It’s Not All Your Fault — It’s Epigenetics
This might explain how someone else is “to blame” for some of your lifelong struggles.
Hi, Readers
This week’s post is based on a conversation I had last week with my friends Lance and Kolade. I promised them I would pass on the little bit of knowledge I had on epigenetics and how it affects us.
New readers: Welcome! I’m super glad you joined us! If you don’t know much about Time2Thrive, please take a look at New to Time2Thrive? Start Here!
Epigenetics Decides What Genes Are Active
Your inability to stop eating chips might not be your fault. Maybe you can lay the blame on your epigenetic inheritance.
Many of us have symptoms of trauma we can’t explain, like anxiety and obsessive behavior. But what if I told you that poor eating habits, emotional illnesses, addictions, and other challenging life struggles could be inherited from as far back as two generations?
I know. That sounds crazy. But researchers are finding evidence that this is exactly how it works.
In one such study, Epigenetic Inheritance: Concepts, Mechanisms, and Perspectives, they claimed the following: “stressful conditions that are experienced by parents can influence the offspring’s vulnerability to many pathological conditions, including psychopathologies — primarily related to a disruption in stress response mechanisms. These effects may even endure for several generations.”
Ok, but how does this happen? Do they mean that when a parent or grandparent goes through a “stressful” situation, their offspring will bear the price?
Yes, that’s exactly what they are getting at.
Genetics vs. Epigenetics — the Easy-to-Understand Version
Genetics is the code for you: Your body, your basic personality, everything. If you have the genes for blue eyes, a hairy body, or a tall body, then that’s how your body develops. These are typically known as hereditary characteristics. They may even extend to speech patterns and hand gestures.
Epigenetics is the effect of environment and upbringing on your genes. In essence, some of the genes can be turned “on” or “off” by various stimuli in the environment.
This goes on throughout your entire life. Here’s an article that talks about the epigenetic impact of diet on blood pressure: Different Food Groups Can Impact Blood Pressure Through Epigenetics.
Epigenetics is the study of inheritable changes in an organism that do not result from a change in the genes, only their expression.
But How Does a Parent Pass This On To Their Offspring?
Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance theorizes that when a person is traumatized, emotionally or physically, this makes changes in their genetics and which genes they are expressing at that time. Then, when they reproduce, these changes will be inherited by their “lucky” children, who might pass them in turn to the next generation.
There is scientific proof that this happens. At least, in mice.
A study was conducted where male mice were traumatized with a mild electric shock to the foot while being exposed to a certain floral scent. Eventually, after the fear training, the rodents would “startle-react” with just the scent and no electric shock. 10 days after the fear-inducing shock/floral scent combination training, the rats were allowed to mate.
The next generation of mice reacted to the smell the same way that their parent did, even though they had never encountered it before, were never trained, and had never met their fathers.
Let’s break that down:
Male rodents were trained to fear a smell
They had babies who also feared the smell
The male parents never met their offspring, so they COULDN’T pass it on in any way except through genetics.
The fear of that one floral scent was transmitted to the next generation after that!
But Mice Aren’t People
This is very true. However, it seems likely that all organisms, to some degree or another, have the same mechanisms of transmitting information from one generation to the next.
Mice reproduce very fast, and that’s why they made excellent test subjects for this. Human studies are underway and will eventually give us the data to confirm scientifically that humanity is affected in this way.
In the meantime, we do have some evidence that makes the case that epigenetics seems to affect us from one generation to the next.
For example, the Dutch Famine Birth Cohort examined birth weights and lifetime effects on the children of people who survived a period of famine and malnutrition. These children were smaller than average and had lower rates of obesity than the general population. You can read more about that here.
But epigenetics in humans seems to go far beyond just the physical body and into mental illnesses too.
How Can Inherited Trauma Affect You Emotionally?
There’s an entire book written about this subject, called It Didn’t Start With You. The author, Mark Wolynn, is “a world leader in the field of Inherited Family Trauma,” best-selling author, and international lecturer.
He has found in his practice that ignored, buried, and unresolved issues from the past come back to haunt us. These quite often arise when we reach a certain age or enter a new phase in our lives. He believes that the emotional history of our relatives is a huge influence on us.
Examples in his book include:
A young man who started having trouble sleeping in his late teens and developed terrible insomnia that was ruining his life
A woman who felt the need to eradicate her body and planned to do this by jumping in a smelting vat at a steel foundry
A new mother who was consumed with anxiety and fears that she would harm her baby
In each instance, the mental and emotional troubles seemed linked to the experiences of their parents or grandparents. These are just a few of the many cases Wolynn has worked on within the last 25 years.
If Epigenetics Is Causing My Troubles, What Can I Do?
According to Mark Wolynn, it’s possible to mitigate some of the effects of epigenetic inheritance. A big part of the battle is understanding why we do the things we do. Once we gain awareness, then we can find a path forward.
With classes, counseling, and workshops, thousands of people received help with their issues. If this is beyond your reach, consider picking up a copy of the book. There are exercises and methods explained that anyone could use to explore their connections to the past and set them to rest.
There are links at the end of this article if you want to find out more.
We humans are complicated critters. We have to look at not only our own choices and the experiences of this life but also those of our ancestors.
Hopefully, more will be discovered and confirmed about epigenetics and how we can deal with its outcomes.
In the meantime, I urge you to read the book. It is an eye-opening look at a side of our lives most of us never consider.
Thanks for this great essay Tim. I think many people will be surprised to learn this info and, as you said, it's helpful to know that there is a great deal we can do with our lifestyle to determine which genes get turned on and off. That's the good news! There is so much more we can do about some of our genetic expression that we realized.
My paternal grandparents were Holocaust survivors. My father and uncle deal with depression and I deal with it too. My daughter has anxiety. My son is disabled because of birth trauma but it’s hard to say how he would have turned out if it wasn’t for that. I’ve had my own childhood trauma that contributed to my MDD but if it weren’t for genetics I’m sure the struggles would have been less. But it all makes sense.