Stressful factors in childhood can greatly increase the risk of adult illness and premature mortality.
Nearly 40 percent of Americans had one or more childhood experiences that negatively affected their adult health, according to the results of a recent poll commissioned by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Doctor Jeff Kaczorowski is a Pediatrician and the President of the Children’s Agenda. He explains many chronic conditions later in life have their roots in childhood toxic stress.
"They are heart disease, liver disease, mental health issues, substance abuse. These are the drivers of cost in the health care system, with their origins (unbelievably) in early childhood."
The doctor says physicians should consider childhood trauma in the same way they consider issues of parental abuse, addiction, and neglect.
"We should be asking these questions of our patients, particularly we should be asking these questions in pediatrics, and trying to prevent and intervene to make better the effects of the adverse experiences in childhood."
According to Kaczorowski, childhood poverty remains one of the largest risk factors.