Astrology and Epigenetics

I like to look for wisdom in unconventional places. In this practice I find that many of the ancient ideas that today are looked down upon for their seemingly silly explanations of reality are telling to the wisdom and observational wit of ancient man. We exist in a dynamic and ever changing world filled with stimuli that are not perceived at a conscious level. No one can know the moment that a cell inside their body becomes cancerous but that moment may come and will pass, triggered by some outside force. These influencing forces are around us in all shapes and forms molding our cell’s environment. The cell is a computer that takes environmental stimuli and produces an output fitting to the situation. When we eat, the cells in our body produce a concerted effort to change their behavior to uptake nutrients, grow and repair. When we exercise our cells change their metabolism to deal with the environmental stress that comes from increased glucose consumption and decreased oxygen levels. Everything effects everything.

Thinking about the influence of the environment and the role that this can have on our bodies provokes an interesting thought. What effect does the place that we are living influence our development and the person we will become? We can be born on the north or south side of the planet, near or far from the equator, high or low elevation and with varying degrees of temperature and humidity. We can be born into poverty, affluence or somewhere in between (1). All of these factors influence the way that our cells will react to the environment along with the genes that are turned on or off. Our diet and the diet of our parents are another environmental factor that influences our gene expression and can’t be overlooked.
Our genetic makeup is only part of who we will become, there are maternal factors, histone modifications as well as epigenetic traits that will effect our development. Epigenetic inheritance comes from the patterns of modified DNA that lead to gene activation or gene silencing. These epigenetic marks are made in response to environmental stimuli and will determine the expression of our genes. The environment that we are exposed to as adults will cause epigenetic changes that occur to regulate the needs of cells to their environment. The interesting part of epigenetics comes from the developmental standpoint in which the environment of our parents and grandparents shapes our genes prior to our conception. Your mother and your father contribute the genetic material necessary to create you along with the epigenetic marks that they have acquired. Since sperm have a high turnover and are continually produced, the epigenetic modifications of the father are coming from the environment of the adult, whereas the epigenetic changes on the egg occurred long ago during the mother’s development in utero. These epigenetic changes were influenced by the environment of your grandmother during pregnancy.
And now for some conjecture.

Long before there was the science of epigenetics, humans were cataloging the movement of the planets and the stars and their relationship to the seasons. The movement of Saturn and Jupiter in relationship to Earth have huge impacts on our planet’s temperature and seasonal variation. These changes in temperature lead to differences in precipitation and ultimately a change in food supply. Astrology’s predictive power was probably much better before the invention of refrigeration, fast travel or the ability of humans to trade from the north to south equator or vice versa. When a person is conceived, the culmination of the genotypes of the parents are mixed along with their epigenetic traits that were influenced by the environment of their region. If a population were to settle into a particular area for centuries there would be many constants that could produce repeatably observable phenomena brought about by environmental influence. The astute could take notice that individuals born in spring under the sign of Aires possess a particular disposition compared to those born in the winter as Capricorns. These observations could lead people to believe that the time of year and the position of the planets and stars was leading to the behaviours of individuals and they would be partially correct!

How would this work exactly?

Epigenetics come from the marks on DNA made using methyl (-CH3) donors. The availability of methyl donors being dependent on dietary input. The availability of vitamin B-12 and folate are extremely important in providing the source for the methyl groups put onto DNA. Abundance of available methyl donors would vary depending on seasonal variation and the availability of food sources that provide them. Individuals that were conceived during times of plenty would have more access to these methyl donors and would have altered patterns of methylation in comparison to individuals that have a lower access. The same idea could be applied to a number of environmental factors that could contribute to behaviour. Genes regulated by vitamin D would be altered for those conceived in darker months. The regulation at the epigenetic level would coincide with the prenatal nutrition available depending on the season. The availability of carbohydrates would alter the embryo’s sensitivity to insulin and lack of food or other stress would cause increases in circulating cortisol that has been shown to lead to increased levels of inflammation (2) and may lead to increased levels of anxiety in children attributed to altered methylation patterns (3) .
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While astrology is considered pseudoscience and is certainly incorrect in its understanding of the universe, it could have very well been drawing to some approximations of human behaviour that are influenced by the environment. We are products of our environment and our genes. The environment of our past as well as our present. Our bodies are molded by our experiences as well as our ancestors experiences. And while we may not be able to tell whats going to happen tomorrow based on the movement of the planets and stars, we know that there are unseen forces acting upon us all the time.

1. Stringhini, S. et al. Life-course socioeconomic status and DNA methylation of genes regulating inflammation. Int J Epidemiol (2015). doi:10.1093/ije/dyv060
2. Braithwaite, E. C., Kundakovic, M., Ramchandani, P. G., Murphy, S. E. & Champagne, F. A. Maternal prenatal depressive symptoms predict infant NR3C1 1F and BDNF IV DNA methylation. Epigenetics 0 (2015). doi:10.1080/15592294.2015.1039221
3.Hompes, T. et al. Investigating the influence of maternal cortisol and emotional state during pregnancy on the DNA methylation status of the glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1) promoter region in cord blood. J Psychiatr Res 47, 880–891 (2013).