PAINFUL LEGACY

PAINFUL LEGACY Parents’ emotional trauma may change their children’s biology. Studies in mice show how By Andrew Curry Jul. 18, 2019 , 2:05 PM Epidemiological studies of people have revealed similar patterns. One of the best-known cases is the Dutch hunger winter, a famine that gripped the Netherlands in the closing months of World War II. The children of women pregnant during the food shortages died earlier than peers born just before, and had higher rates of obesity, diabetes, and schizophrenia. Studies of other groups suggested the children of parents who had starved early in life—even in the womb—had more heart disease. And a look last year at historical records showed the sons of Civil War soldiers who had spent time as prisoners of war (POWs) were more likely to die early than the sons of their fellow veterans. (The researchers controlled for socioeconomic status and maternal health.) But the human studies faced an obvious objection: The trauma could have been transmitted through parents traumatic information. In Harmony Holistic, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Queretaro Mexico