The Most Overlooked Risk Factor for Disease

How childhood trauma breaks our biochemistry and fuels disease

Traumatic events during childhood can change a person’s stress response in ways that lead to a lifetime of pain and illness. fizkes/Shutterstock

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are the most overlooked risk factor for chronic and autoimmune disease. ACEs are unresolved childhood trauma, which can be physical, mental, or emotional, such as:

• Parents separating or divorcing
• Physical, sexual, or emotional abuse
• Mental illness in the family
• Incarceration of a family member
• Substance abuse by a family member
• Financial difficulties
• Bullied in school
• Childhood illness that required hospitalization

Numerous scientific studies have concluded that ACEs are associated with increased risk for chronic and autoimmune disease. In women, the correlation between ACEs and developing an autoimmune disease in adulthood is as strongly linked as smoking and cancer. Furthermore, the more ACEs you have, the higher your risk of disease.

For example, a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2009, involving 15,300 men and women, concluded that if you have two or more ACEs: