Thrive in the Future by Understanding the ACE Study

The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study scientifically validates something many physicians, including me, have experienced. The environment that you are raised in can have a significant impact on your health and habits for a long, long time. The ACE study comprehensively documents the long-term affects of abuse and household dysfunction, linking it to health risks and even death. You are not your past. You are not your genes. But certain health outcomes are tied to certain risk factors. This is actually great news! While you can’t change your genes or your past, you CAN make changes in your life today that reduce or even eliminate those risk factors… And then, you can even take it up a notch and flourish!

In 1998, Dr. Vincent Felitti, the head researcher on the ACE study, published his findings in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine¹. This huge study was conducted with more than 17,000 participants, all middle-class and middle-aged, by the Kaiser Permanente Health Care Center in San Diego. What he found was that adverse childhood experiences were vastly more common than was previously recognized or acknowledged.

In fact, slightly more than half of the participants had grown up in a) dysfunctional homes, with missing or alcoholic (or drug using) parents, or with a depressed or mentally ill person, b) had suffered sexual, physical, or emotional abuse, or c) a experienced a combination of “a” and “b.”

Adverse childhood events often lead to adult shame and illness. Back in the early 1980s, I realized that every case of severe PMS I saw was in a woman who had come from an alcoholic home or was currently residing in one. Many others with chronic pelvic pain had been sexually abused. This sort of information was what prompted me to write Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom in the first place. My original work was based on my observations in a small town in Maine. The ACE study shows that women’s experiences are the same the world over. Click here to continue reading this month's blog.

You Can Heal Your Life

You Can Heal Your Life by Louise L. Hay is hands down one of my favorite books. I’m not the only one. This New York Times bestseller has sold over 30 million copies worldwide. Louise’s key message in this powerful work is: “If you are willing to do the mental work, almost anything can be healed.” Louise explains how limiting beliefs and ideas are often the cause of illness, and how you can change your thinking—and improve the quality of your life! Packed with powerful information and beautiful affirmations, you'll love this gem of a book.