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I'm interested to hear what you guys think about the theory (which is garnering more and more scientific evidence) that cellular memories of trauma can be inherited...and therefore can be passed down thru the generations...

Here's one article that summarizes the subject nicely, I think:

Study Of Holocaust Survivors Finds Cellular Memory Of Trauma Passed On To Children’s Genes

Study Of Holocaust Survivors Finds Cellular Memory Of Trauma Passed On To Children’s Genes -- Written by Helen Thomson

Genetic changes stemming from the trauma suffered by Holocaust survivors are capable of being passed on to their children, the clearest sign yet that one person’s life experience can affect subsequent generations.

The conclusion from a research team at New York’s Mount Sinai hospital led by Rachel Yehuda stems from the genetic study of 32 Jewish men and women who had either been interned in a Nazi concentration camp, witnessed or experienced torture or who had had to hide during the second world war.

They also analysed the genes of their children, who are known to have increased likelihood of stress disorders, and compared the results with Jewish families who were living outside of Europe during the war. “The gene changes in the children could only be attributed to Holocaust exposure in the parents,� said Yehuda.

Her team’s work is the clearest example in humans of the transmission of trauma to a child via what is called “epigenetic inheritance� � the idea that environmental influences such as smoking, diet and stress can affect the genes of your children and possibly even grandchildren.

The team’s work is the clearest sign yet that life experience can affect the genes of subsequent generations.

The idea is controversial, as scientific convention states that genes contained in DNA are the only way to transmit biological information between generations. However, our genes are modified by the environment all the time, through chemical tags that attach themselves to our DNA, switching genes on and off. Recent studies suggest that some of these tags might somehow be passed through generations, meaning our environment could have and impact on our children’s health.

Other studies have proposed a more tentative connection between one generation’s experience and the next. For example, girls born to Dutch women who were pregnant during a severe famine at the end of the second world war had an above-average risk of developing schizophrenia. Likewise, another study has showed that men who smoked before puberty fathered heavier sons than those who smoked after.

The team were specifically interested in one region of a gene associated with the regulation of stress hormones, which is known to be affected by trauma. “It makes sense to look at this gene,� said Yehuda. “If there’s a transmitted effect of trauma, it would be in a stress-related gene that shapes the way we cope with our environment.�

They found epigenetic tags on the very same part of this gene in both the Holocaust survivors and their offspring, the same correlation was not found in any of the control group and their children.
Through further genetic analysis, the team ruled out the possibility that the epigenetic changes were a result of trauma that the children had experienced themselves.

“To our knowledge, this provides the first demonstration of transmission of pre-conception stress effects resulting in epigenetic changes in both the exposed parents and their offspring in humans,� said Yehuda, whose work was published in Biological Psychiatry.

It’s still not clear how these tags might be passed from parent to child. Genetic information in sperm and eggs is not supposed to be affected by the environment � any epigenetic tags on DNA had been thought to be wiped clean soon after fertilisation occurs.

However, research by Azim Surani at Cambridge University and colleagues, has recently shown that some epigenetic tags escape the cleaning process at fertilisation, slipping through the net. It’s not clear whether the gene changes found in the study would permanently affect the children’s health, nor do the results upend any of our theories of evolution.

Whether the gene in question is switched on or off could have a tremendous impact on how much stress hormone is made and how we cope with stress, said Yehuda. “It’s a lot to wrap our heads around. It’s certainly an opportunity to learn a lot of important things about how we adapt to our environment and how we might pass on environmental resilience.�

The impact of Holocaust survival on the next generation has been investigated for years � the challenge has been to show intergenerational effects are not just transmitted by social influences from the parents or regular genetic inheritance, said Marcus Pembrey, emeritus professor of paediatric genetics at University College London.

“Yehuda’s paper makes some useful progress. What we’re getting here is the very beginnings of a understanding of how one generation responds to the experiences of the previous generation. It’s fine-tuning the way your genes respond to the world.�

Can you inherit a memory of trauma?

Researchers have already shown that certain fears might be inherited through generations, at least in animals.

Scientists at Emory University in Atlanta trained male mice to fear the smell of cherry blossom by pairing the smell with a small electric shock. Eventually the mice shuddered at the smell even when it was delivered on its own.

Despite never having encountered the smell of cherry blossom, the offspring of these mice had the same fearful response to the smell � shuddering when they came in contact with it. So too did some of their own offspring.

On the other hand, offspring of mice that had been conditioned to fear another smell, or mice who’d had no such conditioning had no fear of cherry blossom.

The fearful mice produced sperm which had fewer epigenetic tags on the gene responsible for producing receptors that sense cherry blossom. The pups themselves had an increased number of cherry blossom smell receptors in their brain, although how this led to them associating the smell with fear is still a mystery.

� The subheading was amended on 25 August 2015 to clarify that the new finding is not the first example in humans of the theory of epigenetic inheritance. The researchers described it as “the first demonstration of transmission of pre-conception stress effects resulting in epigenetic changes�.


