I picked up a copy of the "Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) Questionnaire: Finding your ACE Score" handout when Chris and Cheryl Young of Behavioral Health and Wellness in Grand Junction (Colorado, USA) were displaying a poster at last week's Integrated Care Council of Mesa County mixer and presentation.
The presentation was very well done, there were five experts on integrative care, the first four of which were the most important piece in the 'puzzle', being the consumer/patient/client. All were clearly a bit nervous and honored to be asked to speak and "be part of the process" of educating health providers. The fifth and final was a physician researcher who presented an hour-long talk in the remaining 40 minutes, which accommodated the previous speakers' time and allowed for an on-time ending. However, ALL in the room stuck around when given the option to go overtime to give him a full hour and question/answer/discussion.
The 'keynote' was an administrator from CU Medical Center in Denver, where many of our continuing medical education presenters are employed. He credited Grand Junction with being the foremost place in the US on the progressive and upcoming 'integrated care' that will become more a part of primary care in the United States in the future, it appears. This is a good thing. Dr Mark Hyman, MD, one of the leading, popularized MDs in the world today, has stated that functional medicine will replace allopathic medicine by around 2025 he projected. Based on his connections, from what I've been able to observe, he's likely an 'insider' with 'the scoop'.
Just as seeing a 20 year old being "on track" to become a potential future leader in our country some day, I was relieved and pleased to see the MD's from 'the systems at hand', so to speak, 'getting it' and professing it related to the current system and what would work much better in the future. Suffice it to say there are MANY in the top ranks who 'get it', the system is just needing to catch up with them, and as he pointed out, we all need to give up our weekends and our evenings more often than we would otherwise to 'make this thing happen.' An excellent resource (as of their adding in late 2013, I am adding/editing this topic 5/7/14) is the CDC, suprisingly. They have the questionnaires easy-to-find, and much supportive material, so I encourage a trip to see the site... www.cdc.gov/ace/index.htm [1] .
I first learned of ACE in the fall of 2007, when the Youngs' collaborated on presenting to a group of people who had an interest in fibromyalgia; Dr Young and I had collaborated earlier that year to form an educational group related to fibromyalgia. I'm pleased to see they now have a poster display and handouts to be 'on the sidelines' at events, which clearly 'reminds' us of their strong belief that treatment for childhood adversity is a key to changing health and health care for children and adults and the future adults of our country. Naturally, prevention is ideal, early intervention is preferred, and in reality, much of the work of recovering from such events is dealt with throughout adulthood, by those inclined to learn and grow. I hope this piece is a starting point for any and many who find it.
The ACE Questionnaire provided with the Young's display had been obtained from a website showing in the upper right hand corner as www.theannainstitute.org [2]. I encourage you to take a look at the website and find the ACE questionnaire. Anna was born the same year I was, 1960, and died in 1992.
In 1992, I took the final steps to 'undo' the mis-steps I had made in my young adulthood after spending quite a lot of my free time from 1989 'unraveling' my history; my health and teetered all through my 20s and in 1989, it 'crashed' into chronic illness in the form of a disabling case of chronic fatigue syndrome. I count my blessings that my 'nature and nurture' in this life have eventually lead me through a recovery of my health, allowing me to complete a degree in occupational therapy. While my health issues returned in the form of fibromyalgia while I was in OT school and that has affected my work in some ways since, all things combined lead me to developing Lumigrate. I knew when I saw the Youngs' presentation in 2007 that many more people wanted to be present in the room than were able to attend, and I felt developing a health education website would have been the next logical step for me professionally.
I got to thinking that exactly fifteen ago, I was starting my internship at the Denver VA's psychiatric unit, after completing a challenging internship in physical disabilities there. I'd worked in many different facets of therapy since -- skilled nursing, hospital, outpatient, home health, and driving rehabilitation, and appreciated after the 'learning curve was over', how each environment and system provided a LOT of learning -- often times in management and business operations which had both positive and negatives. Once you're out of such situations, you learn as much from the negatives as you do the positives, really. Much of the time I felt there was a 'mismatch' of my values and ethics, and how to treat patients.
So when I became the occupational therapist in the medical building which the Young's practice is in, we seemed to gravitate toward something familiar to me -- "collaborating" to discuss mutual patients so we can provide the most effective treatment. Dr Young's history included military medicine, and we all benefitted from our taking time out that we couldn't bill for, in order to have the best care for our patients.
It therefore is really interesting to see how we've each gone about working 'our corner' of the integrative health world and still have a place to collaborate today. I consult related to the occupation of health care and function, including my work bringing others to Lumigrate to write and provide content. Dr Young and Cheryl Young have continued to forge a pathway in their building for advancing 'integrative care'.
We might all take a moment to ponder the present and future and our efforts with the benefit of looking at the past with Anna, who had been institutionalized for mental health issues which were never resolved and she suicided in 1992; The Anna Institute's website is not very fancy looking but it has a LOT of VERY GOOD information, including breaking down the cost of her health care. I've written elsewhere at Lumigrate about the cost of my health care over the years and my belief that IF supplementation of nutrition and hormones in a biologically identical way were included, when appropriate, in insurance reimbursement, it would be a cost-effective way to increase people's wellness.
Recently, I was asked by someone I was meeting with for an in-person consultation, about mental health issues, specifically bipolar disorder. This was with people who are basically 100% in the 'conventional' boat in terms of medicine, eating, etc. My response was to start with the concept of nutrition and the brain; there was a study recently reported upon in a weekly news magazine where high school staff was educated to pick up on the early signs of schizophrenia in young people and the identified students were put into different groups. The group which received nutritional intervention with family-based cognitive-behavioral therapy to change the stressors coming from the family had a MUCH lower incidence of becoming schizophrenic! This 'synches up' with a study related to bipolar disorder and fish oil which demonstrates similar results for people taking fish oil with people who take only the pharmaceutical medications typically provided by conventional medicine in the US. (See Links, below, for a resource about the brain and nutrition to support this paragraph.) And you'll find much 'nay-saying' about these isolated studies; I suggest people learn to look at who has to gain from such things and go from there in forming YOU opinions, as I have.
In the same room where last week I was educated by an MD from CU Med Center, I'd previously attended a seminar from another CU Med Center doctor related to bipolar disorder in primary care. I asked about the fish oil study and the presenter responded that it was a ridiculous amount of fish that would need to be consumed -- clearly he was not in favor of that study but I was pleased to hear that he knew of it and was respectful of my question in the way he responded. I'm more pleased to offer the LINK, below, related to nutrition and the brain because they bring that information CURRENT -- unfortunately the man I'd heard speak had clearly not been impressed enough to stay current on the developments involved since that first initial study related to fatty acids and the wellness of the brain/mind.
I hope that any 'Annas' out there today are getting better nutritional strategies with "foods first and supplementation second" than what Anna of 1960-1992 likely had available to her. I hope that ALL people out there will open their ears, eyes and MINDS and learn if they have any type of interest in conditions that affects the mind of the mind/body/spirit 'whole person'.
I hope that each person who has the interest in reading this piece is seeing the common theme of body, mind, spirit being INTEGRATED and inseparable. No matter where you and your loved ones are on the wellness/illness continuum, there is so much to acknowledge and embrace related to the WHOLE of what connects people within their own bodies. The Anna Institute has MANY good pieces, so I encourage you to look at their website.
It has been well-documented that childhood traumatic stress translates into long-term health effects related to substance abuse, mental illness, sexually transmitted diseases, suicide attempts, and ischemic heart disease. I'd been looking with Cheryl and Dr Chris Young's assistance this past winter at ACE information related to fibromyalgia specifically, since there are so many users at Lumigrate who have this specific concern and condition. I'll provide the link below to one of our first Lumigrate podcasts from winter 2009, with Dr Young and I talking about our history in Grand Junction and introducing the ACE information. We have a GRATE and fun time in the podcasting studio and they're really easy to listen to while doing something else on your computer on with a portable electronic gadget.
I was looking for anything at The Anna Institute website related to fibromyalgia and saw nothing specific to that, but was THRILLED to see something close, and unique compared to the other studies I'd found so far about ACE: "Cumulative Childhood Stress and Autoimmune Diseases in Adults" -- and I've supplied the link to that, below. Again, please go and read other pieces they have at their site, and follow other links they provide as I believe this is a core concept to wellness worthy of quite a lot of study.
