By Mary Wilde, Yahoo Lifestyle, March 18, 2020
Despite four years of medical school, three years of residency and over a decade in practice, I was never taught the profound connection between high childhood stress and increased risk of chronic disease. It was at a community event sponsored by our local school district that I first learned it, as I watched the documentary entitled, “Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope.” Suddenly, the medical education I had been accumulating over years and years took a leap in an hour. I felt all at once grateful for the new awareness, yet stunned and also troubled by the deep public health implications.
adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) study, initially published over 20 years ago (but still holding utmost pertinence), which showed people who experienced abuse, neglect, abandonment, poverty and other major stressors in childhood went on to have a hugely increased risk of physical and emotional health problems, including obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, depression, anxiety and addiction. The statistics are staggering, but yet supportive of our intuitive observations all along: high stress is bad for our health. Research has shown chronic stress can suppress the immune system, change blood flow, alter metabolism, increase inflammation and even change how genes are expressed. I knew about all that. But somehow, even as a pediatrician, I didn’t realize it started so young." data-reactid="24" style="margin: 0.8em 0px 0px;" type="text">The documentary told about the adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) study, initially published over 20 years ago (but still holding utmost pertinence), which showed people who experienced abuse, neglect, abandonment, poverty and other major stressors in childhood went on to have a hugely increased risk of physical and emotional health problems, including obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, depression, anxiety and addiction. The statistics are staggering, but yet supportive of our intuitive observations all along: high stress is bad for our health. Research has shown chronic stress can suppress the immune system, change blood flow, alter metabolism, increase inflammation and even change how genes are expressed. I knew about all that. But somehow, even as a pediatrician, I didn’t realize it started so young.
adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) study, initially published over 20 years ago (but still holding utmost pertinence), which showed people who experienced abuse, neglect, abandonment, poverty and other major stressors in childhood went on to have a hugely increased risk of physical and emotional health problems, including obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, depression, anxiety and addiction. The statistics are staggering, but yet supportive of our intuitive observations all along: high stress is bad for our health. Research has shown chronic stress can suppress the immune system, change blood flow, alter metabolism, increase inflammation and even change how genes are expressed. I knew about all that. But somehow, even as a pediatrician, I didn’t realize it started so young." data-reactid="24" style="margin: 0.8em 0px 0px;" type="text">Featured in the “Resilience” documentary as an early pioneer in the “trauma-informed care” movement, pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris noticed a huge disparity in health between the patients from her inner city clinic and those from other neighborhoods across town. Kids experiencing high stress and trauma tended to fall off the growth charts. Their underlying chronic conditions, like asthma, tended to be more severe or difficult to manage. The children from unstable environments carried a disproportionate number of behavioral health diagnoses like anxiety, depression and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Dr. Burke Harris had a patient population with such a high number of traumatized kids that the bodily manifestations of extreme stress became an evident pattern. It led Dr. Burke Harris to do research of her own and to connect with others making parallel discoveries. She tells of it in her book, “The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity.”
adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) study, initially published over 20 years ago (but still holding utmost pertinence), which showed people who experienced abuse, neglect, abandonment, poverty and other major stressors in childhood went on to have a hugely increased risk of physical and emotional health problems, including obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, depression, anxiety and addiction. The statistics are staggering, but yet supportive of our intuitive observations all along: high stress is bad for our health. Research has shown chronic stress can suppress the immune system, change blood flow, alter metabolism, increase inflammation and even change how genes are expressed. I knew about all that. But somehow, even as a pediatrician, I didn’t realize it started so young." data-reactid="24" style="margin: 0.8em 0px 0px;" type="text">[Please click here to read more.]
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