By Nada Atieh, Redding Record Searchlight, August 4, 2020
When Kaiser Permanente and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched the study to measure Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) levels in Shasta County in 2012, the results they found were striking.
The ACE study examined categories of childhood physical and emotional abuse and neglect. It measured household dysfunction — including domestic violence, mental illness and substance abuse — that create toxic stress leading to neuro-system changes during child development.
The higher the ACE score a child has, the higher the risk of developing chronic illnesses like heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), depression and cancer.
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