Overview of Paper: Objective: To examine whether childhood traumatic stress increased the risk of developing autoimmune diseases as an adult.
Method overview: 15,357 adult HMO members enrolled in the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study from 1995 to 1997 in San Diego, California and eligible for follow-up through 2005 were studied. ACEs included childhood physical, emotional or sexual abuse, witnessing domenstic violence, growing up with household substance abuse, mental illness, parental separation or divorce, and/or incarcerated household member. The total number of ACEs were used to determine cumulative childhood stress, with an ACE score range of 0-8. They then selected 21 autoimmune diseases and 4 immunopathology groupings from hospitalization data for those in the study group.
Conclusion: Childhood traumatic stress increased the likelihood of hospitalization with a diagnosed autoimmune disease decades into childhood. These findings are consistent with recent biological studies on the impact of early life stress on subsequent inflammatory responses.
Highlights I found in the eight page paper: Conservative estimates show that about 80% of people with autoimmune disease (AD) are women because the basic immune response differs between men and women. Higher antibody production to respond to infection, immunizations or trauma occur in women, whereas inflammation is usually more severe in men. These sex differences in AD are also likely linked to sex-specific differences in glucocorticoid levels in females, whereas testosterone decreases glucocorticoid levels in males.
On the first page of this paper (page 243, Psychosomatic Medicine 71:243-250 (2009)), "there have been few studies that examine the contribution of childhood traumatic stress to the risk of developing an AD. A recent study by Danes and colleagues examined the association between childhood trauma and C-reactive protein (CRP), a biomarker of inflammation that may play a role in AD (36,37 referenced at back of paper). After controlling for current stress, they reported that childhood maltreatment was associated with elevated CRP levels in adults 20 years later, suggesting that childhood maltreatment independently increases inflammation later in life (36)."
In the 'Discussion' section on page 247, I find this the most 'highlightable" to bring to share through this piece:
"as the number of ACEs increased, the linkilihood of hospitalizations with Th1, Th2, Th2-rheumatic, and any of 21 types of AD also increased. Moreover, the relationship between the ACE Score and AD hospitalizations was stronger among younger adults. To our knowledge, this study is the first to demonstrate a relationship between multiple types of childhood adversity on hospitalizations for AD during adulthood.
Research on nervous, indocrine, and immune interactions has revealed that these systems are anatomically and functionally interconnected (11-13). Stressors, such as infections, toxins, and/or psychological trauma, stimulate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis to release corticoid-releasing hormone (CRH), resulting in elevated systemic levels of corticosteroids, such as glucocorticoids. Acute stress initially may increase inflammation through acute-phase mediators like IL-1, IL-6 and CRP that are eventually downregulated by glucocorticoids, thereby maintaining homeostasis (46), Chronic stress has the opposite effect and decreases glucocorticoid levels. A recent epidemiologic study confirmed the link between childhood abuse and long-term changes in immune response (36); in this longitudinal study, childhood abuse was associated with elevated CRP levels, white blood cell counts, and other markers of inflammation 20 years later (36)......
These findings and the present study suggest that childhood stressful events may increase ADs independently as well as amplify the effect of other environmental factors, such as infections. Thus, a possible explanation for the increased prevalence of ADs in females is that females respond to similar stressful events differently than males due to sex differences in their physiology and neurobiology (i.e., greater TH2 and glococorticoid levels that are further amplifed by stress)(13,50).
In addition, physiological and anatomical changes in the brains of individuals who have experienced childhood abuse have been documented. .....
This repeated "dosing" of the developing central nervous system by repeated "dosing" of the developing central nervous system by adrenal catecholamines and corticosteroids may contribute to centeral nervous system- and endocrine-mediated differences in immune function that result in an increased risk for AD.
....
{The final paragraph before the wonderful References section states:}
This is the first study to find an association between early childhood stressors and the development of AD decades later. Our epidemiological findings, coupled with the documented immunopathology of AD, provide preliminary evidence of the relationship between early childhood stress with the human physiological and immunological response, which may also contribute to and expand on the theory of developmental origins of adult disease and health (59). Because childhood adverse events are common and ADs are chronic and often debilitating, expansion of research in this area may further elucidate the impact of stress on adult chronic disorders such as ADs.
