I recently had lunch with one of my favorite people and she told me about a TED talk titled “How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime,” available on YouTube. I’m not sure I’ve ever watched a TED talk before; I generally prefer to read information. But after our lunch, I asked her to send me the link so I could watch it. The doctor presenting delves into how exposure to adversity affects the developing brains of children, and her colleague’s discovery of a study on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).
In the study conducted, they found “that 67% of population had at least 1 ACE, and 12.6% (1 in 8) had 4 or more”. They also noticed a correlation between ACEs and several common medical conditions, regardless of whether people engaged in behavior that’s commonly believed to cause some of those diseases. There’s science that I won’t even try to explain – that’s why the TED talk is presented by a doctor, not an IT person.
A couple weeks later, I stumbled onto a similar discussion on Twitter, including a link to this ACE quiz. By both accounts, this is something doctors should be taking into account as they diagnose and treat patients.
My primary thought beyond the effect these experiences have on people in my age group is that, knowing this, it’s now the responsibility of the older generations to do everything possible to reduce the ACE scores of the next generations. We have an obligation to make the world a better place for our descendants.