The Genesis Zone with Dr Brian Brown

Are Stress-Responses Generational?

March 31, 2022 Dr. Brian Brown Season 2 Episode 69
The Genesis Zone with Dr Brian Brown
Are Stress-Responses Generational?
Show Notes Transcript

 đź’ŁHAVE YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW EVER DEALT WITH ANXIETY symptoms… PANIC symptoms… or OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE symptoms? IN TODAY’S EPISODE… we’re going to be exploring what is causing this anxiety and stress... and whether it's generational.

✨Highlights
âś…   Positive and potential negative effects of cannabis on stress
âś…   What questions researchers are not asking 
âś…   The effects of stress during pregnancy
âś…   Long term effects of a sedentary / digital lifestyle
âś…   Generational effects of stress during pregnancy
âś…   Genes involved with stress 

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 ITZ_EP69_Are Stress-Responses Generational

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

anxiety, stress, gene, stress responses, dopamine, study, glutamate,  adrenaline, epigenetic, cannabis, boot camp, pregnancy, common knowledge, research, epigenetics 

 

00:00

The mission is simple to help high achievers naturally eliminate emotional and physical obstacles so they can optimize their life for higher achievement. Welcome, you just entered the Genesis zone.

 

00:14

This is Dr. Brian Brown. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us on this beautiful Thursday. Have you or someone you known, ever dealt with anxiety symptoms? That includes panic disorders or panic symptoms, obsessive, obsessive compulsive symptoms, or post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms? In today's episode, we're going to be talking about what is causing this anxiety and stress. And whether it's generational or not.

 

00:48

It's hard to talk about the generational impact of stress or anxiety without talking about pregnancy. This first study that I'm going to share with you today talks about the incidence of anxiety issues and offspring of mothers who've used cannabis in the past or who used cannabis during pregnancy. Now, it's pretty common anecdotal perception among cannabis users that cannabis actually decreases anxiety.

 

01:24

And population studies even validate this thinking among cannabis users. But what does the research actually show? Well, the research actually shows that cannabis may actually help with anxiety in the short term, but it can also lead to a rebound effect of worsening anxiety.

 

01:49

Thus, the need to go back and use more frequently. Now with that in mind, let's look at cannabis use among mothers, as was pointed out in this study, and how it affects their offspring, researchers from Mount Sinai Medical School published their findings with the National Academy of Sciences. And this was a long-term study where they followed children through their developmental years who were born to mothers who used cannabis during pregnancy, 

 

they found that mothers who use cannabis during pregnancy, were more likely to have children who struggled with poor stress responses, anxiety disorders, agitation, aggression, and hyperactivity. 

 

This is really interesting. And here's what the study didn't answer. And I feel like there are three important questions that should have been asked of the study that were not answered in this study. 

1.       Number one: What was the epigenetic makeup of these mothers? Do we know epigenetically, where they stood in their ability to manage stress, or their propensity for anxiety disorders in the first place? The study didn't bring that out. And my hunch is they didn't even look at it. I think in future studies, we're going to have to start looking at these epigenetic links in order to start drawing some more dare I say, logical conclusions, or more detailed conclusions about this? It's just smarter science to epigenetically profile people, when we're talking about these types of outcomes.

2.       The second question is this. Where are these mothers subjected to stress or trauma during pregnancy? Research shows that women who are subjected to stress or traumatic issues have offspring who have aberrant stress responses. It's just common knowledge. And the research community, obviously was so common that it got included as a question here. But it should have been part of the prescreening, like what was their stress during pregnancy? And did they have any trauma history during pregnancy? 

3.       The third question is this. Did the mothers have any preexisting psychiatric conditions? I mean, it's a really important question to ask. And I think we have to ask the same thing of fathers. The study did not bring out the same questions for fathers. What was the epigenetic makeup of the fathers? Were the fathers subjected to stress or trauma during pregnancy? Because again, if a father is subjected to stress or trauma at the time that they helped conceive that child, then there's  also evidence that that does affect the offspring.Did the fathers have any preexisting psychiatric conditions that could have been passed down genetically to their offspring? 