For those who are reading at Lumigrate related to an interest in 'fibromyalgia' and chronic fatigue syndrome or other related issues, I'd like to close by stating that in 1989 when I had my first 'bout' of extreme fatigue, I was referred by my primary care provider not to rheumatology or neurology, but to an ENT in Fort Collins, Colorado (ear, nose and throat specialist). My physician happened to know of their collaborative connection to the Denver-based National Jewish Hospital, who were and are focused on breathing and immunological issues.
Until recently, people with fibromyalgia were typically referred to rheumatologists because much of what was seen with fibromyalgia was similar to what rheumatologists specialized in. But was it really an autoimmune system dysfunction? It appeared to be more neurological/brain based, so then people were routed to neurologists.
This was the case for me, and in 1995 my neurologist shrugged her shoulders after $10,000 in MRIs then the necessary lumbar puncture to see if there was myelin in the CSF (cerebral spinal fluid). More waiting for results, anxiously, naturally. Finally seeing her for the results where she said 'I don't know what it is, it's not MS', and I had to take it from there. I asked if foods could be the culprit, that was just what was seeming a likely thing based on my family history and what the first provider I'd gone to had said (a Traditional Chinese Medicine provider thought wheat, in the quantities I was eating, was the problem, and I'd done as she said about reducing and had no changes. That is because I needed to totally eliminate it in order to get the immune response to get 'put out', the inflammation was so chronic because of daily consuming even smaller amounts of wheat.
Today more providers would know that, such as the TCM provider, I would hope; the year was 1994/5. In 2012 I had the MD from Lumigrate of that era, Marc Spurlock, MD, look at the results from the lab of that invasive diagnostic test done long ago. In seconds he ticked an item and said 'that's in indicator, we know now if we're the kind of doctors in the know about these conditions and the causes of symptoms, of virus.' (Paraphrasing). We're ALL learning, and it's a 360, give and take, round and round. I learn things from a layperson that is something I think a provider doesn't yet know and wonder what their take on it is, so I'll connect them to the information or source. And vice versa.
I found great relief with having progressive food allergy testing and advising done. This is what 'functional medicine' such as I bring to Lumigrate does, it keeps us "peeling the onion", so to speak, finding the underlying reason and changing things, not simply providing medication prescriptions. With fibromyalgia, and other similar disorders, it appears that the causes and therapeutic treatments can vary from one patient to another. This clearly was creating more gaps for people to get 'the runaround' in, and was frustrating providers and consumers alike!
The You model on Lumigrate's home page, our 'foundational concept', was inspired by my conversation with a Grand Junction rheumatologist's drawing out on paper over lunch, his concept for what people with fibromyalgia needed, which was a rotation among many disciplines. But there wasn't any mechanism for communicating about the patient -- collaborating. And mental / behavioral 'head shrinking', so to speak, was definitely a major provider group he included.
What he said to me was 'it's not really an autoimmune disorder, so I can't really address a lot of what they need, if the come to me once a year or as needed is good ... but what they DO need is (this, that and the other)." One of the components was psychology/ mental health / behavioral health, as I just mentioned, and the other was PT/OT/ST (as well as other specialists for neurology, endocrinology -- keep in mind this is an allopathic, insurance-based provider in 2005 saying this to me, which I relate here to YOUsers.)
Two years later, almost to the day, I talked with Chris Young when we were meeting about how to have an educational forum for our building's patients and providers (and the community at large) and we ended up with what I've used since the beginning of Lumigrate as our cornerstone concept of "The You Model" at Lumigrate.
This is what was eventually provided by a talented graphics artist in Oklahoma who I'd reconnected with in early 2009 via Facebook, Greg Mann lived a mile down the road from me in the mountains outside Denver, Colorado. His father was a celebrated aerospace engineer (he was in Time Magazine, for instance), mine a retired USAF officer and international pricing coordinator for Gates Rubber Company. Facebook has been an integral and important part of not only how Lumigrate developed with experts I'd find, but the YOUsers / seekers of information learning about SO MUCH and becoming very different consumers than we had in the general public sector back when the YOU model was being discussed and our first ACE presentation provided.