Source: The Guardian � � written by Helen Thomson

Epigenetics: The Ultimate Mystery of Inheritance

I've followed epigenetic concepts for some time now and do believe they exist. For parents, it's tough to accept that the traumas you endured as a child and worked to overcome can still negatively impact your children. Need more research on how to undo or at least avoid transmitting the changes.

Mary J Starry wrote: "I've followed epigenetic concepts for some time now and do believe they exist. For parents, it's tough to accept that the traumas you endured as a child and worked to overcome can still negatively ..."

I believe epigenetics is 100% real too.
I think not only the negative trauma you experience would be passed on, but I think the positive emotional healings would also be passed on.
Therefore, my opinion of our genes in general is we have inherited the full spectrum of emotion from our ancestors within our DNA and it just depends on what codes we want to turn on and which ones we want to turn off...

Epigenetics between the generations: Researchers prove that we inherit more than just genes

I think people take Epigenetics to mean something more than it actually means; Epigenetics are still genes, and the article you posted Lance is still talking about how the environment changes the genes that are used (expressed); but the genes are still there in the person, they are just not being used (expressed), and if you look into it, females create all of their genetic material before birth; and epigenetics is a fancy word for different expression or silencing of genes; and some of the silenced genes don't get passed on.

Lucas wrote: "I think people take Epigenetics to mean something more than it actually means; Epigenetics are still genes, and the article you posted Lance is still talking about how the environment changes the g..."

Interesting thanks Lucas.

In the first 15-20 mins of this video, Dr. Rhonda mentions epigenetics in detail:

Joe Rogan Experience #1054 - Dr. Rhonda Patrick

p.s. I find epigenetics quite inspiring as it means we can transcend at least some of the things we have inherited even tho I understanding epigenetics is still part of our overall genetics...

Bruce Lipton talks here about how epigenetics makes our genes virtually irrelevant (the mind is ABOVE genetic inheritance)

The Epigenetics Revolution

Your Immune System has a Memory

Perhaps some inherit and others don't. I am a twin, raised in the same grade, the same room, the same family. Our emotional reaction to trauma could not be more different. However, we are not identical.
Nor or the children of trauma survivors.
Which is to say that we do not have to have the same genetic coding to have SOME of the same cellular traits our relatives have.
I believe in Nature over Nurture......in terms of where to look for real differences, but that does not exclude the fact that nurturing can change a persons life, just as the lack of it can. It's how each individual deals with it emotionally, and that is all genetic.

Thanks for sharing that Deborah. I know a few children of Holocaust survivors and survivors of other genocides, wars etc, and some have reported those differences between siblings. So I agree with nature over nurture, or the possibility of that with certain individuals with strong minds.

Sometimes you see entire families, or multiple generations of the same families, are all pretty screwed up...And sometimes you gotta wonder if that could be some kind of negative epigenetic thing going on...

Look up epigenetics on the descendants of slaves in the South. I vaguely remember a study proving or showing something there.

BRUCE LIPTON - BIOLOGY OF BELIEF

Epigenetic Insights on Nutrition, Hormones and Eating Behavior

The Genie in Your Genes: Epigenetic Medicine and the New Biology of Intention

Anything can be hijacked politically, Iain, but I'm just interested in the latest scientific findings re this subject. I find epigenetics to be one of the most fascinating things in science today, especially given so many people are trying to pigeonhole or limit us into genetic boundaries...And by the way, the trauma aspect is one tiny element of epigenetics.

Agreed.

Coming back to genetics, I think that's an area (once they fully map out our entire DNA, genome or whatever you call it AND we all must be scanned before job interviews, going for medical insurance etc) which will likely become a VERY judgemental science. They will assume so many things about us just because of our genes.

But our genetics are just a piece of the puzzle.

Epigenetics (meaning something "above" or "on top of" genetics, things like the way we live even that can turn on or off genetic codes we inherited) cannot be revealed by these DNA tests or genetic scans. There is even talk in future that we will be able to completely and forever alter our DNA sequences, but that's just in the early research phase.

It's kinda like that quote that ran on the screen at the end of GATTACA:

"There is no gene for the human spirit"

I don't resonate at all with scientists or others who want to imply we are just our genes or just our neural pathways in our brains and that's it.

Iain wrote: "You wonder if developments in transhumanism in the future will try to find a niche-market for this area, i.e. if the criterion becomes so draconian you could replace certain things in your body to suit?..."

Good point, hadn't thought of that.
That seems logical actually.

Tulane psychiatrist wins national award for research that shows how trauma seeps across generations

The academy singled out Drury’s research into how early childhood trauma can have negative health consequences that seep across generations. The research showed that a biological marker of an infant’s ability to regulate stress was influenced not only by the amount of stress the child’s mother experienced during pregnancy but also by a mother’s life course experiences with stress. Her paper, "Thinking Across Generations: Unique Contributions of Maternal Early Life and Prenatal Stress to Infant Physiology," was published in November.

Watch "Epigenetics - our bodies' way to change the destiny written in our DNA | Moshe Szyf | TEDxBratislava" on YouTube

Epigenetics 101 - Dr. Bruce H. Lipton, PhD