Apples for Health- Emotions of parents-to-be may affect child

Emotions of parents-to-be may affect child

HUIXQUILUCAN, Mexico, May 18 (UPI) -- Hormones and chemicals resulting from happiness, depression and other mental states can affect a parent's eggs or sperm, researchers in Mexico suggest.

Dr. Alberto Halabe Bucay of Research Center Halabe and Darwich in Mexico suggests brain chemicals like endorphins alter germ cells -- the eggs and sperm that produce the next generation -- but drugs like marijuana and heroin may also affect the patterns of genes active in these cells and thus the child's development.

"It is well known, of course, that parental behavior affects children, and that the genes that a child gets from its parents help shape that child's character," Bucay says in a statement.

"My paper suggests a way that the parent's psychology before conception can actually affect the child's genes."

The paper suggests that the hormones and chemicals resulting from happiness, depression and other mental states can affect eggs and sperm, resulting in lasting changes in our children at the time of their conception.