
How Dad's Stresses Get Passed Along to Offspring - chablent
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-dads-stresses-get-passed-along-to-offspring/
======
thiago_fm
Might be why I have 10.000 levels of anxiety no matter what I do, even now
that I have a good standard of a living in a decent country. I also was
confused why they didn't mention "epigenetics".

Going a bit personal, continue at your own patience. I was born in a third-
world country of a dad that finished his college at 35, while having a kid,
waking up at 5 and sleeping after midnight, that would barely see me, as he
had to make meets end for our family. Also it was in a currency inflation
period and also my mother couldn't breastfeed me, so they had even more
problems. Aaaand I also had a lot of health problems at birth. Shits hard. Not
to forget that my uncle died shot in the head, mom died from cancer and 99
other problems.

But to me honest, that made me who I am today. I get much more anxious from my
past, rather than some "changes in the company" and #firstworldproblems I have
today, this gives me some edge against most of the privileged people I
work/live with today. Anxiety isn't bad, it can also be good. It would be
great if I could get rid of the one from the past, from the times I ate paper
with salt, the struggle I saw from my parents, the times we were unsure of the
future... and all the bad memories and images that pop up in my head daily.

My brother for instance was born 12 years after me, when my parents had a
house and really lacks the "immediateness" I had all my life and still carry
it up to this day. He now can study college but he doesn't even know what he
wants to do, meanwhile I remember I was already grabbing life by the balls by
the time I was 18. He is much happier though, and I can understand him, not
really blaming. It is better that way, I guess. But things only greatly change
when under pressure.

Those emotions are there for us, and as long as it doesn't create too many bad
side effects, we should accept that they do exist and they are great for us.

~~~
gerbilly
Anxiety can be an asset for a programming career.

A program has way more failure modes than modes where it is working properly.

I noticed years ago, that being attuned to danger (anxiety) helps me guard
against many potential problems in software that others often miss.

But you have to be careful with this approach, it can be like playing with
fire. It is very effective, but also can drain you if you over-rely on it.

~~~
edoceo
I call this asset "Risk Aware" because I don't like how the word Anxiety makes
me feel.

~~~
gerbilly
Sure, I call it being "attuned to risk."

And, I didn't mention it above, but someone mentioned that anxiety was the
least useful response to stress, but I'm not so sure.

At the individual level it's difficult to experience the world anxiously, but
it benefits the group.

Imagine a bunch of monkeys sitting around foraging for food. Some are super
chill and don't startle easily, but there will be a few that are anxious and
"attuned to danger".

Those anxious monkeys will likely be the first to detect danger and alert the
rest of the troupe.

You could say they are providing a service to the rest of the troupe by
offloading the vigilance onto a few individuals.

~~~
Jaruzel
I have Generalised Anxiety Disorder, and have suffered several completely
debilitating panic attacks[1] during my adult life. I can tell you now, it is
NOT an asset, no where close. Without my daily drug regimen, I cannot function
normally; the mere thought of anything stressful will completely push me over
the edge.

What you are calling anxiety is not anxiety, it's merely being hyper-aware,
helped along with a small dose of Adrenalin.

\---

[1] real ones, where you curl up into a ball, shaking, crying and wishing you
were dead, whilst simultaneously completely believing you are dying.

~~~
gerbilly
I'm very sorry you are experiencing panic attacks, but you are arguing from
marginal cases.

It is possible to be predisposed to anxiety without ever having a panic
attack.

------
lustysocietyorg
I am surprised that the article does not mention the word epigenetics.

\- Epigenetics and the influence of our genes | Courtney Griffins
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTBg6hqeuTg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTBg6hqeuTg)

But there are also other, probably more important, ways to "inherit":

\- Placebo Effect VS No-Cebo Effect
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jw00Pux5Fs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jw00Pux5Fs)

\- Dr. Bruce Lipton Explains HOW WE ARE PROGRAMMED AT BIRTH (an eye opening
video)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TivZYFlbX8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TivZYFlbX8)

\- Biology of Belief - by Bruce Lipton (full documentary)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjj0xVM4x1I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjj0xVM4x1I)

\- Depression and anxiety: Have we gotten it wrong? | UpFront
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apkbMtkwU2g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apkbMtkwU2g)

\- Causes of Psychosis
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKwK0DdjQac](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKwK0DdjQac)

\- 2011 - Liz Mullinar - Treating the core problem of childhood trauma.
[https://youtu.be/svX3fEdVTLQ?t=11](https://youtu.be/svX3fEdVTLQ?t=11)

About brain circuits regarding emotions:

\- You aren't at the mercy of your emotions -- your brain creates them | Lisa
Feldman Barrett
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gks6ceq4eQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gks6ceq4eQ)

\- Cultivating Wisdom: The Power Of Mood | Lisa Feldman Barrett
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYAEh3T5a80](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYAEh3T5a80)