 

We just don't know. 

 

In a minute, you'll see why I'm concerned with these questions, as I'm going to kind of tease through that. So, while it's easy to conclude that A+B = C, or a mother that uses cannabis during pregnancy gives birth to an offspring that has anxiety, agitation, irritability, and hyperactivity, there's still a lot of questions that we don't have answers to. So, I don't put much stock in this study. Yeah, they did it. The information’s out there, unfortunately, it's gonna get used in the wrong way. 

 

I think there are other reasons not to use cannabis during pregnancy, because there are over 170 chemical constituents in cannabis that we just really don't know the biochemical activity of much less than the human body and adult human body, but we don't know the biochemical activity in a developing baby. So that's, that's the reason I say stay away from it. But there's still a lot of unanswered questions and being able to draw a correlation they tried to draw in the study. 

 

So, while we're on the subject of stress during pregnancy, it goes without saying that global stress has been reported to be at an all-time high over the past couple of years. With the pandemic looming large and now we've got talks and rumors of war, also looming large in the minds of nearly everywhere, everyone. 

 

So, this next study brings to light some important data during the pandemic. Screentime and sitting time, or seated time drastically increased, everybody knows that. In fact, you know, there's hardly anybody you can talk to that didn't  struggle at some point with saying, oh, I've gained the pandemic 20, like the freshmen 20 when you go to college, but it was from being very sedentary. 

 

Unfortunately, sedentary life, extra screentime did not bode well, for our mental health overall. Researchers at the University of Dublin found that:

 

Mental health outcomes actually declined significantly the more exposure a person had to screen time; and the more exposure that person had, being sedentary, and sitting. In fact, it negatively impacted young adults and women more than any other group to the point that they had higher rates of depression, and they had higher rates of anxiety. 

 

This study brings to light some important issues, pandemic or no pandemic, we are becoming a more digital society. And it's common knowledge that, as such, we are sitting more, we're not moving as much. And we have to be more purposeful and mindful about that. You know, it's common knowledge that exercise, moving your body on a regular basis, is essential to good mental health outcomes, such as improving mood, lowering anxiety, and improving your responses to stress.

 

08:17

Now, so far, we have a few really good causes for anxiety and poor stress responses. 

-Number one is cannabis use during pregnancy, which still has a lot of unanswered questions. 

-Number two is too much screentime. 

-Number three is a sedentary lifestyle. 

 

But now I want to circle back to the generational question. I think it's really important here. I have discussed on this show, how research actually has proven especially among male mice and mouse models, when these male mice are subjected to stress at the time that they help conceive a litter with their mate, these male mice will pass along stress signatures in their DNA to their offspring. 

 

Now, another crazy thing about this is this generational effect happens for up to seven generations. Now, here's another study that is as it relates to mothers and motherhood stress. Researchers have discovered that mother round worms and I know that's  crazy, but round worms when they're subjected to stress, it also causes that same stress response behavior, as well as other biological changes to pass along to their offspring. And this can be passed down for four generations. So, with male mice models, stress responses being passed down for seven generations and female roundworm models, we have the stress response being passed down for four generations.

 

It sounds familiar, right? I mean, we're seeing these two different types of animals in the animal kingdom, they're able to pass down the stress responses for multiple generations. So, my question is, is your father or your mother? Or because we look at it, generationally, your grandfather or your grandmother from three to six generations ago? Are they the ones to blame for your anxiety and stress response issues? Better yet? Is the stress, trauma, anxiety or emotional pain that those ancestors experienced? Is that to blame for the anxiety and wicked stress responses that you have today? Well, if you believe the research is highly possible, now I know that you may be thinking,

 

11:01

oh, you know, we aren't mice, and we certainly aren't roundworms. And this is true, but it leads me to the next thought, being a curious person automatically default to ask: Why is this phenomenon happening in the animal kingdom anyway? Why are we passing stress responses down from one generation to the next? I think the answer is blatantly that generational epigenetic alterations are the culprit. 

