Written by Mary Lor 41214752
It has always been said; “we are what we eat” this is true of course, as what we eat affects our health and performance for the rest of our lives. But what if, what our grandparents ate and experienced during their lifetimes, affect how we are as well?
Interestingly, scientists now believe that this might in fact, be true. Studies have shown that pregnant mothers living under harsh starvation conditions gave birth to relatively small babies. When they grew up and had children, they were also unexpectedly small, which indicates that poor nutrition can be inherited from generation to generation. But how is this possible? Nutrition cannot be genetically inherited. Scientists believe that this can be explained by the phenomenon: epigenetics, which describes that there are ‘hidden influences’ on phenotypes such as nutritional health, that doesn’t affect or alter the genome that is inherited.
Somehow, our genes have ‘memories’ imprinted on them, which our progeny inherits and then pass through generations. Scientists believe that these ‘memories’ can include anything from what we eat to our life experiences of diseases and disorders. Although this does explain all the mysterious reasons why we are what we are and why we are more susceptible to some diseases than others, how do we know if there are really ‘hidden influences’ that affect us?
Scientists are still struggling to uncover the truth on this mysterious phenomenon of epigenetics.
Primary Reference:
C. Dennis, ‘Epigenetics and disease: Altered states’, Nature 421, 686 – 688 (2003)
Secondary Reference:
J. M. Levenson, J. D. Sweatt, ‘Epigenetic mechanism in memory formation’ Nature Reviews Neuroscience 6, 108-118 (2005)
