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Being a Good Mom Can Make Your Kids Healthier Adults

1/8/08 - By Anna Fader

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 Apparently hugging and kissing your children is important for more than just making them feel better after getting boo boos. New science is showing that being a nurturing parent could keep them from getting serious illnesses as adults. A most incredible NOVA episode on PBS called Ghost in Your Genes gave a huge insight into how the environmental effects of our lives, including our prenatal experience and how nurturing our mother was, can actually affect our health and even the health of our grandchildren. I can't describe half the things that it talked about because it was so dense and informative, but here are a couple of summary thoughts:

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  • There are chemical tags that attach themselves to our genes that can turn on or off a gene's functionality. This is called your epigenome.
  • Your epigenome is hereditary. For instance, if you smoke, are malnourished, are exposed to toxic chemicals, etc., the damage it does to you can be inherited by your children and grandchildren.
  • In studies with rats, rats that were not nurtured (licked a lot) by their rat mommies actually altered their epigenome and were more prone to disease. The altered epigenome and associated illness was also inherited by the next generation.
  • In rats, prenatal vitamins like Folic Acid and B Complexes were actually able to reverse the negative tags on the epigenome that were being passed on.
I find this completely fascinating...and kind of terrifying. I'm sure I'm butchering some of it in the translation but if you have time, you should watch Ghost in Your Genes. You can now see it online. To read more about this topic take a look at The Genie in Your Genes: Epigenetic Medicine and the New Biology of Intention. Genie in your Genes goes on to talk about how you can change your epigenome with positive environmental stimulus and therefore improve your health. Fascinating.