I hope that you have found this piece of interest and will let others know of it being here at Lumigrate.com; your providers, your family, your friends who might have some sort of trauma history or chronic illness. I hope that if you know someone who has a risk for developing chronic illness or it's worsening, you'll share this with them as well, as it's so much easier to keep someone 'well' than it is to bring them back from chronic illness to chronic wellness.
Our bodies strive to have their original state of wellness, and in theory, "ideally", all is reversible if completely addressed on all facets of the mind/body/spirit body we call 'human being'. I realize that 'ideal' and 'reality' are very different things; each person has their own reality in which to operate. I see over and over again that people who have limited financial means will throw up their hands and not try anything, rather than saying 'what can I do' and doing the things they CAN. Often there are ways to eat cheaper and better, with education and changing strategies, and simply drinking filtered tap water instead of other things can make a big difference to wellness.
It is very difficult for a person to work their way through all the aspects of changing things related to habits and lifestyle related to water, food, sleep, exercise, interaction with people, interaction with SELF, and then maintaining all those changes in a world which has many stressors for our time, energy and money. Knowledgeable and supportive people surrounding the individual is key, and I do believe wholeheartedly that at the very least, my progress in the past is a testament which I share with others to hopefully show that even if you don't 'solve' the problems, you can make improvements and each little bit adds up and translates to much better life! That I am sure of!
I hope that we continue to make progress in the treatment of medical disorders which play out on the mind primarily, and dedicate this piece to all the 'guys' who came in to the Denver VA psychiatric unit three times a week for at that time eight years to talk about life and what was 'on their minds'. It was the summer of 1996 and all who regularly attended were male Vietnam veterans with PTSD, though there was a woman who had joined the group who had served in her early adulthood in the Gulf, I believe. The group was one of my greatest teachers as a new OT. I have carried the lessons learned from them and the two much older OTs who supervised me to this day and hope it helps many others in Lumigrate's piece of advancing medical information forward.
In particular, a man, who had just been admitted to transition from a medication which had worked brilliantly for schizophrenia, but which had side effects which were life-threatening and those had, unfortunately occurred finally. In that time between a pharmaceutical solution and it's side effects requiring him to go off of it and onto something else, he was able to complete through graduate education in mental health, and function normally.
He described for me what a gift that was, and how he used it, and how terrifying it was to know he was going to go off of it and then have his symptoms, then be tapered onto a new medication which was in trials at the VA. He was terrified it would not work.
And unfortunately, it did not work for him and I will forever value the time he spent meeting with me and talking about his fears of the future treatment's success or failures, his joy at having had sanity for years due to medications, and get the experience of being part of his treatment team as he digressed into significant symptoms. Initially he would come in and try to sit with his group of buddies but he'd get up and leave -- he just couln't sit with a group of people in reality at that point. Not long after, he came in with foil from his baked potato, and that of others, fashioned into an antennae to increase the signal from whatever he was thinking he was getting a signal from. And he thought I was his wife.
I trust they continued with new treatments and hope he found good results; perhaps I'll check back with the VA and see how their treatments have progressed over the 15 years since I had an extraordinary internship experience there. The VA and Veterans have held a special place with me since.
LINKS
A topic on Lumigrate that I think is very relevant to refer people to is from Dr Christopher Lepisto, who was, with Dr Young and me and others, part of the startup group for a year or two at an integrative center that came about in Western Colorado in 2008, many connections were made through the education group forum about fibromyalgia referred to above. Or connections and ideas about fibromyalgia and the complex chronic illnesses and how we could address them were formulated or deepened.
It's a downloadable hour (plus a little more) interview he did with Cinda Crawford of the Health Matters Show (I'd connected him to her on Facebook when he left the integrative clinic and was on his own and created a new Facebook page). It's a very good overview about the many factors from mind, body and spirit related to what contributes to the "Full Barrel Syndrome" that causes a person to basically then overflow into symptoms when the body is overwhelmed. I have transcribed it for those who want to read along AND added links and tips and things too. I believe it to be a strong overview topic about complex chronic illness that often includes chronic pain and / or fatigue. The link:
http://www.lumigrate.com/forum/my-interview-naturopathic-med... [3]
A link to a website about nutrition and mental health's piece about bipolar disorder. The site is called Food for the Brain.org and has information about all kinds of different issues that 'go on in the head' -- ADD, Parkinsons, etc. I selected it because they "do as I do" and give an overview then have a link for references to read more about that topic, hence distilling down the good information, sorting out the nonvalid and not so beneficial, and streamlining your process getting quality, progressive information.
