The Difference Between DNA and Genes
We all know the basics of DNA, right? You get half from each parent; dominant and recessive genes determine if you get blonde hair with blue eyes or black hair with brown. DNA is immutable; it can’t be changed.
Right?
Well, sort of.
DNA can’t be changed, but your genes can.
DNA is your body’s instruction manual, the basic outline of how things should be built. It says that you should have hair and skin, eyes, and everything else you need to function.
Genes are what specify that instruction manual to you. They say what color your hair should be, if you should have freckles or not, what shape your eyes should make.
Genes age with us; they’re the reason your hair starts to go grey. They also change depending on environmental factors. Someone who grew up in Colorado, for example, will have different genes from someone who grew up in Texas. The climates are different; the winter and summer weather can’t be compared. Colorado genes are likely less susceptible to the cold and Texas genes are probably less susceptible to the heat.
Generational Trauma and Epigenetics
Like DNA, genes are passed down. A parent who grew up in Texas passes along that heat-resistant gene. If both parents are blonde, their child might be blond, too. And, if one of the parents experienced something traumatic, that trauma also gets passed down the line.
Generational trauma is the idea that traumatic events experienced by one generation can cause psychological and emotional wounds that are passed down to future generations. It is a common concept in media.
Books like The Haunting of Alejandra (a novel featuring La Llorona and the uncomfortable tension of strained family relations) and movies like Encanto (yes, I do mean the Disney film) explore the concept from a social lens. The trauma manifests itself as ghosts and in the downfall of a home that couldn’t withstand the weight, respectively.
The physical manifestation of trauma in genes is something else entirely.
Epigenetics refers to the way genes are expressed, such as whether genes will engage in certain situations or not.
Epigenetics is also the focus of several studies on Holocaust survivors and their descendants by Dr. Rachel Yehuda, who has conducted research and published over 400 articles since the 1980s.
Dr. Yehuda found that Holocaust survivors passed along genes that were more likely to create a physical response to stress. While Dr. Yehuda’s focus for that particular study was Holocaust survivors, her findings can be attributed to anyone who has experienced high degrees of trauma.
Basically, trauma of any kind can be transferred down the line physically, emotionally, and mentally.
So, after reading all of those articles and writing this blog, I’m left with a feeling of "So what?"
I browsed medical journals and the databases HCPL allows me to access. I buried myself in medical terms like cortisol and FKBP5 methylation (I’m still not sure what that one means, exactly) to write an article about trauma that isn’t long enough given the subject.
This feels less like a blog and more like an expanded glossary of definitions.
Holocaust Remembrance Day
Whatever it is, it will be published on Holocaust Remembrance Day, a time of deep reflection on the loss of more than six million Jewish people. My temple sends out a candle every year to light in their honor. It is wrapped in black and white photos of people whose lives were lost.
It has been sitting on the counter for at least a week now, waiting to serve its purpose.
When I light the candle this year, I will think of the articles I read. I will think of the people who didn’t get the chance to participate in those studies because they didn’t survive. I will think of what was passed to me by the ones who did.
I think, in the end, I’ll do what I always do: read about it.
If you’d like to join me, here’s two books to get us started.
Explore Epigenetics and the Holocaust's Dark Legacy of Generational Trauma
You Are What your Grandparents Ate
If you're interested in learning more about the Holocaust or reading books based on it, here's a list made by another HCPL blogger.
Remembering the Holocaust
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