 

And the answer to why this is happening is simple. It's a survival thing. We as animals, passed down an alteration in the epigenetic code, so that the next generation innately knows to be more cautious, to be more careful, to be on alert more, and therefore, that next generation has a higher likelihood of surviving, to bring forth the next generation. The unfortunate baggage of this is that we as humans don't have to, we don't have to run from saber toothed Tigers anymore. 

 

Now, what does that mean in this day and age? If one generation is, on average, 25 years, according to  epidemiologists, then we're talking about 175 years, if we're looking seven generations out. So that's 175 years’ worth of epigenetic information that is being passed down. So, within your body, you could potentially have 175 years or more worth of epigenetic information related to stress. Now, with this in mind, knowing that stress has been at an all-time high, the past couple of years, what have we done to ourselves and our offspring and their offspring and their offspring and their offspring? And so on down the line? 

 

I think because stress has been at an all-time high, unprecedented, have it in our, in our common knowledge of history. Right now, this is totally different. And in current recorded a modern-day history, to be under this amount of stress. What are we doing to our genetics, that we're passing down to the next generation? And I think that's a bold question that we have to ask, and what can we do about it? I do have some answers for that. And I'll give you that in just a second. 

 

So where can the breakdown be occurring? Well, there are actually two places that I believe it happens because I see it clinically, because I work with epigenetics. 

 

I think number one is the COMT gene, and the GAD1 gene. Let's talk about the COMT first, COMT itself stands for catechol-O-Methyltransferase. You don't need to get caught up in that. Please don't do that. It's not important, but it's just easier to say COMT right? 

 

So, COMT is actually an enzyme in the body that's very active in certain organ systems such as the brain, the adrenal glands, the liver, the kidneys, the lungs and the intestines. So why something with such a complex name so important. Well, the COMT gene, which controls the activity of the COMT enzyme plays a critical role in the breakdown of dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine. In other words, it controls the breakdown of dopamine and adrenaline. Now, it does this by donating a methyl group. This thing named catechol o methyltransferase, it transfers methyl, donating a methyl group to help break down dopamine and adrenaline. And there's a complex process I won't go into that involves. S-adenosylmethionine and so on so forth. We won't get off into all the all the biochemistry of it all. But just know that the COMT gene is responsible for donating a methyl group to help break down dopamine and adrenaline. 

 

Why is this important? Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that's involved in mood. And adrenaline is a chemical that's involved in your fight or flight response. Dopamine being created and generated in neurons in the brain, and adrenaline being created by your adrenal glands that sit on top of your kidneys. When the COMT gene is working properly, either by its own programming, or you have really good methylation, or you have a combination of both, it leads to higher levels of the COMT enzyme. And this means that it's easier to break down dopamine, and adrenaline, which is a good place to be. 

 

So, when you're able to break down your dopamine and adrenaline properly, this means that the neurotransmitter dopamine and the fight or flight chemical adrenaline aren't as available as much for use. If there's a breakdown in the methylation process, or the COMT gene is not functioning properly, meaning it's under active, then there's a buildup of dopamine and adrenaline, which will lead to anxiety and feeling the physical symptoms of stress more frequently than other people do. 

 

You want a scenario where you're able to break down dopamine and adrenaline. If you ever get into that scenario, genetically, where you can't break down dopamine and adrenaline, that's when you start dealing with anxiety and stress responses. We don't have any up-to-date, current research in the last few years. But allegedly, researchers tell us that approximately 10% of the population have this COMT gene variant, where they don't break down dopamine and norepinephrine. 