In this case/piece, above, I'd mentioned my conversation and being asked my opinion recently related to bipolar disorder and my first thought was to ask about nutrition and specifically fish oil, I searched many well known sites (such as Live Strong) without feeling it was 'the' source to link to. Food for the Brain's website talks about the fish oil study and how it is today there are more concentrated forms of fish oil, and links out for people to follow along and read more about it if it pertains to them. It also talks about two OTHER aspects they consult with people on related to bipolar disorder, including magnesium, which is a 'hot topic' on Lumigrate as it's a key 'ingredient' in managing fibromyalgia symptoms. www.foodforthebrain.org/content.asp [4]
A link to the podcast with Dr Chris Young and me talking about our establishing live educational seminars in the past, one of which was Cheryl Young presenting Adverse Childhood Experiences, but she had a virus coming on and lost her voice so she set him up to present it and the audience's questions and 'aha's (my own included) got him looking into applications of ACE to chronic pain and fibromyalgia: a FUN listen! www.lumigrate.com/forum/lumigrate-premier-podcast-mardy-ross-and-chris-young-history-and-future [5]
For those wishing to find their ACE score, it's a bit tricky to find at The Anna Institute website (link provided, above).... You'll see "Finding Your ACE Score" at this tab there: www.theannainstitute.org/ACE%20Study/RELATED%20MATERIALS.html [6]
and the PDF of the one-page ACE Questinnaire is at this link: www.theannainstitute.org/ACE%20Study/Finding%20Your%20ACE%20Score.pdf [7]
Live and learn. Learn and live better! ~ Mardy
Chris Young, 2009, speaking on camera with our first crude lights we'd rigged using engine-lighting equipment from Home Depot, recording his presentation about models of medicine and the advantages of collaborative care, which is what the YOU Model is based on. The center where this was recorded ended up not supporting the work that was originally discussed by the team that helped get the place off the ground, and we sadly, have not had many interactions since aside from a few referrals of patients.
It's difficult taking patients coming to insurance-based, mainstream, organized medicine and having them understand that I've left that model of medicine and am teaching people how to become educated and proactive about their wellness in an integrative, functional medicine paradigm. But he was inspired by what we'd gotten into and got funding to have integration of behavioral health and the pediatrician and adult physician office 'under the roof' of the building where we met in 2005 in Grand Junction, Colorado (Primary Care Partners).
Not only did his presentation of ACE in 2007 knock the socks off of the audience, his then-psychiatric nurse practitioner speaking another week about how to medicate for chronic pain sent a video camera into my hands from an MD who could not attend. "I could make DVD copies of this before giving the camera back if I knew how", I thought. Then "If there is YouTube then I should be able to create a website to put video on, I wonder how much that would cost, and I wish I had the money to do it" was my thought process.
I'd been told to go to my post office box, so I did after that and found out I'd been in my father's cousin's estate, and there was a check there which I used to start Lumigrate. It wasn't as much money as would have been ideal to get the website to be something really well-known faster than slower, so I've had to go about things DIY and it's been slow growing. But it's sincerely done and is having it's impact on wellness for those who find it. I will hopefully never forget the roots and people who inspired and lead to another step in the path that we've taken since, to today. I thank you all. ~ Mardy
Podcast studio back in 2011, Dr Young (center) happened to be friends at 20-something with Rock Cesario, local 'legend' for his record store, writings and radio shows about popular music of our times (left), and me (Mardy Ross). Below, Adam Cochran of TalkingDigital who did our podcasts when we were able to do podcasts. Subject was the healing power of music. It was a great podcast too! (Check it out on iTunes, we have an iTunes channel, as well as what is provided via links in our podcast forum, however, that might end up with things being 'dusty'). It's difficult to be providing the various media today's consumers want and I've simplified and kept with writing in the forums, linking to a variety of sources and media to meet those varying demands.
Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate [8] and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!
