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Childhood adversity and cardio-metabolic health in later life

Childhood is the world of miracle; it is wonderful part of life. However, it is also true that when we are old and failing it is the memories of the childhood that are responsible somehow. Now, it is well-established fact that kind of experiences in childhood and adolescence are associated with quality of health over the later course of life.
Childhood and adolescent adversity is a broad term that includes physical or emotional neglect or abuse, sexual abuse, household dysfunction, community violence, homelessness. Peer bullying, poverty, discrimination, or death of family or friends.
Various researches have established that people with the history of childhood adversity are at increased risk of developing cardio metabolic diseases, including cardiovascular disease mortality and numerous cardiovascular disease outcomes. Several factors affect the childhood adversity such as sex, socio-economic status, race, and ethnicity. Numerous studies have suggested a dose-response relationship between childhood adversity and cardio metabolic outcomes, which means more severe adversity results in more severe adverse cardio-metabolic outcomes.
The suggested mechanism behind this includes behavioral, mental health, and biological factors. For example, a poor mental health can affect appetite and sleep, which in turn affect overall health. Similarly, behavioral factors include inactivity, lack of exercise, poor diet, overeating, smoking etc., while mental health include development of post-traumatic stress disorder or mood and anxiety disorders which lead to poor cardiac health. In addition, the medication used to treat these disorder cause severe side effects. Biological factors include stress-induced disturbance of neuroendocrine, immune, metabolic, and autonomic responses. More research in future can help in developing effective interventions and identifying methods to screen individuals and populations for such interventions.
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