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About Illinois Valley news. (Cave City, Oregon) 1937-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 2018)
Page A-10 Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, November 21, 2018 Healthy U News: Adverse Childhood Experiences It is logical, when a person shows signs of dysfunction, for people to assume that something bad happened in their childhood. It wasn’t until recently, however, that enough people were studied to see if that’s really the case. A total of 17,337 adults whose health was insured by Kaiser Permanente were surveyed for signs of a connection between traumatic childhood experiences and later health problems. The Center of Disease Control (CDC), the federal government’s health agency, participated in the project with Kaiser. They asked people to report on physical, sexual or emotional abuse before age 18. For example, was there substance abuse, violence, mental illness, poverty or had a parent been in prison. And they asked if the subject had lost a parent through death, abandonment or divorce. Participants in the study were scored on how many of the above adverse experiences they had experienced. These were the findings: by Nicole Rensenbrink - Almost 40 percent reported more than one of these adverse experiences. 12.5 percent reported four or more. - The number of negative childhood experiences had a strong relationship to the number of social problems in adulthood, including smoking, alcohol and drug abuse and promiscuity. - Negative health problems included depression, heart disease, cancer, chronic lung disease, severe obesity and shortened life span. - Compared to an adult who had none of the adverse childhood situations listed, an adult who had listed at least four of them had a 700 percent increase risk of alcoholism, twice the risk of cancer, and four times the risk of emphysema. Adults with six of the adverse situations in childhood were 3,000 percent more likely to risk suicide. Childhood is when we set the stage for how we view life, the types of people we are comfortable around, and the kinds of choices we make. But that’s not all. Adverse childhood experiences change brain chemistry by setting off fear, anxiety and anger, which trigger our stress hormones. These hormones cause us to run or fight, crucial reactions of the primitive world. Stress hormones can cause our blood vessels to constrict, shut down our digestive systems or the muscles of our necks, shoulders and backs, dilate our bronchial tubes and increase our heart rates. And, when we spend a lot of time in states of flight or fight, we aren’t spending it using reason. Rather, we have anxiety, depression, hopelessness, lack of concentration, or desperate needs to be in control. But, not all is grim. There are measures to take to counteract negative childhood experiences and today our society provides many of them. Calming practices like mindfulness, meditation, aerobic exercise and yoga are a few that help the brain to heal. Healthy eating keeps our bodies in balance. Secure relationships also help stabilize us. And, finally, we can stimulate our brains with productive and interesting experiences that make feel competent and optimistic. FREE T uRkEy D innER F oR E vERyonE ! Thursday Nov. 22, 2 To 5 p.m. I.V. Grange 3763 Holland Loop 541-659-3781 or 541-415-1819 Change of plans? We’ve got you covered. Find a Medicare plan at ModaMedicare.com Health plans in Alaska provided by Moda Health Plan, Inc. 42420227 (09/18) **Reminder** The Illinois Valley News does not publish the first Wednesday in January. NO PAPER JAN. 2, 2019! (Photo courtesy of Tabatha Siemer for the Illinois Valley News) October Students of the Month! Back Row: Mr. Polen (left), Cadin Beach (7th), Mathew Ellis (6th), Mada- lyn Berklich (8th), Savannah Courville (7th), Christina Courville (6th) Front Row: Elijah Lumen (5th) and Kiara Walker (5th).