~~~
togedoge
That is a lot of YouTube videos you have dropped. I appreciate the aggregation
of resources. Care to synthesize your knowledge for us?

~~~
lustysocietyorg
Thanks. Many people would consider many links as spam as they prefer personal
opinions without further facts and efforts.

The videos are already quite concentrated so I doubt that many lines of
written text would be beneficial enough.

The main point is that genes are just blueprints for proteins.

Biology of Belief - by Bruce Lipton (full documentary)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjj0xVM4x1I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjj0xVM4x1I)

The most important factors in life are determined by the social and
psychological and external and internal bio-chemical environment. One has much
freedom to change and improve these environments.

------
yesbabyyes

      They fuck you up, your mom and dad
      They may not mean to, but they do.
      They fill you with the faults they had
      And add some extra, just for you.
    
      But they were fucked up in their turn
      By fools in old-style hats and coats,
      Who half the time were soppy-stern
      And half at one another's throats.
    
      Man hands on misery to man
      It deepens like a coastal shelf.
      Get out as early as you can
      And don't have any kids yourself.
    
      -- Philip Larkin

~~~
B1FF_PSUVM
The lament of an entitled little jerk, who does not feel an iota of gratitude
for all that he was given, and is not in the mood to give anything to anyone.

~~~
yesbabyyes
I don't know; I'm not at all familiar with Larkin, or his other work.
Honestly, when I first came across this I was at a bad place, and your comment
would be a mean, but not entirely misplaced description of my disposition at
the time. During this time, I was living very close to my mother, and working
for my father.

Today, I read it with some black humor; I can't take it at face value at all.
It's obvious to me that it's not the whole truth, but perhaps it's a
perspective that it's ok to bring out once in a while. I guess, what I mean
is, it's common to feel resentment towards your parents at times, and that
feeling, too, has a place in the arts.

I came across this analysis of the poem[0]; not least interesting is that
Larkin may well have written it while living with his own mother. To stay too
close to your parents in adulthood can be _very_ hard, in ways that aren't
always easily seen from outside. Not from malice, but I felt it exactly the
same way (the second verse is not a bad description of my grand-parents--in
their worst moments; I knew them and I love them very much, but they were no
saints).

Anyway, I think you have to read it with a good sense of dark humor. As the
linked article says, they do, literally, fuck us up into this world, our
parents. ;)

There is a response to Larkin's "This Be The Verse", by Richard Kell. While I
agree with the spirit of it, I just think it's bad poetry. Not least that it
starts with a moral commandment. It's like, "if you were born to 'bad'
parents, they were 'bad' parents". Well, no shit.

    
    
        This Be The Converse
    
        They buck you up, your mum and dad,
        Or if they don't they clearly should.
        No decent parents let the bad
        They've handed on defeat the good.
    
        Forebears you reckon daft old farts,
        Bucked up in their turn by a creed
        Whose homely mixture warmed their hearts,
        Were just the counsellors you need.
    
        Life is no continental shelf:
        It lifts and falls as mountains do.
        So, if you have some kids yourself,
        They could reach higher ground than you.
    

[0] [https://interestingliterature.com/2016/06/24/a-short-
analysi...](https://interestingliterature.com/2016/06/24/a-short-analysis-of-
philip-larkins-this-be-the-verse/)

------
rhema
Imagine a future where we can use sperm samples as a panel test for health. We
could measure the levels of stress, but eventually many other attributes.
There are other epigenetic findings, such as obese fathers producing children
more likely to also be obese. These could be re-tooled as an evaluation.

