11. Are mommy issues genetic?

Hi friends,

Welcome to the eleventh dispatch of How Humans Flourish, a research-informed newsletter on how humans thrive.

Over the last few days I’ve been sitting with this beautiful quote by Rumi, “You are the honored guest. Do not weep like a beggar for pieces of the world.”

I notice myself coming back to the same question: What exactly does it mean to weep for pieces of the world?

I started reflecting on a variation of this question over a decade ago while working as an international journalist. I had yet to discover the exciting world of human flourishing literature, and so, I leaned heavily on qualitative, comparative anecdotes to understand the different types of realities I was seeing (if you’re new to human flourishing, you can read our previous newsletters here).

While traveling throughout East Africa meeting artists, politicians, humanitarians, and just everyday people getting by, I noticed an honesty around the physical and emotional ramifications of enduring poverty and learned helplessness. Of course, people are not fine, I’d be told. How can they be?

The United States, on the other hand, was and is a country that prides itself on a rugged ethos of individualism. Here I got used to hearing friends and colleagues say some paraphrased version of the statement, “Listen, I may have gone through x,y, or z hard thing, but I turned out just fine. Look at me, I’m fine!”

Between the two points on this continuum, I’d wonder—how are we defining fine? 

As a quick caveat, one of the most extraordinary attributes of our species is our adaptability. As a global collective, we acclimate and survive really well. But, survival comes with collateral damage.

This month, we’re reading “The Mind-Gut Connection: How the Hidden Conversation Within Our Bodies Impacts Our Mood, Our Choices, and Our Overall Health” by Dr. Emeran Mayer, Director of UCLA’s Center for Neurobiology of Stress. 

In the fifth chapter, Dr. Mayer describes a scientific conference in Sedona, Arizona he co-organized to explore the role of early life trauma in a range of chronic medical and psychiatric diseases. During the conference, prominent neuroscientist Rachel Yehuda shared her findings, “that adult offspring of Holocaust survivors who had grown up without the experience of trauma themselves had a greater risk of developing psychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress syndrome.” Additional research had also been done to show “similar types of ‘intergenerational transmission’ of stress and adversity, including studies of the offspring of individuals who had to evacuate the World Trade Center on 9/11, or who had suffered through the Dutch famine during World War II.”

Dr. Mayer asks, “How could children raised in a safe and supportive environment by parents who experienced unspeakable trauma be more at risk for developing behavioral changes that are normally only seen in individuals who experience such trauma themselves? In Michael Meaney’s rat studies, when the daughters of stressed, neglectful rat moms became mothers themselves, they behaved no better toward their own pups. His study found that the effect could last for several generations, suggesting that the stress experienced by the mother, and the ensuing effect on her behavior toward her pups, could somehow be passed to their offspring.

The question was how.

It took several years of careful laboratory detective work by Meaney and molecular biologist Moshe Szyf of McGill University to unravel the mystery, but the results revolutionized biology. They found that very specific aspects of rat mother-pup interactions (such as the arched-back nursing or licking) can chemically modify a newborn’s genes. Inside the cells of neglected rat pups, enzymes attached chemical tags called methyl groups to their DNA. This mode of inheritance is called epigenetic, since the tags sit on the DNA, and the prefix epi-, from ancient Greek, means ‘upon.’ It differs from the conventional, genetic mode of heredity because the tagged gene still carries the same information, and makes the same protein. But when it’s tagged, it has a hard time doing so…

Some of the tagged genes altered brain signaling, which made the adult daughters poor mothers themselves. This caused their own pups to tag their genes, and the cycle continued. We now know that this epigenetic editing of our genes can affect not only cells and mechanisms that determine how our brain develops, but also our germ cells or gametes, which carry the genetic information passed on to our children. The discovery of epigenetics ended a long-running debate over the degree to which nature or nurture causes stress-related diseases. Epigenetics violated everything modern biologists had believed about inheritance…

When the mother perceives danger, these strategies inculcate into her baby a heightened fight-or-flight response, plus more careful, less aggressive, and less outgoing behaviors. Even without her knowledge, she’s preparing her baby for a world she perceives as dangerous.

As we’ve seen, an overactive fight-or-flight system with constantly elevated stress hormones circulating through our bodies can lead to serious mental illness, including anxiety disorders, panic disorders, and depression. It can also cause a nasty assortment of stress-sensitive physical disorders, including obesity, metabolic syndrome, heart attacks, and strokes. And finally, the hyperresponsiveness of the brain-gut axis associated with this programming can cause chronic gut disorders like irritable bowel syndrome and chronic abdominal pain.” (Mayer, pg. 129-130 - Kindle)

Let me pause here because you may be feeling a bit humbled thinking about the long legacy of women in your family and all they’ve endured (what my African friends would call Ancestral Intelligence…a different kind of AI). Or you may be feeling panic about the maternal imprint left on you or your children.

Here’s a bit of consolation: we are far more complicated and creative than mice. 

Dr. Mayers writes, “In humans, there are many factors that can protect us from the negative effects of early life stress, ranging from genetic factors, to buffering effects during early development. Stay-at-home dads, grandparents, older siblings, nurturing nannies can all help create a supportive, stable family environment, helping children overcome the effects of early adversity. And keep in mind that the time window during which the development of the stress system is impacted by outside influences lasts up to twenty years in humans. 

And even if such buffering factors are not present, as humans we have many tools at our disposal that allow us to partially reverse the programming from early stress and trauma in ways that rats and other animals cannot. For example, several mind-based therapies, including cognitive behavioral therapy, hypnosis, and meditation, have all been shown to change the way we appraise situations and body sensations. All of these therapeutic modalities are not just psychological treatments; they also have the ability to improve the cortical control over emotional and stress-generating circuits in our brains. We now know that such therapies can alter the structure and function of the brain’s networks involved in attention, emotional arousal, and salience assessment, primarily by strengthening our brain’s prefrontal cortex.” (Mayer, pg 121-122 - Kindle)

Studies are still too early, but Dr. Mayer is optimistic future research will discover or create specific fermented foods and probiotics made up of GABA-producing microbes that regulate vital neurotransmitter serotonin to potentially treat anxiety and depression (Dr. Michael Gershon at Columbia imagines antidepressants for the gut instead of the brain). In part, we know so little about the gut-brain axis because it contains so much information—trillions and trillions of data points—and our best technology in this space is only a decade old. My money is on advanced computing breakthroughs over the next decade that will open up a treasure trove of new insights on the gut-brain axis.

Keep watching this space.

With gratitude,

p.s. Next month we’re reading The Blue Zones by Dan Buettner, an award-winning researcher whose revolutionary work unlocks keys to optimal health. As we step into Dan’s world of evidence-based wellness, break*through is opening up a complimentary virtual experience for you! Led by our AI Community Wellness Managers, this virtual accountability group is your gateway to transformative results grounded in fun challenges. Dive deep into the Blue Zones methodology, through interactive challenges, data-driven insights, and practical exercises. After just 30 days, you'll gain a profound understanding of how to enhance your physical vitality, boost cognitive function, and cultivate resilience against the stresses of modern life. We only have 7 spots left for our April 1st kickoff. Reserve your spot today with this 8 question intake form.

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