A mother who smokes during pregnancy (currently 12 percent of American women) can cause asthma in her great grandchildren. This is one example of how adverse epigenetic changes can be passed on; there are many others.

There are various contributing factors to the current epidemic of asthma in American children. These include family stress, antibiotic use, lack of vitamin D and magnesium, and many others. Over the past decade several studies have linked asthma to a grandmother smoking, especially in the children of her daughter. This is because the egg that will become the grandchild already exists in the baby girl in her womb, and is directly exposed to the effects of smoking.

The new research expands on this and says that smoking during pregnancy alters gene presentation into an inflammatory type that may impact respiratory health for at least 3 generations.

I would like to point out that such adverse epigenetic changes that effect future generations are not limited to smoking mothers. Obesity, high stress, toxin exposure, street drugs, excess alcohol, many medical medications, and nutritional deficiency are other examples that can influence gene settings in adverse ways for future generations.

Parents have a high responsibility to be healthy themselves and give their children and grandchildren the best dealing of the genetic deck they can. In the United States we like to say that all are created equal – which definitely applies to the law and individual rights and definitely does not apply to health and human ability.