Epigenetics: Are Tragedies Hereditary?
Few of the generations have not experienced the slightest tragedy. When these are not wars, they are times of famine, genocides or brutal economic crises. We know the often devastating physical and psychological consequences that people can develop after an experience like this. But are tragedies hereditary? Find out what epigenetics is all about here.
Until recently, researchers hadn’t thought of a thing. This type of experience seems to leave a genetic residue in the sufferer. A residue that can be passed on to subsequent generations. In any case, this is shown by studies carried out on animals.
Research involving humans presents a clear ethical problem. It is therefore very difficult to determine how much and how humans genetically inherit the tragedies and suffering of their parents and grandparents.
Social psychology, the first access route
Despite everything, we have been able to carry out massive experiments in the field of social psychology. And the results couldn’t be more revealing. These studies, carried out across different generations, show us that we can inherit tragedies, just like animals.
Social psychology cannot determine which genetic mechanisms, which mutations or which genes are altered, but has found that there are gender differentiated patterns of inheritance. This fact is revolutionizing the world of psychology, sociology and genetic research.
Finland and World War II
A study conducted by the team of Dr Torsten Santavirta, from Uppsala University, found that girls of children who were evacuated from Finland during World War II had much more problems with hospitalization for cause of psychological disturbances that other people with relatives who were not evacuated.
Research has also shown that this fact does not appear to have affected the sons of evacuated children. Researchers have tried to provide an explanation for this fascinating data. They claimed that mental illnesses are generally less common in men. The coincidence is nevertheless astonishing.
Confederate soldiers
Another study conducted with the descendants of Confederate soldiers who passed through the Andersonville, Georgia prison camp during the American Civil War found data very similar to that obtained in Finland.
The children of prison camp survivors lived much less than the children of other war veterans who had not been captured. It was even discovered that many of them had died much younger than their older brothers who were born before the war. In other words, before their progenitors go through this trauma and can pass it on to them.
Holocaust grandchildren could inherit tragedy
One of the first published studies was carried out among the survivors of concentration camps under the Nazi regime. The research team at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York studied the genetic makeup of a group of Jews who had been locked up in concentration camps and compared it to that of their children.
The study focused on a specific region of a gene associated with the regulation of stress hormones. It was possible to verify that this gene was affected in the survivors and their children, because of the inherited trauma. To guarantee the results, parallel genetic analyzes were carried out to rule out the possibility that the children, i.e. the second generation, may have modified the gene with personal traumatic experience.
The inexplicable differentiation by gender
Another inexplicable data – until now – has been discovered. Just like the inheritance of the trauma, in the case of children evacuated from Finland, which seems to have been transmitted only to girls, in the case of prisoners of war, the data is reversed. It seems that only the boys inherited the trauma.
All of this research highlights a point that can be extremely important for the future of human physical and mental health. Apparently, human beings can inherit tragedies from their ancestors. Even if the studies establish, for the moment, many more questions than answers.
Our thoughts Transgenerational trauma is a transfer in which the pain that a person suffers at one point in time is passed on to new generations …