~~~
rootusrootus
I can imagine that future, and it is frightening. As a society we imagine our
technological progress to somehow imply that we are actually advancing as a
species. Recent events suggest otherwise, and putting evolutionary control in
the hands of those kinds of people (read: anybody) is likely to be really bad
for us all.

~~~
antidesitter
Why is it frightening to screen against health problems that cause prolonged
suffering throughout an individual’s lifetime?

~~~
frenchy
Because of two things:

1\. when it comes down to it, the notion of a disease is actually very wishy-
washy. Is homosexuality a disease? The difference between yes and no has a lot
more to do with cultural changes in the last 50 years than any science.

2\. A lot of things are heritable, and could be health problems if you looked
at them the right way. Poverty is heritable, and poverty also results in worse
health outcomes, ergo, people below the poverty line shouldn't reproduce,
right?

~~~
antidesitter
1\. That's just the gray fallacy. "Knowing only gray, you conclude that all
grays are the same shade. You mock the simplicity of the two-color view, yet
you replace it with a one-color view." Just because _some_ cases are uncertain
doesn't mean _all_ cases are equally uncertain. As Asimov put it in _The
Relativity of Wrong_ : "When people thought the earth was flat, they were
wrong. When people thought the earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if
you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking
the earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together."

2\. Let's set aside the heredity assumptions for a moment and go straight to
the heart of the matter: As a proportion of the people who will be born in the
next generation, would you rather have a larger or smaller fraction of them be
poor for life? Why?

~~~
mantas
So, could people discard "gay" sperm or not? Evolutionary it is a bad trait.

~~~
antidesitter
Are you asking whether they could, or whether they should?

~~~
mantas
Final call should be parents' decision all the time, so "could" would be more
correct. Or should it be forced by government? But that's yet another can of
worms... "That sperm is 50% likely to vote for [insert wrong party]."

------
dqpb
> _It is pretty easy to stress out a mouse. Stick one into a tube it cannot
> wriggle out of, soak its bedding or blast white noise—and stress hormone
> levels shoot up, much as they do in people worrying about finances or facing
> incessant pressure at work._

Or, you know, much it would in people if you stick them in a tube they cant
wriggle out of, soak their bed, or blast white noise...

------
univalent
As a dad with 2 girls who's been on SSRI medication for anxiety since I was a
teenager, this makes me sad ;(

~~~
mr_overalls
As another dad with anxiety problems: go easy on yourself. These kind of
epigenetic effects are probabilistic - and even if they weren't, having
anxiety isn't your fault.

As a father, there are far more direct effects you can have on your children's
well-being, like providing them with food, shelter, emotional support, life
experiences, educational opportunity, etc.

And I'm willing to bet that taking SSRIs helps you function better so that you
can provide the environmental factors above.

~~~
univalent
Thanks! Yes, Zoloft has been a God send. I cannot imagine functioning without
it. I'm shocked when there are studies that claim that SSRIs have little to no
effect.

~~~
alleyshack
IANA doctor, but my understanding from years of trying every antidepressant on
the market is that we don't currently understand _why_ SSRIs help (some
people) with depression. We know the mechanics of what they do, but not why
that function has an antidepressant effect in some people. We don't really
have a good idea what mechanically causes depression at all - in some cases,
it's related to serotonin, in which case an SSRI might help. But there are a
lot of other cases that aren't so obvious, and as far as my understanding
goes, the "lot of other cases" is enough to make those who might be genuinely
helped by SSRIs' mechanical function (as opposed to a placebo function, which
is a whole 'nother issue in this research) be effectively invisible in the
data.

A very rough metaphor (and again IANA doctor or scientist, just someone who's
struggled with this personally for two decades) would be, "Stitches help
people who are bleeding!" Yes, that is true _in some cases_ and under certain
circumstances, but what we've been doing with antidepressant drugs is roughly
the equivalent of treating every possible bleeding wound with some variant of
stitches or butterfly closures. Very effective for some, not helpful for
others, actively harmful for a minority.

------
andyidsinga
> Striking evidence that harsh conditions affect a man’s children came from
> crop failures and war ravaging Europe more than a century ago. In those
> unplanned human experiments, prolonged famine appeared to set off a host of
> health changes in future generations, including higher cholesterol levels
> and increased rates of obesity and diabetes.

this is astonishing - without criticizing this article - the emotional
ping/pong effect of health studies in general is really crazy : as in "eggs
are good for you again"

edit: to be clear : I'm not offering a critique of health studies in general
of this one specifically; just an observation about the emotional response to
these types of articles.

