How a breakthrough study called ACES is turning the page on trauma healing and changing lives around the globe!

The adverse childhood experiences study posits that unpleasant childhood experiences harm the later development of such children when they become adults. Recent studies reveal that experienced childhood trauma can lead to mental illness, depression, or chronic health problems like cancer, diabetes, heart problems, or even early death.

The term originated in 1995 when the Centers for Diseases Control and the Kaiser Permanente health care organization in California collected data from 17,000 patients on their child and adolescent history. The interest peaked when physicians interviewed participants who dropped out of a weight loss program. In an attempt to understand the woman`s resistance to the program, an alarming percentage of the woman reported early sexual abuse in their histories. This ground-breaking study founded an all-new awareness that childhood trauma and instability can lead to adult health problems and even toxic stress.

The ACE study shows that the higher number of unpleasant experiences of a child when growing up or as a teenager, the more likely they fall sick or even experience early death when they are adults. What the ACE study measures are called the ACE scores which is on a scale of 0–10; a score of 0 means that the person being evaluated did not have any adverse childhood experiences while a score of 10 means that this person had a lot of traumatic childhood experiences.

The higher the ACE score they are more likely to fall sick or experience trauma, toxic stress or even death quicker than others with little or no adverse experiences.

• Individuals who had faced 4 or more categories of ACEs were twice as likely to be diagnosed with cancer as individuals who hadn’t experienced childhood adversity.

• For each ACE Score, a woman had, her risk of being hospitalized with an autoimmune disease rose by 20 percent.

• Someone with an ACE score of 4 was 460 percent more likely to suffer from depression than someone with an ACE score of 0.

• An ACE score greater than or equal to 6 shortened an individual’s lifespan by almost 20 years.

WHAT ARE ACEs?

Adverse Childhood Experiences can be divided into 3 specific areas that try to capture the different bad experiences or mentally and physically damaging experiences that a child might have gone through. The ACES were identified during early childhood (0–3 years) Childhood (4–12) and adolescence (13–17 years). It has also been documented through other ACE studies, teenagers often received ACES outside of their homes; from bullying, peer exclusion and maltreatment by adults they were under the care of.

The focused areas from the 1995 study are:

 

• Neglect

This can be linked to children that do not receive physical attention while growing up or even emotional too. Neglect can be in the form of not having parents or other family members on the ground to help shape their lives or make certain decisions. It could also mean having a primary caregiver physically present but unable to emotionally connect to the child.

• Physical and Emotional Abuse

Children in this category experienced either physical abuse from parents and other family members or emotional abuse in the form of humiliation or raised to have low self-esteem. Some of the children in this category might have also been sexually abused, which has taken a toll on their phycology and mental health on the child.

• Household Dysfunction

Some children might have experienced family violence, incarceration of one or more family members, substance use or alcoholism by family members. Divorce, mental illness, and spousal battery were also documented to have an adverse effect on adult life.

Turning the page on how we understand trauma

 

This groundbreaking study has set in motion a movement across the world. Health professionals, specialists, coaches and educators have not only become passionate in understanding the realities these studies provide us; but have reinvented their practices because of it!

ACES change the architecture of our brains, and the health of our immune system. ACES impact the body and mind with inflammation and can be accredited to most or all health issues in chronic pain and degenerate disease that riddles our health care systems to this day!

These moments in time, often buried or forgotten predict our ability to respond to this world and writes the story for our future relationships with ourselves and others.

I believe the importance of this information is hands down one of the biggest discoveries of our modern ages. My own healing journey led me down a rabbit hole of twists and turns that landed me dead smack in the midst of this amazing research. With this new awareness, I have been able to understand my life of self-sabotage, toxic relationships and constant need for acceptance.

Today I have joined in this worldwide movement, using the ACES study as a foundational piece within my coaching programs designed to help women who suffer from trauma and toxic stress.

Neuropsychiatrists all over the world has been diving into their work on the mind-body connection to understand the biochemical processes that happen through the developmental years of someone who has experienced such stresses in their lives. Some of the labs uncovered the following significant changes within the mind and body.