Links:
[1] http://www.cdc.gov/ace/index.htm
[2] http://www.theannainstitute.org
[3] http://www.lumigrate.com/forum/my-interview-naturopathic-medicine-cfs-and-fms-cinda-crawfords-websiteÂ
[4] http://www.foodforthebrain.org/content.asp?id_Content=1713
[5] http://www.lumigrate.com/forum/lumigrate-premier-podcast-mardy-ross-and-chris-young-history-and-future
[6] http://www.theannainstitute.org/ACE Study/RELATED MATERIALS.html
[7] http://www.theannainstitute.org/ACE Study/Finding Your ACE Score.pdf
[8] http://twitter.com/lumigrate
[9] http://www.lumigrate.com/forum/cumulative-childhood-stress-and-autoimmune-diseases-adults-fibromyalgia-applications#comment-1356
[10] http://www.lumigrate.com/forum/cumulative-childhood-stress-and-autoimmune-diseases-adults-fibromyalgia-applications#top
[11] http://www.lumigrate.com/user/login?destination=node/844%23comment-form
[12] http://www.lumigrate.com/user/register?destination=node/844%23comment-form
[13] http://www.lumigrate.com/forum/cumulative-childhood-stress-and-autoimmune-diseases-adults-fibromyalgia-applications#comment-1415
[14] http://www.lumigrate.com/forum/cumulative-childhood-stress-and-autoimmune-diseases-adults-fibromyalgia-applications#comment-2520
[15] http://www.lumigrate.com/forum/high-rates-childhood-traumaadverse-childhood-experiences-found-studies-people-fibromyalgia-and
[16] http://www.lumigrate.com/forum/cumulative-childhood-stress-and-autoimmune-diseases-adults-fibromyalgia-applications#comment-2718
[17] http://honeyhoneyhealing.com/blog/main/dietrich-klinghardt-md-phd/
[18] http://www.betterhealthguy.com/joomla/171kpu
[19] http://littletreegroup.com/
[20] http://www.biopure.eu/
[21] http://www.ewg.org/
[22] http://www.klinghardtacademy.com/
[23] http://www.lymeneteurope.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1860
[24] http://www.naturalworldhealing.com/verticalhealingsystem.htm
[25] http://www.lumigrate.com/forum/cumulative-childhood-stress-and-autoimmune-diseases-adults-fibromyalgia-applications#comment-2906
[26] http://howtoexitthematrix.com/2015/06/05/trauma-may-be-woven-into-dna-of-native-americans/
[27] http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/05/28/trauma-may-be-woven-dna-native-americans-160508
[28] https://www.aap.org/en-us/Documents/ttb_aces_consequences.pdf
[29] http://discovermagazine.com/2013/may/13-grandmas-experiences-leave-epigenetic-mark-on-your-genes
Comments
As an addendum, I wanted to add to remember the basics that sometimes get overlooked as they are so simple and 'well known'. They apply to EVERYONE too - water, nutrition, exercise, sleep. In a conversation with Robin Thomas earlier this week we discussed how easy it is to not get enough hydration and how we have our strategies in making conscious efforts.
Robin is one of many GRATE resources at Lumigrate, please see the Nutrition section, supplementation forum for most of her posts, and she has a very nice biography in the forum up in the very top section about our forum writers/contributors. She shares her reasons for particular expertise on mental health and nutrition which many might find interesting; one of our other writers, Petie the OTR, has recently taken my suggestion and called Robin and let me know how much fun they had talking about their common life challenge of adult sons who are benefitting from nutritional strategies for special needs emotionally/mentally. So I wanted to thank Robin here, as well as Petie, for taking the time to connect with each other as part of the Grate Group of contributors.
Robin and I discussed how many people, including ourselves sometimes, do not keep the proper balance of water in their bodies. Usually they take in too little but sometimes people then go too far the other way and dilute their systems too much. For anyone, but in particular those on medications, that can present a problem: I remember at the VA psyche unit, one of my first lessons from my mentor / supervisor was to keep an eye out on the water fountain as the people with schizophrenia spread the word to each other that they could feel less 'medicated' if they drank a lot of water and diluted the medications out of their systems. So, as always, consult your medical providers and use your sense about yourself, as what is the 'rule of thumb' for person A might really be quite a different deal for person B.
