We have long known short -term effects of headaches, changes in appetite or sleep, fear, anxiety and concentration problems are just a few.
A new study suggests that heavy trauma, like the one with experience in war, can leave epigenetic “wounds” in DNA that endures for generations.
The concept of intergenerative trauma is not new – the passage of traumatic experiences for offspring has shown that they significantly increase their likelihood of depression and other mental health issues.
This research confirms the phenomenon with a DNA analysis of 48 Syrian families in three generations.
“The study documents the signatures of stress and trauma in the body, under the skin,” said Catherineâ Panther-Brick, an anthropologist at Yale University.
“Our findings present the first evidence that violence can leave the epigenetic signs of genome, which has important implications to understand evolution and how traumatic experiences can be included in the genome and continue for generations,” she added.
The Panther-Brick team studied women who were pregnant during violent conflicts in Syria in the early 1980s or 2011.
The DNA of 10 families exposed to the violence of the 80s and 22 families in the 2011 conflict was compared to the genetic material of 16 families who fled Syria before 1980, avoiding decades of turmoil.
In general, pages of the pages were collected by 131 people – 45 younger children, 37 older children, 47 mothers and two grandmothers.
“Participants participated in love research for their children and concern for future generations,” said study co -author Dima Hamadmad, a Syrian researcher and refugee daughter. “But more than that, they wanted their trauma stories to be heard and accepted.”
Researchers examined 850,000 DNA methylation sites, where small chemical labels called methyl groups are added to DNA.
This process can change the expression of the gene without changing the basic sequence of DNA.
Researchers identified 21 sites in the DNA of mothers and children who had directly experienced violence showing signs of changed epigenetic signs.
The modifications in 14 areas of the genome were found in the grandchildren of women who survived the 80s attack.
Researchers also reported that those exposed to violence while in their mothers’ womb seemed to be growing faster at a cellular level. It is not clear what effect, if there is, these changes can have on their health.
The findings were published last month in the magazine Scientific Reports.
The authors of the study are calling for more research on the sustained effects of violence – domestic violence, sexual violence, gun violence and more.
“The idea that trauma and violence can have consequences in future generations should help people be more empathetic, help policymakers pay more attention to the problem of violence,” the author said good study -connie Mulligan.
“This can even help explain some of the seemingly unbreakable intergenerative cycles of abuse and poverty and trauma we see all over the world, including in the US,” she added.
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Image Source : nypost.com