Questions about smoking, seat belts or regular exercise are routine at a doctor's office, thanks to the overwhelming data showing that the lives we lead influence our overall health. But one insidious yet common risk factor is rarely addressed: living with trauma.

From childhood abuse to poverty and racism, this threat takes many forms. As studies increasingly show, all have a staggering impact on a person's health.

When Edward Machtinger, MD, director of UCSF's Women's HIV Program, analyzed a decade of data from the program about whypatients died, he found that only 16 percent of patients succumbed to HIV/AIDS infections. Nearly 84 percent of the deaths, however, were the result of trauma such as physical abuse, neglect, substance abuse or depression that resulted in suicide.

"We're providing extremely good care to women with HIV in terms of helping them achieve low levels of virus in their bodies," says Machtinger. "But half of our patients reported being depressed, and almost none were completely out about their HIV status, which meant that they didn't have a strong support system."

[For more of this story, written by Jyoti Madhusoodanan, go to http://medicalxpress.com/news/...4-trauma-health.html]