Apple News

Your parents’ trauma and the effects of it — whether from war or genocide, abuse or environmental factors — could be genetically passed down from one generation to another, emerging science suggests. Epigenetics is the study of how genes are turned off and on. The molecular process, known as gene expression, boosts the activity of some genes and quiets others by adding and removing chemical tags to genes. Multiple research studies have suggested this may be a mechanism through which a parent’s trauma could be imprinted in the genes of offspring. “If you feel you have been affected by a very traumatic, difficult, life-altering experience that your mother or father has had, there’s something to that,” says Rachel Yehuda, professor of psychiatry and neuroscience of trauma at Mount Sinai in New York. Her work points to a small epigenetic “signal” that a life-altering experience “doesn’t just die with you,” she says. “It has a life of its own afterwards in some form.” Tap the link in bio to read more, via @natgeo in Apple News+. Photo: Tek Image, Science Photo Library, via National Geographic