Adults who experienced childhood stress such as child abuse, domestic violence and financial hardship are 50 per cent at risk of developing heart disease and hypertension, physicians have said.
The experts, who disclosed this during exclusive interviews with PUNCH Healthwise, cautioned that the level of stress the children are subjected to in their early life determines the extent of damage and complications they may surfer in future.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, childhood stress is a common feeling that affects children as much as adults when they feel under pressure, overwhelmed and unable to cope.
UNICEF stated that many factors are responsible for stress in children including negative situations at home, violence in schools, abuse of all kinds, stating that most children experience stress when they cannot cope with threatening, difficult or painful situations.
One of the experts, a Consultant Cardiologist at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Dr Akinsanya Olusegun-Joseph, told our correspondent that there were different forms of stress in childhood that could predispose to cardiovascular diseases in the future.
Olusegun-Joseph explained, “Several studies have shown that those abused in one form or the other during their growing up days are 40 per cent more likely to develop cardiovascular disease than those who didn’t have any form of emotional abuse during their childhood.
“Denial, physical abuse, psychological, emotional and sexual abuse are the sources of stress to these children and this exposes them to release of unpleasant stress hormones which affects their health.
“For instance, physical, emotional and sexual abuse can cause depression and serious mental health condition. The release of these chemicals may lead to inflammation, which eventually results in cardiovascular diseases, while others may become hypertensive.”
The cardiologist pointed out that studies had shown that those that were abused were likely to embrace unhealthy lifestyles, indulging in recreational drugs and smoking which will predispose them to serious inflammation, heart diseases and kidney problems.
On why impact of childhood stress manifests in adulthood, he added, “It’s not waiting. The template is set and has started building. But most illnesses show up later in life. In the case of clinical inflammation, it would have started by the time the child was going through the stress.
“Emotional and physical stress among others in children are responses to abuse they suffer. When you talk about stress, it doesn’t come innocently. There are triggers to it. When a child comes back from school and you ask her to go and hawk wares on the street, it’s a stress and abuse yet no physical beating.
“This affects the child’s psyche. It’s not until the child is beaten. Stress is not a one off thing; it’s a prolonged abuse. So, when a child goes through such stress, it increases the stress hormone, the cortisol which elevates the blood pressure and leads to hypertension.
“Cortisol is a steroid that increases your blood sugar and cholesterol. This predisposes you to Ischemic heart diseases. It can lead to enlargement of the heart, heart attack and other cardiovascular challenges.
“You can see how innocent stress can bring about diseases in the body. Children should be protected, nurtured and their home conducive and not destroy them.”
Also, a Consultant Paediatrician at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Dr Sylvia Echendu, said exposure to trauma and other adverse experiences during childhood increases lifelong risk for CVD and death.
Echendu said that children, who experienced severe adversity such as verbal, physical or emotional abuse or living with drug or alcohol abusers, are 50 per cent more likely to develop CVD later in life than those with low exposure to childhood trauma.
She said, “Those with even moderate exposure are 60 per cent more likely to die from any cause by middle adulthood. This suggests that perceived stress patterns over time have a far-reaching effect on various cardiometabolic measures including fat distribution, vascular health and obesity.
“Childhood adversities affect cardiometabolic health across the life course, and interventions that improve early exposures may be more appropriate than interventions for cardiovascular disease risk factor effects later in life. Childhood stress is a risk factor for cardio metabolic health conditions.”
A study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, titled, ‘Environment With 30‐Year Cardiovascular Disease Incidence and Mortality in Middle Age,’ affirmed that childhood hardship had been associated with poorer cardiovascular disease outcomes in adulthood.
