Happy Parents = Happy Children?

Filed in archive Pre-Conception on May 23, 2009

© Phil Romans

Can happiness be hereditary? A new paper published in the journal Bioscience Hypotheses proposes the theory that it might.

In his article in the latest issue of Bioscience Hypotheses, Dr Alberto Halabe Bucay of Research Center Halabe and Darwich, Mexico, suggested that the hormones and chemicals resulting from happiness, depression and other mental states can affect our eggs and sperm, resulting in lasting changes in our children at the time of their conception.

Brain chemicals such as endorphins, and drugs, such as marijuana and heroin are known to have significant effects on sperm and eggs, altering the patterns of genes that are active in them.

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

The above is just a theory, with supporting scientific basis. I can imagine the question would be difficult to prove, though. How do you measure happiness? Is it just a sum total of hormones and chemicals circulating in our bloodstream? And if so, how much would these chemicals affect the egg and sperm quality, considering that, except perhaps for those that are clinically depressed or perennially suffering from other stress and other highly mental/emotional situations, the concentrations of these chemicals must fluctuate on a daily basis?

What do you think?