Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, during her TED MED talk presents the results of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study and the substantiated affects the study has brought forth on how childhood trauma can affect the quality of one’s health and length of a person’s lifespan. The San Francisco based pediatrician explains that the repeated stress of abuse, experience of neglect and living with parents struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues has real, tangible effects on the development of child’s brain. The ACE study concludes that those who’ve experienced chronic, and high levels of trauma are at triple the risk for heart disease, addictions and lung cancer. She gives an impassioned plea for clinicians to use the Adverse Childhood Experiences questions during the intact of all patients and confront the prevention and treatment of trauma, head-on.
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