The cleanup crew goes off duty

 

The decrease in the microglia of the brain causes inflammation. A child’s mind is like a disconnected computer that holds all wires and parts ready to be programmed by their caretakers and environments. As the child develops, their brains will connect in a way that reflects their environment for the best chances of survival. The microglia prunes and cleans up the connections helping the child’s brain to develop in an effective and organized manner. Research on the microglia has brought light to the misconception that the immune system is solely being found inside of the body. Microglia is in fact the immune system of the brain.

Children who experience ACES in their early years often struggle with controlling emotions, staying focused and decision-making skills.

The size of the brain will shrink

 

The area of the brain (called the hippocampus) is responsible for managing stress, memory and processing emotions. When chronic stress is a daily occurrence for a child they release a chemical inside of the body that literally shrinks the hippocampus in size. The frontal part of our brains that jumps online through later developmental years is also widely impacted.

The functions of our pre-frontal cortex bring us the ability to add logic and reason helping us in handling proper decision making and self-regulation.

Last but not least the area of the brain responsible for basic survival responses is also affected leaving these children unable to manage stress, prone to anxiety and often over-reacting in their adult lives.

Ahead of their time

 

Have you ever been surprised by how much older a child may look than they actually are? Research has shown that living inside of stress is literally like a reversed time machine. We have what is called (telomeres) on the ends of our DNA. These act like tiny plastic tips on the ends of our shoelaces, and we all know what happens to the shoelace once those plastic tips fall off. The shoelace starts to fray and shorten in length; just as our lives do.

Children with higher ACES showed more of a deterioration of their telomeres. Shorter lives, aged cells and disease becomes an end product from the breakdown of these tiny little DNA caps.

Stuck in survival

 

Our brains hold a very primitive function that allowed humans to get to where they are today. This portion of the brain combines thoughts and memories, deciding moment from moment what’s relevant or not. This automatic function gives us the ability to react quickly and be ready for anything thrown our way. Children who experience some form of trauma in their early years are shown to have less connectivity in this default mode thus leaving them with less control. Children who suffered from PTSD struggled in their adult lives to see the world as a friendly place. Often predicting the worst of themselves and others, sabotaged from things they wanted most out of life.

Its been no secret that women have been near twice as likely to suffer from emotional and mood disorders than men. Women also have a higher risk of issues related to anxiety and autoimmune dysfunction. The ACES study reflects these issues within its data.

HOW DO WE REDUCE THE EFFECTS OF ACEs?

 

It should be known people with ACEs are not irreparably damaged. They have had a rough experience, no doubt but this does not mean that they can’t be helped to live a healthier life. Ultimately ACES are a disruption of development within the nervous system. It is important to understand that trauma stored in the body cannot just be cured with most mainstream remedies in medication, talk therapy or positive thinking.

We need to also do our part as parents, caretakers, and educators of future generations to become ACE aware. One of the ACES studies showed how children who suffer from childhood adversity, even at the worst levels could be positively impacted by someone in their environment, by the time they reached 18 years of age.

With all the pressure and stress society places on parents, on top of the lack of jobs in a broken economy, it’s no wonder parent’s lack of attunement to their children is so inevitable.

One key thing to note here is this IS NOT about blame, or how badly parents screwed up their kids. The harsh reality is that those parents also have ACES and unhealed trauma they were taught to bury inside them so they can provide for their children.

We need to stop the stigma on mental health problems and addictions and start asking the question, “What happened to you?”, instead of “What’s wrong with you?”. Only in that depth of compassion we truly understand ourselves and raise our consciousness enough to begin to heal this world from its real pandemic of childhood adverse experiences.

Some of the things that can be done are:

1. Therapeutic Interventions

2. Trauma-informed care and practice.

3. ACE based on screening and referral to identify the root cause early enough.

If you have been feeling as if you are swimming against an invisible current. That for some reason nothing ever seems to go right, or that it seems like you sabotage the very things you want for your life. You may have experienced ACES yourself that have been burred inside of you dictating your every thought, feeling and choice you've made.

You are not crazy, broken, or undeserving of happiness.