Epigenetics seems to be growing up and facing the inevitable questions that come to a maturing science. A new study of trauma experienced by POWs in the Civil War adds to the evidence that sons (perhaps even grandsons) can inherit the physical effects of that trauma. So naturally, people are asking hard questions about these findings.
Sons of Trauma Dying Sooner
Dora Costa and colleagues published their findings in Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences. They studied children of Civil War POWs who lived through terrible, traumatic conditions late in the war. They compared them to children of the war’s veterans who were never imprisoned. Also, to POWs who had less harsh treatment.
The primary endpoint was how many years the person lived beyond the age of 45. For sons of trauma, they found a risk of death as much as 20 percent higher. But they found no effect for daughters, suggesting the risk may be linked to the Y chromosome.
[For more, go to https://conscienhealth.org/201...heritance-of-trauma/]
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