Epigenetics, the Environment, and Children??Health Across Lifespans

???This handbook is a resource for evidence-based science with respect to recent discoveries in the growing field of epigenetics and children’s health. Epigenetics involves environmental stressors (e.g. poor nutrition, trauma, stress, exposure to pesticides, exposure to radiation) that chemically alter/label DNA regulatory regions in the germline, thereby allowing transmission across generations in a non-Mendelian fashion and impacting health across the lifespan.? There is an extensive literature on methylation of DNA caused by environmental and stress factors, building on several decades of research into childhood lead and mercury exposure on health outcomes, and maternal exposures leading to birth defects. Much of the work of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) is devoted to environmental chemical impacts on human genetics and health. This book summarizes the state of the science in epigenetics, and is written for public health practitioners, maternal and child health researchers, and environmental health experts internationally.

David Hollar, PhD, MS is an Associate Professor of Health Administration at Pfeiffer University. He received his PhD in Curriculum and Teaching from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he was awarded the graduate school’s Outstanding Dissertation Award. He has B.S. and M.S. degrees in Biology. He successfully completed postdoctoral research in community health at the NIDRR-funded Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Substance Abuse and Employment at Wright State University. He also has a Graduate Certificate in Public Health Entrepreneurship. His specialties include multivariate statistics, structural equation models, mathematical models, disability policy, and decision-making. He has numerous peer-reviewed publications on health risk factors, allostatic load, behavioral genetics, and disability policy. He edited and coauthored the Handbook of Children with Special Health Care Needs, published by Springer in 2012. He has served on the editorial board of the Maternal and Child Health Journal since 2005. He has been a member of the American Public Health Association since 2002, and he is a member of the American Association on Health and Disability. With his wife and daughter, he believes in serving God through servant leadership in the community with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.