People who have experienced traumatic experiences in childhood, such as the death of a parent or violence, are at a higher risk of premature death. And those who lived in poverty as children are more likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease, research has shown.
Information on this subject is provided by the EurekAlert website.
According to the team of Dr. Janice Kiecolt-Glaser of Ohio State University, people who were severely abused or otherwise traumatized as children may live seven to 15 years shorter than those in the general population.
In turn, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh have shown that poverty experienced in childhood, especially in adolescence, increases stress and increases the risk of hardening of the arteries and cardiovascular disease in adulthood.
The researchers presented their findings at the 118th Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, recently held in San Diego.
Kiecolt-Glaser and her colleagues conducted a study of 132 healthy elderly people, 58 of whom looked after relatives with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia, and 74 did not have similar responsibilities. Previous work has shown that caring for a chronically ill loved one leads to chronic stress and negatively impacts physical and mental health.
All of them completed a questionnaire on depression symptoms, other medical conditions, and behaviors affecting their health. Questions were also asked about childhood abuse and neglect or other traumatic experiences, such as the death of a mother or father, serious marriage problems between parents, growing up in a home where someone suffered from a mental illness or alcohol addiction, and the lack of a close relationship with even one of them. adult.
It turned out that people who experienced physical, sexual or emotional abuse in childhood, or had a traumatic experience, had higher levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) in their blood, which is an indicator of inflammation in the body. A similar increase in the level of IL-6 was noted in those caring for a sick relative.
Caregivers who experienced violence as children had an additional increased level of another inflammatory marker – ie tumor necrosis factor TNF-alpha – compared to other caregivers or controls.
According to Dr. Kiecolt-Glaser, this means that the violence experienced in childhood may increase inflammation in the body associated with high stress, such as caring for a seriously ill relative. As the researcher recalled, persistent high levels of IL-6 and TNF-alpha have been linked to diseases such as heart disease, arthritis, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, cancer, and even Alzheimer’s disease.
In further tests, the researchers also observed that people who experienced two or more severe experiences as children had signs of faster cell aging. They found that their telomeres – that is, the ends of the chromosomes that protect valuable genetic material and that shorten with each cell division – were significantly shorter. On this basis, scientists have calculated that people whose childhood was extremely difficult may live seven to 15 years shorter than people in the general population.
As summarized by Dr. Kiecolt-Glaser, these studies confirm that childhood traumatic experiences increase susceptibility to stress and have long-term health consequences for life.
The second team of scientists led by Dr. Karen A. Matthews from the University of Pittsburgh showed in several studies that people who grew up in poor families already have thicker and stiffer arterial walls in their early youth, and even in their teenage years, which is related to with a higher risk of atherosclerosis. Teenagers from poor homes also have higher blood pressure than their peers.
In other studies, the same team found that children and adolescents raised in poverty not only have higher blood pressure and heart rates, but also higher levels of hostility, and react more stressed to various social situations, even those that are not associated with any risk.
According to Dr. Matthews, these results show that many conditions that are detected in middle age, such as heart disease, have their origins in childhood.
Children who have minimal protection from both family and society grow up in an unpredictable and stressful environment. This makes them more susceptible to the negative effects of difficult experiences. The only way to adapt is to develop excessive vigilance to face potential threats. But the result is that they interpret even events that are not as threats and stop trusting people. Then contacts with people become a source of stress, which increases agitation, raises blood pressure, intensifies inflammation and exhausts the body. All of this affects the risk of cardiovascular disease, the researcher concluded. (PAP)