Memories can be inherited.

Have you ever experienced déjà vu? Or dreams that felt like real memories?
Grandmother depressed, mother depressed, daughter depressed? Even though only the grandmother went through a truly difficult time (post-war years, oppression of women, etc.), the mother actually had a better life in the 1970s and 1980s (emancipation), and the daughter seemingly has no real reason for depressive moods? The same applies to men. A well-known footballer once took his own life, and people wondered why. He played for the national team, had status, material wealth, friends, fans, a girlfriend, prospects… there was seemingly no reason. So where did the depression come from?

It is then said that “depression is hereditary”. That is not an incorrect statement.
It has been discovered that experiences (for example trauma such as the death of one’s own child, survival struggles such as wars and famine, grief and much more) can “write themselves” into the genome.

This topic falls under the concept of epigenetics. A so-called “baseline emotional state” is therefore passed on.

Fortunately, this does not necessarily have to be inherited.
There are traits that are inherited only from the father (paternal), just as there are traits that come only from the mother (maternal) and are not directly related to the base sequence. Disturbances of this balance can lead to severe illnesses. Over the course of life, human beings accumulate experiences; these result in certain behavioural patterns that manifest in the genome — and are passed on.

Anyone who knows about themselves that they are, for example, prone to depression should work actively and intensively on becoming happier, because this baseline information could, with a high degree of probability, be passed on to their children. Perhaps this is the reason why people who tend towards depression instinctively seek out a “naturally cheerful” partner — in order to neutralise this genetically.

If negative experiences are stored in the genome and thus passed on, are positive memories and experiences also passed on? It can be assumed that the body does not absorb only negative influences while discarding the positive ones. Ultimately, this means that we as human beings programme ourselves and can actively intervene in evolution. We can actively influence humanity — and thus the future. This includes work–life balance, social values and morals, healthy nutrition (which also helps prevent depression — and nutrition can influence the formation of the genome; see the example of bees later in the text), and, very importantly: physical activity. By doing so, we change the code for future generations. We can also influence the happiness of our children, so that their code changes for their own children. Through education and awareness, we are on a good path in industrialised countries — but politics must also play its part.

I found an interesting text online:
https://www.planet-wissen.de/natur_technik/forschungszweige/epigenetik/

“Trauma leaves scars on the genome”

Human relationships also have a lasting impact on the epigenome — and thus on life and health. For example, an infant who receives too little love and security is said not only to develop attachment problems, but also to show biologically measurable disruptions in the stress hormone system.

“Trauma does not only leave scars on the soul, but also scars on the genetic material,” explains depression researcher Florian Holsboer, illustrating epigenetic markings. If these scars are also present in the genetic material of germ cells, they can even be passed on to the next generation, as epigeneticists have discovered.

Epigenetic markings can be inherited

An example of epigenetic memory is that of pregnant Dutch women during the Hunger Winter of 1944/45. That these women gave birth to underweight babies seems plausible. But what emerged later was striking: their children were significantly more likely to suffer from depression, obesity or schizophrenia, and developed age-related diseases such as heart problems or diabetes unusually early. Eventually, another finding came to light: these affected women, in turn, gave birth to relatively small children themselves — even though they had conceived them during times of food abundance and far fewer hardships. The genetic material of the grandchildren therefore also contained information about the living conditions of their grandparents.

Green tea and royal jelly activate beneficial genes

Evidence that nutrition can influence changes in the genome:

Epigenetics opens up many black boxes. It has long been known that green tea is so beneficial to health that it improves cancer statistics in Japan. Why this is the case, however, could only be explained through epigenetics. When unfermented tea leaves are brewed, a substance with the complex name epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) is released. This substance reactivates a gene that provides the blueprint for a cancer-fighting compound. Especially in older people, this gene is often methylated and therefore silenced — meaning the anti-cancer effect of this gene would otherwise be lost. Green tea acts like a peeling for the gene sequence.

Bees also provide a striking example of how profoundly nutrition alone can have epigenetic effects: those fed a honey–pollen mixture become sterile worker bees, while those that are given royal jelly become queens. Scientists have now discovered why this happens. The honey–pollen mixture causes genes responsible for bee development to become heavily methylated and thus switched off. By contrast, royal jelly contains up to five per cent of a fatty acid that can epigenetically reactivate genes that have been silenced.