Environmental factors that affect genetics

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My current Newsweek has an article on how environmental factors can actually alter genes over multiple generations. Given how much debate there still is about the role of environment in AS, which most of us firmly believe to have a solid genetic foundation, I found the article really thought provoking. Can something have actually turned on or turned off specific genes in our kids? It can't be ruled out. I do worry that the theory may make some of the quack science we've heard in the last ten years sound a little less obviously quack, but I don't think that worry should keep us from giving it solid consideration. This is not an article about AS; it is an article about genetics, but that I read as having possible profound implications for the study of AS causes.

Title: Sins of the Grandfathers
Link: http://www.newsweek.com/2010/10/30/how- ... -eggs.html

Very interesting! Thank you very much for posting that.

I guess I am the lucky one, since my AS genes propagated without alternation to my son.

Oh no!! Now I not only have to worry about what MY stresses/ behaviours/eating habits did to my kid but also what my mothers, grandmothers, grandfathers and great grandmothers did. Darn!! !

Um, sorry, that isn't exactly the implication I wanted! But I do realize we, as parents and potential parents, are going to get that pressure. I mostly found it interesting from the perspective of the hunt; a new angle to look at when examining our family histories.

They had a documentary about this a few years ago called 'The ghosts in our genes' and it was as spooky as the title sounds!
Very interesting...
I wonder if in some ways it's better to have children at a young age rather than a late age, because if these gene changes happen over time from various events, then the later someone has kids, the more imprints and changes the person's eggs or sperm will have been subjected to by the time they have those kids.