~~~
klmr
Your instinct is spot on. These stress inheritance studies were widely panned
by experts (see e.g.
[https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2015/sep/11/why-
im-...](https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2015/sep/11/why-im-sceptical-
about-the-idea-of-genetically-inherited-trauma-epigenetics)).

------
reptation
This is part of what Eva Jablonka talks about as "soft inheritance"
[http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1415...](http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1415-47572008000300001)

These sorts of discoveries really push towards a re-evaluation of Lamarck's
thought, frankly.

~~~
asianthrowaway
Is this really Lamarckism though? It seems that what the paper describes is a
mechanism in which specific cells "infuse" sperm with information relating to
specific stresses.

Ultimately, we could interpret this mechanism as a trans-generational
evolutionary defense against stresses (for instance, famines). But those
mechanisms would themselves have evolved through the process of natural
selection, and these "sperm influencing" cells would themselves be coded in
our DNA.

That is to say, introducing a new kind of stress or environmental factor would
not trigger any of these cells and would have no effect.

Correct me if I'm wrong but that's how I understood the paper.

~~~
menacingly
I'm far from my field of expertise, but isn't your point similar to saying
that English is in our DNA because the tools to learn and speak it are?

I think if you disqualify the changes DNA _enables_ (rather than directly
encodes) then you've moved the goalposts a little.

~~~
asianthrowaway
> but isn't your point similar to saying that English is in our DNA because
> the tools to learn and speak it are?

No, but the ability to learn languages is in our DNA

> I think if you disqualify the changes DNA _enables_

What our DNA enables is the ability to learn a language, not the language
itself.

~~~
menacingly
Exactly, so extending this, the capacity to respond to these stress markers is
in the DNA, but the specifics of how that will be expressed appears to be
picked up environmentally and transmitted to offspring.

~~~
asianthrowaway
> but the specifics of how that will be expressed appears to be picked up
> environmentally and transmitted to offspring.

I mean I guess that is a possibility, but that would be incredibly generic
wouldn't it? That a cell could somehow identify novel environmental factors
and figure out what gene expressions to enhance/neutralize in the next
generation to adapt to that novel environmental factor? Strains credulity.

~~~
iguy
In my limited understanding, the credible version of this story involves the
transmission of quite crude information, like a response to famine.

Lots of animals starved, since there were animals, and the ability to tune the
behavior on a time-scale of a few generations might have been valuable, so it
might have evolved. The basics of our hormonal system have not changed much
since very simple animals, I think.

~~~
asianthrowaway
Yes this is how I understood it too. Makes sense that such a feature would
evolve when you think about it.

------
aonic
There have been similar findings presented in other research shared on HN in
the last year. For anyone interested in the topic, you might find more on the
subject under the terms microRNA and epigenetics.

Some other interesting links:
[https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-018-0146-2](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-018-0146-2)
[https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/penn-stressed-dads-
affect-o...](https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/penn-stressed-dads-affect-
offspring-brain-development-through-sperm-microrna)

------
akuji1993
Completely annecdotal but my father and I have been treated for the same
psychological stress problems at the same age. Both at mid 20s diagnosed with
GAD or in my case panic disorder, both have been treated by the same doctor
(and psych) and the results have been mostly the same. So this makes a lot of
sense to me.

~~~
tomerico
This might be genetic for you two. The article is about environmental stress
changing the sperm.

------
dumbfounder
So the takeaway here is that you should have kids before the weight of the
world crushes your spirit. Luckily, all the stress in my life somehow
mysteriously manifested after I had kids :)

~~~
cheez
The wrong partner contributes to this.

------
abcdcba
Are there different types of stresses? Do these physical external stresses
(lack of food, wet bed, being physically stuck) have the same affect as a
internal stress that we may have some control over (existential crisis,
feeling stuck, social anxiety)?

