The violence he has undergone in the gene / day

Three years ago, many people in Latvia shared stories in social networks and private talks about the strangled feeling of stress that prevent you from focusing on work and living a normal daily life. Although the majority had never experienced a real war, and the invasion of Ukraine did not endanger life, people seemed to have a war flooded with ancient scars. Probably the depressing feeling was not just about the future, but memories recorded in genes.

A new study found that people are really able to feel the horror experienced by the predecessors because they are recorded in the genetic code and passed on to future generations. As a result, the consequences of the offense continue to live in the community long after the last eyewitnesses have gone to the sun.

Changes genes

An international team of scientists came to a study with 48 Syrian refugee families. They collected DNA samples from three generations of women. The oldest were grandmothers who experienced the massacre of Islamic radicals in February 1982. In the middle generation there were armed riots in 2011, experienced women, but in the latest, daughters born and raised in relative safety in Jordan. In total, scientists took DNA samples from 131 women and girls.

As a control group using families who left Syria ahead of 1980, scientists in the 1982 -year -old grandmother discovered modifications to 14 genome zones related to violence. In addition, eight of these changes remained up to grandchildren who had not directly experienced violence. The results also indicated accelerated epigenetic aging, which may increase the risk of age -related diseases. In addition, there were 21 more genome in the area of ​​changes directly caused by violence in the Syrian Civil War.

The changes observed by the researchers were consistent with the victims of violence and their offspring, suggesting that the stress of conflict had changed the chemical messaging associated with these genes.

This type of lasting, multi -generation genes change in response to stress has been previously observed in animals, but so far there has been little research on how it could work on humans.

Life must continue

« Families want their story to be told, » a report published in Scientific Reports in a report published in Scientific Reports, to resort to such a study at the University of Florida, Anthropologist Connie Maligan, « they want their experience to be heard. »

The study, however, has not yet answered the question of how these changes can affect the health of each individual. However, researchers praise the threat of death surviving women’s ability to cross unpleasant memories.

« In all this experience of violence, we can only admire the unusual persistence of people. They live a full -fledged, productive life, give birth to children and continue traditions. They are persistent. This durability and perseverance is probably a unique human feature, » the author concludes.

The determination to continue full life does not mean that the offenses have been forgotten. Violence has an impact on people’s mental and physical health.