Many of us in the healing arts know that trauma suffered while a child, like beatings and molestation can have ramifications down the road. What this study done by researchers at King’s College in London shows is a real definitive link between childhood trauma and adult diseases like heart disease.

What these researchers found was people who were physically or sexually abused, or physically rejected by their mothers at a young age had significantly higher levels of the inflammatory marker C-reactive protein in their blood. What Dr. Andrea Danese said was “Inflammation is a natural response to physical trauma such as cutting yourself or getting an infection, but psychological stress can also trigger inflammation, because stress is really the anticipation of pain.” What constant stress seems to do is inhibit a child’s ability to produce the hormone glucocorticoid which helps the body turn off the inflammatory response.

As Andrew Steptoe noted about the study: “They have elegantly connected childhood stress to a real adult risk of disease.”