In an increasingly toxic world, we could blame the government, the corporations, our neighbors, or even ourselves for our kid’s poor health secondary to toxin exposures. We can now add our parents and grandparents to the list of guilty parties, and not just because they keep sneaking candy to their grandchildren. Instead, a recent study confirms what we have suspected. The toxins which prior generations faced apparently leave genetic marks on their descendants and appear to synergize over multiple generations.
Classical toxicology typically focused on 1 toxin in one generation, addressing the effects that a single toxin has on a person exposed to it. Much of today’s toxicological understanding is based on this experimental but non-realistic model. In the real world, we are all swimming in multiple toxins whether in what we eat, what we put on our bodies, what we breathe, and more. Designing and implementing a study to look at the potential complications of 80,000 possible toxins in combination is ethically and practically impossible. While such a study will never take place in humans, at least this group gave 3 toxins across 3 generations of rats to examine what cumulative effects were present in the last generation.
Building on prior research that demonstrated the potential for DDT, a now banned pesticide, to leave inheritable susceptibility to disease on following generations, this group considered what might happened if 3 generations were exposed to 3 different toxins. The first generation faced a common fungicide. The second generation faced jet fuel. The final generation of grandkids were then exposed to DDT. One could reason that this 3rd generation would have some health effects, but the researchers took things a step further by breeding this generation out for another 5 generations without any of these exposures.
The 8th generation of rats, 3 with toxin exposure and 5 without, were found to have a lot more health issues versus unexposed lineages. The incidence of diseases of the prostate and kidney as well as rates of obesity increased by up to 70%. Other diseases seemed to plateau with the 3rd exposed generation, but clearly some effects continued and increased. While this was intriguing, they also wanted to know how these effects were perpetuated from one generation to the next.
The researchers looked at genetic and epigenetic changes along the way to see if an inheritance mechanism was present to explain what they saw in the experiment. Each generation had testing done to look for typical genetic changes we call mutations. The researchers also tested for epigenetic changes, chemical changes not in the DNA itself, but in how the genes of the DNA are expressed. Significant changes were seen in these processes which could be inherited from one generation to the next. In this testing, they found that new exposure resulted in significant reprogram of the epigenetic markers. That means that the generation after the rats exposed would express the same genes in different ways.
In looking for genetic explanations for the rising rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, neurodegenerative diseases, and others, standard genetics do not explain the epidemic, but epigenetics from prior generations likely play a role. Understanding how toxins in our predecessors’ lives affect our health may lead to means of dampening the epidemic today. Helping everyone restore healthier more abundant lives extends beyond single generations and requires understanding the mechanisms behind the effects.
Original Article:
Eric E Nilsson, Margaux McBirney, Sarah De Santos, Stephanie E King, Daniel Beck, Colin Greeley, Lawrence B Holder, Michael K Skinner. Multiple generation distinct toxicant exposures induce epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of enhanced pathology and obesity. Environmental Epigenetics, 2023; 9 (1) DOI: 10.1093/eep/dvad006
Thanks to Science Daily:
Washington State University. “Multi-generational toxicant exposures show cumulative, inherited health effects.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 23 January 2024. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/01/240123122159.htm>
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.