Turns out if your Mom was really stressed, CONGRATULATIONS NOW YOU'RE STRESSED TOO!
THANKS, O-MAMA.
Back in 1998, an ice storm hit North America, if you live anywhere near the Canadian border,
you probably remember it -- I do.
It was CRAZY.
Everything was covered in ice from Michigan to Maine and Ontario to Nova Scotia.
The weight of all that ice caused massive damage to infrastructure in both countries
and power outages dragged on for weeks after.
Not to be caught in the rain, researchers at McGill in Canada found pregnant mothers
who were without power, and followed them, and their offspring, for thirteen YEARS.
Turns out, the North American Ice Storm of 1998 affected the kids’ DNA!
It used to be thought that if I physically stressed my body, it wouldn't affect my kids
at all.
If *I* was in a famine, my kids couldn't be affected by that!
And then…
it turns out… that's not true at all.
In the 1990s the field of epigenetics came onto the scene and we discovered what happens
to our PARENTS will affect US, and what happens to US affects our KIDS and so on down the
line forever.
This study, published in PlosONE, found the children of those mothers had quote, "distinctive
patterns in DNA methylation."
DNA methylation is the on-off switch for how the DNA gives its instructions.
Whether to to produce a bone or a red blood cell for example would have different methylation.
Alterations of that process change how the same DNA will be read by your body.
In this case, a correlation appeared to exist between the length of time without power and
subjective level of suffering of these mothers, with the methylation of their children's DNA!
36 of the children tested, showed the same pattern of methylation on their T-cells.
These cells are part of the immune system, so chances are, these kids will have some
kind of immnuo-differentiation from their parents…
If you're wondering what that will mean, you're right there with me and the other scientists.
They don't know yet.
It's not like they can compare the kids pre and post DNA methylation!
They were born that way!
But this is the first time ever, in humans, that science has been able to show that a
single maternal stressor was able to affect the DNA of their offspring.
Now that we know this happens in humans, we can go back into history and see what we can
learn from these epigenetic changes.
Using the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children in England -- a study of 14,000
pregnant women, their husbands and children -- found men who smoked during PUBERTY (way
before they sired a kid) birthed sons who were fatter than average, even from those
who started smoking later.
Daughters were fine, but for some reason, the methylation affected the boys.
A famine-feast cycle in 19th-century Sweden altered the DNA of kids born as late as 1905.
Grandfathers who were over-nourished just before puberty, had grandchildren who were
at risk of early death.
What about the Great Depression here in the States?
How did my grandmother living through that affect ME?!
The 9/11 attacks too!
What about going into space?
How will that affect future humans and THEIR epigenetics?