~~~
basseq
Or is it the ability to _deal_ with stress, regardless of the source? If I'm
reading the study[1] correctly, offspring of stressed fathers were _less_
stressed than offspring of non-stressed fathers:

 _> Alternatively, a reduced physiological stress response may reflect an
adaptive response programmed by the paternal lineage as a protective measure,
ensuring greater offspring fitness in what is expected to be a more stressful
environment._

Interestingly, this _doesn 't_ seem to be associated with "serotonin in
mediating changes in [...] stress", most commonly associated with SSRIs, which
are used to treat psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety, etc.

[1]
[http://www.jneurosci.org/content/33/21/9003.long](http://www.jneurosci.org/content/33/21/9003.long)

------
alexanderh
As the son of a Vietnam Veteran (drafted) and Purple Heart recipient (shot in
the stomach with an AK-47 by the enemy) and severe motorcycle accident
survivor (Semi-truck didn't see him and merged into him on the freeway at high
speed. He was told he would never walk again after this one, however he
managed to learn how to use his leg like it was prosthetic, having very little
actual control over it despite it still being there)... This is unfortunate
and makes way too much sense to me :\ :( Not only did it effect his ability to
raise me environmentally like a more normal father, but I've always suspected
it ran deeper than this, as the kind of mental issues I have dealt with never
really made total sense based on how I was raised alone.

------
adrianmonk
> _Striking evidence that harsh conditions affect a man’s children came from
> crop failures and war ravaging Europe more than a century ago. In those
> unplanned human experiments, prolonged famine appeared to set off a host of
> health changes in future generations, including higher cholesterol levels
> and increased rates of obesity and diabetes._

Going fairly out there, I wonder if this could perhaps be part of the cause of
the current "obesity epidemic". If stress causes obesity in subsequent
generations, and if we have obesity, maybe one explanation is that previous
generations were extraordinarily stressed.

Maybe there were social changes that cause our modern lives to be more
stressful. Or even just being more consistently stressful might cause the
incidence to go up.

------
AltruisticGap
It's funny because it's like science is catching up to Buddhism's "karma"
concept, as well as their philosophy on interdependence. Essentially,
emphasizing the illusion of "independence" and how we are actually much more
connected than we think we are. Or in plain englush the "myth of the self
made" people.

The genetic perspective is very limited however. Take soldiers in WWII. They
didn't just pass their stress to their offspring. They _raised_ their children
differently than other men/women would.

That those studies that were done on children of holocaust survivor. How did
holocaust survivors raise their own childreN? How did they related to them
emotionally? And so on. I think it's quite easy to guess here that those
traumatic experiences must have significantly affected their ability to be
fully present as a father or mother. And typically this is the big black box.
Nobody speaks about that. And how do you measure that, when the affected
parents typically are unable to acknowledge that themselves?

~~~
cvaidya1986
Karma is an ancient concept far older than Buddhism.

------
deepaksurti
This is completely anecdotal.

I had minor anxiety issues, but fasting has helped me almost eliminate it. I
experience a calmness and can figure a clear route now when faced with a
situation compared to earlier when it would cause anxiety.

My SO has been mentioning this often now, which is external validation for me.

So I guess the lesson is while we may have stresses passed along, we must
figure ways out to overcome it, hopefully there are and I am not denying that
I accidentally discovered one!

------
gammateam
Instead of now collectively selecting for men a different way to get mentally
stable offspring, this seems like something that can be repaired to promote a
desired result, now that we know its there.

The cells that are near the sperm transmit this data, according to the
research. I bet a drug or even a dietary change could target that, just like
flouride in water targets healthy teeth.

------
vbuwivbiu
does anyone know if this or epigenetic inheritance only result from stress
during the time the sperm were grown or whether sperm carry such information
years after stress, which has now gone - i.e. if one was stressed over some
interval in the past but is now happy and relaxed, does one's sperm still
carry the marks of stress from the previous stressfull period ?

~~~
klmr
> this or epigenetic inheritance

This _is_ an instance of epigenetic inheritance.

