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Adverse Childhood Experiences Effects on Later Life Examined

Children subjected to repeated trauma are significantly more likely to have high levels of chronic disease. That’s according to research findings presented to the Joint Commission on Health Care, which also looked at the effects of trauma on the young brain. The findings could result in a paradigm shift toward early diagnosis and treatment.

“Adverse Childhood Experiences” include deprivation, abuse, feeling unloved, witnessing violence, and other traumas.  Dr. Allison Jackson said they disrupt neurological development-as seen in a photo of a neglected child’s brain.

“The reason that those slits are much darker is because those neurons have died. The toxic stress has been so high that it’s died.  So that’s why now I have an overactive limbic system and my decision-making skills, my ability to manage my health, my ability to engage in healthy relationships-all these predictors of health, I’m less likely to access.”

She said this system constantly warns of threats and interferes with other thinking.

“You are not sure what is a threat and what is not. And now I can’t access problem-solving, I can’t access focus, I can’t access empathy, which are my bigger barriers to having healthy coping.  And so what I do is I adopt negative coping behaviors.”

The children are 200 percent more likely to be obese, 350 percent more likely to be depressed, and 1100 percent more likely to use IV drugs.  They’re also more likely to have COPD, heart and liver disease, and commit violence.  But there’s evidence that early intervention with “trauma-informed” care significantly reduces ALL of those outcomes.

According to Jackson, the Centers for Disease Control says “Adverse Childhood Experiences” are THE most basic public health issues in the U.S. today.

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