Can You Inherit Stress From Your Parents?

WATCH: Can You Inherit Stress?

A recent study from the University of Pennsylvania used 60 years of data on the snowshoe hare to identify stress as a major factor in the wildly varying numbers from generation to generation. Freaked-out hare females with high levels of stress hormones give birth to smaller litters, with smaller babies who also possess high stress hormone levels, and subsequent generations then decline in numbers.

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