How does our stress affect the health of our children?

In 1998, an unprecedented snow storm occurred in Canada. Hundreds of thousands of people were left without electricity, including pregnant women. A recent study by the Institute of Mental Health at Douglas University in Canada found that children born within two years of the cataclysm had an increased risk of developing asthma, diabetes and being overweight*. The authors’ verdict sounds pessimistic: the consequences for children’s health turned out to be related to the objective stress experienced by mothers during the storm (lack of light, heat, domestic difficulties). However, not everything is so simple, says geneticist Ancha Baranova, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor, Director of Science at the Atlas Biomedical Holding: perhaps our body behaves more prudently than we think.

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Psychologies: Why did the stress experienced by mothers have such an impact on the health of children?

Ancha Baranova: What is described in the article is the effect of an environmental factor on the fetal genome. You can compare the DNA molecule (the carrier of the genetic code) and the protein sequences encoded in it with the foundation of the house and its layout. The general arrangement of rooms and utility rooms is determined by genes, and how each separate room will look like, what furniture will be in the kitchen, what color the walls will be painted – epigenetic marks are responsible for this, which are placed, as it were, on top of the genome. They allow cells to better adapt to changing environmental conditions, such as cold climates or excess fat in the diet.

How do the mechanisms of epigenetics work?

AB .: Epigenetic changes are the basis of “cellular memory” about the conditions in which this cell was previously. The epigenome programs processes such as the rate of cell aging, their susceptibility to external factors, and the body’s propensity to disease. Epigenetic modifications can also occur in response to changes in the environment and can even be passed on to the next generation. We can say that genetics suggests and epigenetics disposes. For example, take identical twins. Their genetic code is identical. But in the process of development, a number of phenotypic differences arise between them. One of the manifestations of such differences may be the development of a disease in one of the twins, while the other does not have it.

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The findings of the Canadian study sound rather pessimistic. It turns out that sudden cataclysms and stress can complicate not only our lives, but also the lives of our children?

AB .: You see, here it is impossible to say unequivocally that the changes went to the detriment of the baby. The plastic genome of the child tries to adapt in the best possible way to the situation in which it is placed by the stress experienced by the mother. At medium levels of stress (and the stress experienced by mothers is still average, because they were actively supported, they were not alone), this adaptation serves the purpose of “increasing” the overall probability of the child’s survival. Of course, this happens at the expense of some other systems.

We will assume that in this case the children suffered, since the predisposition to type 50 diabetes increased. But on the other hand, they could acquire additional protection against infectious diseases and pneumonia (for example). These consequences have not been studied. From the point of view of the adaptation (and survival) of the individual genome, it is better to be at risk of diabetes at the age of XNUMX than to die from the virus before the age of one. Do you understand? This work assessed only one aspect of the future life of these children – negative. But there are also positive ones, which we do not yet know about.

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* PloS ONE, 2014, vol. 9.