspring more likely suffer from PTSD and susceptible to other illnesses
brought on by unmanaged stress such as hypertension and obesity.
When researchers looked at the stress-related gene and saw epigenetic tags were found in
both Holocaust survivors AND their offspring.
This study is the first of its kind to discover that someone’s stress and environment can
directly affect their children before they were even conceived!
These finding are revolutionary because it’s been long accepted that DNA was the only way
to transmit genetic information from generation to generation, but research shows that the
environment indeed plays a role in modifying genetic information as chemical tags attach
to our DNA that serve to turn specific genes and off.
Essentially, at the genetic level, our biology is preparing our descendents to thrive in
the current environment- and in this particular case it would have been the incredibly hostile
environment that was Holocaust.
This study isn’t the first time researchers have looked at Holocaust survivors to understand
epigenetics.
Researchers have already discovered that stress experienced while in utero can have lasting
effects on an individual’s health.
During the 1944 “Hunger Winter” in the Netherlands, pregnant women experienced extreme
stress and starvation.
Their offspring were later studied and found to have suffered from higher instances of
diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease than those born to mothers who had not endured
the “Hunger Winter”.
And girls born to women during or after the “Hunger Winter” had an above average risk
of developing schizophrenia.
The link between stress, cortisol levels, disease, and its propensity to be passed down
to future generations illustrates that our environment is far more significant when it
comes to our health and the health of our offspring.
Similar studies have been carried out on mice.
Researchers exposed mice to the scent of cherry blossoms with a simultaneous electric shock.
Mice were trained to fear the smell and their offspring were found to ALSO fear the scent
of cherry blossoms- they appeared to inherit the memory AND fear.
This research, coupled with the the altering of stress hormones in Holocaust survivors
and their descendents, means there is a great deal to still learn about the science of epigenetics.
And with that goal in mind, here's a video from Trace about how your Mom's stress could
be passed onto you.
So what kinds of stress will you pass on to your future generations?
Let us know in the comments below and subscribe to DNews for more videos every day of the
week.