It’s not often that we get to see evolution at work in front of our eyes. However, that’s what seems to have been found with the recent discovery at the University of Pennsylvania. According to findings posted on Science Daily:
Researchers have shown at the molecular level how experiencing stress changes a male mouse’s sperm in such a way that it affects his offspring’s response to stress. This change is imparted epigenetically, or through a means other than the DNA code, by molecules called microRNAs, or miRs.
I’m no epigeneticist – and I didn’t even know that word existed until reading about these findings – but the basic takeaway from the study is that elevated levels of stress experienced in the lifetime of a father can impact the way his offspring respond to stress. The study used mice to test the findings, and when performing a stress test on the offspring by restraining them, the mice from the stressed fathers had lower cortisone levels than others. Stressed fathers produced offspring who had a dampened response to stressors. It seems to me that this discovery has implications on the subjects of health (both physical and mental), our societal makeup, and even the evolution of humanity as a species.
Physical Health
It’s no secret that heart disease is a major killer in the United States. 1 in every 4 deaths in the states comes from the silent killer. A lot of that coronary distress comes from our poor eating habits, but a big contribution comes from the large amount of stress we put on ourselves. We live in a world where the 40-hour work week is now a nearly a full workday longer and we’re expected to be accessible 24 hours a day through our devices and computers. Add all of that up with our extreme emphasis on “success” and “achievement” and you have an overworked, overstressed group of people with little to no time to exit the “work” mindset.
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(America: A Self-Portrait)
Cortisone is a steroid produced in our bodies that helps to fight inflammation, but is also part of the adrenaline-rushed fight-or-flight response associated with stress, and contributes to this heart disease epidemic. With cortisone levels lower than normal in the offspring observed in the research, could we be witnessing an evolution in the response to stress that saves our hearts from the strain experienced by previous generations?
Mental Health & Productivity
These findings are so recent we aren’t really sure of the implications on what type of people it will produce. The way I see it, there are two possible outcomes from a dampened response to stress, and they couldn’t be further from each other. The first is a superhuman who can handle any of the present-day stress you throw at them and more. They’ll take all of our jobs because they’re so much more productive and we’ll all have to learn to serve our anxiety-free overlords humbly.
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(Hopefully by now you’re getting that there’s an attempted element of humor in this)
The second outcome is one where this new breed of humans with dampened stress responses don’t feel as much of an obligation to their stressors, and instead opt for less stress overall. Instead of adapting to the issue and becoming better at handling it, we instead go the route of aversion. Is it possible this could be an evolutionary way of regulating the amount of self-imposed stress we create? Which way do you think we’re heading?
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(I feel you.)
Humanity as a Whole
As was said earlier, we’re just beginning to figure these transmissions out. Before these findings, it wasn’t thought that the father had any genetic contribution of this caliber to the brains of their offspring in the early stages of development. Now that we’re aware of the possibility, what other life experiences could we be transmitting to our children, directly affecting their development? Our desires, addictions, fears, etc. could be shaping the way our children will develop without us even realizing it. Would you live differently if you knew that your future kids were being directly shaped from your decisions before they were even born?
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(And now living on in your little manifestations of yourself.)