Negative childhood experiences make chronic inflammation in adulthood more likely.
Syrian refugee children. Getty Images.
How much of our childhood experiences affect our long-term health? That’s a question a group of Northwestern University researchers, led by Thom McDade, PhD., attempted to answer recently. Turns out, certain negative experiences can permanently alter your DNA. These results of this study were published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Scientists gathered genetic and epigenetic information from around 500 people in the Philippines. McDade and colleagues say they collected a “lifetime of information,” according to the report. Previous research found that mistreatment during childhood might lead to chronic inflammation in adulthood. But this study went one step farther, identifying actual epigenetic mechanisms behind it.
What they found is, growing up in highly stressful situations can lead to low-level, chronic inflammation inside the body, which has been implicated in a number of diseases associated with aging, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer, among the topmost killers worldwide. Negative experiences in childhood makes chronic inflammation far more likely in adulthood.
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NOTE: The reverse has not been proved, nor should it be. Inflammation in adulthood has many causes which have nothing to do with a negative childhood.
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