The Hope in Epigenetics

Contemporary research shows that our genes are not our destiny. How we relate to ourselves, each other and the world, are profoundly effected by our epigenetics.

Have you been hearing this word, epigenetics? I had a sense I knew what it meant. I knew it had to do with genetics and what gets passed on from our family. But until I read My Grandmother's Hands, by Ressma Menakem, I didn't get it.

In Ressma's book, he drops the word maybe once or twice. And, like much of his book, I found myself so curious I had to find out more. I probably spent the next week listening to TED talks by various scientists talking about epigenetics. A few of the Ted talks referred to an experiment with Agouti mice. But the most helpful explanation about epigenetics that I've ever read or heard was offered in the book The Deepest Well by Nadine Burke Harris. Nadine offers a metaphor that really hit home with me.

Nadine Burke Harris invites us to imagine that the genetics which carry the DNA from our parents are like the notes on a sheet of music. They are the notation of the chords and the melody that will be played out in the body. Epigenetics, on the other hand are not the notes themselves. Rather, epigenetics are the notation above the musical score. That notation includes instructions like andante, which means play it fast. Or, lento which means play it slow. Other notation is staccato, which means to play each note individually accentuated. Some of that notation tells you to skip a certain part, or play it twice. In other words, the notation is a communication about how to express the music that is written in the notes.

When we apply this to epigenetics, it means they tell the body how to express its genetic inheritance. I am 5 feet tall. My paternal grandmother was 4'10". My maternal grandfather was 5'10". Did I get the small gene? Or is it possible that I got the taller gene but it is not expressed?

My mother did not want a third child when she got pregnant. (She was happy to have me once I was born.) She had two active boys ages 1.5 and 2.5 at the time I arrived on the scene. She was the only caretaker of the three children throughout most of the day and week. My mother shared with me that I spent a lot of time in a crib and that I got much of my nutrition from a bottle while she chased after two newly mobile, active boys. I suspect that the context into which I was born affected my epigenetics. It did not change the genes, but it did change how the genes were expressed.

I have always been a slow eater. I have challenges with my digestive system. I have struggled to find my voice. My nervous system becomes over activated in situations where people are moving fast and there are multiple environmental sound stimulus. I have had to avoid cities for much of my life. I have a good understanding of math computations, but the numbers do a dance in my head much like dyslexia. Letters do a similar dance leading to poor spelling grades (until the invention of spellcheck). Are these things that were genetically passed down to me, or is there something that's impeding my expression? I find what I understand regarding epigenetics exciting and hopeful. With the understanding that I am taking, epigenetics are amenable to change. We are learning more about neuroplasticity every day. Moreover, they can change within in the same generation. Perhaps, even from one moment to the next depending on what happens in that moment.

It is as if the genetic material is the rings in a tree trunk. On top of that trunk there is a tight wring of razor wire making sure that the tree's growth is limited. That wire is the epigenetic. If we find how to remove or, as this tree did, integrate that wire, the genes become available for expression in a completely unique way.

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I believe that bottom up approaches to wellness have the capacity to change a person’s epigenetics. (By “bottom up” I mean working through the body to reach the brain.) Some examples include somatic approaches, meditation, psilocybin, EMDR (and more). Through moving an impactful experience from being held in secret, shame, pain, and rigidity into an integrated context, a person can change their epigenetics. Furthermore, that person can then impact the epigenetics of their loved ones.

I find Hope in Epigenetics because I notice that I have the power to change something that is actually somewhat in my control. I have the power to digest and integrate my trauma and thereby release the expression of my genetic gifts.....

like this Madrone tree.