Heather Forkey likes to talk about tigers; Nadine Burke Harris favors a bear analogy. Either one provides a dramatic and readily understandable way for these two pediatricians to make a point: When our ancestors encountered a wild animal in the jungle, and their bodies started pumping out adrenaline, it had a benefit. It helped them run faster.
But if tigers or bears are making regular appearances in your home or your community, and your children are always on the lookout, the fear and the adrenaline never stop. And that, Burke Harris and Forkey say, is what happens when children are exposed regularly to violence, neglect or abuse. The constant stress becomes toxic stress that can interfere with the development of children’s brains and profoundly impact their behavior, their ability to learn and their future health.
The long-term health impact of toxic stress was first documented in a groundbreaking study led by researchers at Kaiser Permanente and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Adverse Childhood Experiences study was conducted in the 1990s among more than 17,000 adults enrolled in Kaiser’s health system in San Diego. It found that two-thirds of the Kaiser members had at least one adverse experience, or ACE, such as abuse or neglect, parental mental illness or parental separation. One in eight had four or more. It also found that the more ACEs a person had experienced as a child, the more likely they were as an adult to have serious health problems like heart disease, diabetes or cancer.
[For more of this story, written by Rob Waters, go to http://www.forbes.com/sites/ro...address-kids-trauma/]
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