As for your question, we don’t know yet (also because these results are still
terribly preliminary). It’s conceivable that stress permanently modifies
something in the epididymis (where sperm is matured), and thus affects all
sperm coming thereafter. It’s also possible, though probably less likely, that
only currently present sperm is affected. From personal experience, working
with sperm samples is a pain — the transcriptional signal you get is
incredibly noisy, and every ground-breaking interpretation should be taken
with a grain of salt.

~~~
vbuwivbiu
ok now I'd like to know if these epigenetics marks are sensed by the egg and
selected against - does the egg refuse to be fertilized by stressed sperm ?

~~~
klmr
The oocyte doesn’t have a direct way of recognising that sperm is stressed.
However, stress does weird things to cells (the sperm, in this case), and the
consequences of that are often severe. This definitely has an effect on the
fitness of individual sperm cells, and purely stochastically this means that
it’s more likely for healthy sperm to inseminate the egg.

And after the fusion of sperm and egg, stressed sperm likely exhibits genetic
damage (despite the topic on hand being non-genetic information), and this in
turn makes it less likely that the zygote (fertilised egg) will be able to
divide correctly. This leads to a spontaneous abortion of pregnancy — a
process that naturally occurs more frequently than actually successful
pregnancies (this happens within days of fertilisation and goes unnoticed).

So to answer your question: the egg itself probably doesn’t have a way of
sensing this directly but there are many factors that indirectly have a
similar effect. Stressed sperm is selected against.

~~~
vbuwivbiu
superb answer thanks

------
quotha
This is not a bad thing, the sperm is telling the next generation: be ready
for stress in the environment you're about to be in.

~~~
chiefalchemist
Yes and no. In a sense, it is neither good nor bad. It's simply information.
Read: This is what you need to prepare for.

It makes sense, and I would venture to say it impacts the expected lifespan of
a species. That is, to presume the DNA from X (e.g., in humans 25 - 35 yrs)
ago is just as worthy in the current environment, could be a false if not
dangerous assumption. Supplementing DNA with more up to date information helps
the species to survive.

------
hrktb
Interesting.

Reminds of the recent series on the Radiolab podcast on gonads.

In particular how external factors like viruses can affect the reproductive
material: [https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/infective-
heredity](https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/infective-heredity)

(But really, the whole series is fun)

------
pentae
And here I always thought the Animus in Assassins Creed was completely
ridiculous. Huh.

------
seunosewa
> the way a mouse physiologically responds to stress looks noticeably
> different if—months before conception—its father endured a period of stress.
> Somehow “their brain develops differently than if their dad hadn’t
> experienced that stress,”

The article is not clear about what the actual changes are; can't figure out
if they are good or bad.

------
internet555
This general area (epigentics) is what inspired me to take up a more serious
routine of lifting. I’m not sure if it will have any particular effect, but I
suppose I am significantly healthier now than in my 20s either way.

------
simulate
Scott Alexander wrote a short-story sequel to GATTACA on his blog
SlateStarCodex this past summer that dealt with epigenetics and education that
he called the GATTACA trilogy: [http://slatestarcodex.com/2018/06/19/the-
gattaca-trilogy/](http://slatestarcodex.com/2018/06/19/the-gattaca-trilogy/)

> “Well, you know how things are. We want to make sure we get only the
> healthiest, most on-point individuals for our program. We used to do genetic
> testing, make sure that people’s DNA was pre-selected for success. But after
> the incident with the Gattaca Corporation and that movie they made about the
> whole thing, public opinion just wasn’t on board, and Congress nixed the
> whole enterprise. Things were really touch-and-go for a while, but then we
> came up with a suitably non-invasive replacement. Epigenetics!”

------
jhowell
As a person of color in America (my only experience and the experience of my
known family) this makes me sad.

~~~
aaaaaaaaaab
You may find consolation in that you’re still better off than people of color
in Africa or Asia or South America.

~~~
Retra
That is a very broad brush you're painting with.

------
raincom
A couple of years, there was another article on how holocaust survivors passed
their stress 'genes' to their progeny.

[https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/aug/21/study-of-
hol...](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/aug/21/study-of-holocaust-
survivors-finds-trauma-passed-on-to-childrens-genes)

Then, some doubts about it: [https://www.haaretz.com/science-and-
health/.premium-doubts-a...](https://www.haaretz.com/science-and-
health/.premium-doubts-arising-about-claimed-epigenetics-of-holocaust-
trauma-1.5466710)