 

17:30

I have to add to this that there haven't been enough large studies where epigenetics had been checked on people that actually validate this finding. These are extrapolated data, meaning they took very small groups of people. And they just said, oh, well, it's about 10%, here is about 8%. Here is about 12%. Here, it averages out to about 10% in a few small studies so, it's just 10% of the population. In my clinical experience, I actually see it more frequently than 10% of the time. I don't know if it's the population I work with, or it's just that way in general. But I see the COMT gene variant being an issue quite commonly among the people that I work with. 

 

I'd also add that since poor methylation is another contributor to the functioning of the COMT gene. The problem still exists with poor breakdown of dopamine and adrenaline. So, we not only have to look at COMT we have to look at COMT plus methylation. So, it's a combined effect. You can have good  COMT gene activity. But if you got poor methylation, the COMT is not going to function like it should it's not going to donate the methyl group like it should, because there just won't be a methyl group there. 

 

That biochemical process, I said we're not going into, it's a downstream effect. If we're not methylating, we're not making the chemicals that COMT needs in order to be able to donate that methyl group, and it's just a cascade effect. So, you got to check the whole scenario in order to understand what's going on. 

 

Next up is GAD1, the GAD1 gene is responsible for the breakdown of glutamate. Glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter in the front part of the brain. And you need glutamate because it allows you to feel emotion, it allows you to get excited about things. It allows you to be alert and attentive and things like that. However, if you don't break down glutamate, and glutamate builds up too high, guess what? You have anxiety and you have poor stress responses. The offset to that as a chemical called GABA, so it works in a see-saw fashion. So, glutamate is too high: your GABA levels are low, and GABA is that neurotransmitter that's very calming. So, you've got this one neurotransmitter glutamate, which is very excitatory it actually increases your anxiety and you got one that's GABA that's kind of puts the brakes on the system and brings you down, it's more calming.

 

20:00

That's  why research shows that Melatonin is a very good choice to decrease anxiety. Obviously, you're going to want to give melatonin at night. I've got some clinical reasons why it could be used during the day, but I don't recommend it publicly, it's on a case-by-case basis, and it's on an emergency basis. But melatonin used at night will bring down glutamate levels, and it will raise GABA levels. And that's what you want to do. So, it will help control anxiety, just a little insider secret there.

 

20:36

So if you're struggling with anxiety issues, and not quite sure what's going on, or you're a bio hacker, and you simply want to take your biohacking journey to the next level, to the highest level possible, maybe it's time to learn about how epigenetic profiling could be the answer for you.

 

I've created a five-day boot camp called the Gene Hack Boot Camp. And by the end of the five days, you'll have a keen understanding of exactly where you need to focus your efforts in your wellness journey. And in your health recovery. You'll learn about the exact genes you need to have tested in order to address any hang ups that you may have. And you'll learn some of my favorite genetic modifying natural treatments like melatonin,

 

21:28

Also, you can begin to feel better and feel fully optimized and ultimately, so you can live life the way you want to live life. It's  that simple.

 

21:42

So right now, we are running a promotional special, and the boot camp is FREE. You know, I've said this for several weeks now, I can't promise how long it's going to be that way. You know, maybe we're going to keep it that way forever. We're testing it right now. But there's going to come a day that we're going to test it actually at an investment. We're not sure what that is. But right now, it's free. And you can take advantage of this deal and enroll in the boot camp for free by going to https://drbriangbrown.com/genehack/bootcamp

You can see it right there on my screen right now. And there you'll be able to register and take the first step to getting the answers that you deserve.

 

22:26

So that's all I've got for today. Tune in next Thursday at noon eastern standard time for our next in the zone segment, where I'll be sharing the latest research and my insights about that research as it relates to optimizing your genes, optimizing your physical and emotional wellness journey and biohacking yourself, your body your mind optimally, most informed, most trusted and most grateful you spent this time with us today. Until next time, stay in the zone. I'm Dr. Brian Brown.