Dear Nichole:

This post will be a quote from Wikipedia‘s entry on Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE Study). The concept of ACEs is very relevant to your life experience (and to mine). I will not elaborate on the relevance in this post, but will do so tomorrow (change of my plan: there will be four posts total):

“The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE Study) is a research study conducted by .. Kaiser Permanente and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention… The study has demonstrated an association of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) with health and social problems across the lifespan… the ACE study found that

(1) Adverse childhood experiences are common. For example, 28% of study participants reported physical abuse and 21% reported sexual abuse. Many also reported experiencing divorce or parental separation, or having a parent with a mental and/or substance use disorder.

(2) Adverse childhood experiences often occur together. Almost 40% of the original sample reported two or more ACEs and 12.5% experienced four or more. Because ACEs occur in clusters, many subsequent studies have examined the cumulative effects of ACEs rather than the individual effects of each.

(c).. a person’s cumulative ACEs score has a strong, graded relationship to numerous health, social and behavioral problems throughout their lifespan.. many problems related to ACEs tend to comorbid, or co-occurring… The number of ACEs was strongly associated with adulthood high-risk health behaviors such as smoking, alcohol and drug abuse, promiscuity, and severe obesity, and correlated with ill-health including depression, heart disease, cancer, chronic lung disease and shortened lifespan…

“Compared to an ACE score of zero, having four adverse childhood experiences was associated with seven-fold (700%) increase in alcoholism, a doubling risk of being diagnosed with cancer, and a four-fold increase in emphysema; an ACE score above six was associated with a 30-fold (3000%) increase in attempted suicide.

“The ACE study’s results suggest that maltreatment and household dysfunction in childhood contribute to health problems decades later. These include chronic diseases- such as heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes- that are the most common causes of death and disability in the United States… The study was initially published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine…

“Cognitive and neuroscience researchers have examined possible mechanisms that might explain the negative consequences of adverse childhood experiences on adult health. Adverse childhood experiences can alter the structural development of neural networks and  the biochemistry of neuroendocrine systems and may have long-term effects on the body, including speeding up the processes of diseases and aging and compromising immune systems… the wear and tear on the body and brain that result from being ‘stressed out’.”

anita

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