Poverty’s Genetic Impact
The connection between socioeconomic status and health has been well documented, but researchers say a new study provides insight into how bodies “remember” the experiences of poverty. A Northwestern University study recently published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology finds evidence that experiencing poverty can shape a person’s gene expression. The study suggests that lower socioeconomic status is associated with an epigenetic mark, DNA methylation (DNAm), that can potentially impact the expression of over 1,500 genes.