Does the trauma of life which is passed down in a sperm affect the mental health of future generations?  The new research shows that children of people who have experienced extremely traumatic events are more likely to develop mental health issues.  New research shows this is because experiencing trauma leads to changes in the sperm.  These changes can cause man’s children to develop bipolar disorder and are so strong they can even influence the man’s grandchildren.  Researchers at the University of Zurich now think they have come one step closer to understanding how the effects of trauma can be passed down the generations.  However, they are only just beginning to understand how this happens.  

  They discovered that traumatic stress alters the amount of several micro-‘s in the blood, brain, and sperm – while some micro-‘s were produced in excess, others were lower than in the corresponding tissues or cells of control animals.  After traumatic experiences, the mice behaved markedly differently – they partly lost their natural aversion to open spaces and bright light and showed symptoms of depression.  The researchers were able to demonstrate for the first time that traumatic experiences affect metabolism in the long-term and that these changes are hereditary.  However, certain questions still remain open and requires further study such as, “how the deregulation in short RNA’s comes about.

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