That's why when I work directly with client/patients, I long ago started sessions out by handing them a bottle of water even if they said they didn't want one, as frequently they'd say 'wow, I didn't realize I was thirsty' (or they could take it with them for later). Either way, I felt it appropriate to treat my patients with respect, as I would a guest, and believed that water was critical to their tissues -- brains, arms -- whatever it was we were addressing in therapy. Then, after evaluation and discussion, if they had anything remotely related to the brain/spirit going on, I'd typically teach them deep breathing and the beginning of mindfulness meditation so they could get in touch with their inner wisdom. Complex medical situations were going to require them to navigate a difficult system without my help long-term in insurance-based medicine.
Our true power for creating change lies within ourselves, and frequently we spend so much time looking outside to sources 'greater than ourselves' that we give our power away and don't even realize it! So please look within yourself as well as continuing to pick the brains of the experts at Lumigrate who provide content for our learning. And I hope we hear from you that you're better all the time and are telling others about what has helped you! We're all in this together, so thanks for everyone's participation.
~~ Mardy
Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate [8] and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!
It was all over the television yesterday, with the trial going on right now related to the cardiologist who was working with Michael Jackson at the time of his death, that he was recorded talking about not having a childhood and how devastating that was to him. Certainly, the ACE questionnaire might be interesting to look at (it's very short -- one page) in light of what we have heard about his childhood, and find a score and see how that correlates with his lifespan.
I hope that perhaps his celebrity and untimely death and tortured life in the public eye and privately, from the accounts I've taken in, will help others to see the link between the mind, body, and spirit of the 'whole person' and how there can be stressors in all three facets, yet it's easy for someone to focus on one or the other of the facets and sometimes only one item in that facet. Such as 'body' and medications used for providing sleep. His is a very deep case for learning by applying the functional medicine and integrative medicine model 'glasses' to our faces to look with that paradigm. It's easier to see in others than in ourselves or those close to us, so it's an exercise in building that ability in order to hone our skills for then seeing YOU.
But he did have lupus, an autoimmune disorder which is what the link/above takes you to a discussion about. I think I have written elsewhere on Lumigrate's forums about what appeared to me to be where his long, sad, and somewhat unusual decline began, when watching shows that have come out about his life: the incident where his hair caught on fire, which legitimately would be addressed as an acute pain condition (short term) with narcotic pain medications. It seemed to me to be where his life went from having climbed to be 'at the top', to the things that were, little by little, 'decline'. After this incident he apparently started having ongoing surgeries related to his perception of how he looked.
I was never a particular Michael Jackson 'fan', as I was not into that type of 'pop' music, but I certainly enjoy his music along with a lot of similar greats of the day peripherally. I certainly always thought he was one of the most inherently talented children and young adults of 'my' day (I was born in 1960). I was aware of the trials in the past where he was accused of behaviors against children, and I saw when he dangled his baby out a window; you just can't see something like that and say 'this guy's got it together'. Sadly he did not and his life ended early.
I've really followed his life more since his death because of my learning about the ACE work of Dr Bruce Perry and studied by Kaiser, which is well-done research which I think lays down a wonderful road for people to start walking down to find true solutions to health problem, and hopefully substantiate the funding of programs to shift children to having the support they need in childhood, so they might have healthier futures. That benefits everyone in our society indirectly and many who have had childhood trauma directly.
From my vantage point, here at the Lumigrate 'home base' near the Utah border in western Colorado and generally following this interesting and tragic case, I hope that some good can come from the way that Michael died. I see so many similarities in his case as with other complex cases where people have been given narcotics which leads to an unraveling that the person does NOT realize has to do with the narcotics!
They think the drug relaxes them and helps them sleep, without realizing it affects the way the brain rests/sleeps and then the body actually goes into chronic problems that, if a person has the resources of money and time to energy to seek out more drugs, can end up with a road that often goes very badly. And they're difficult people to talk with sometimes about the narcotic aspect that is truly part of the root of their problem with sleeping or chronic pain, etc., because without the drug they are REALLY miserable short-term. It is dependence, and at some point for many addiction.
I understand this: I was given narcotics for sleep back before Lunesta came out. I had another doctor come along who said 'try Ambien' and suggested I rotate them each / other night. I did not feel well the days after I took Ambien and reported that and nobody's
went off that it's because I didn't have the narcotic and I was addicted! I had been taking a normal/low dose and sleeping six hours but the provider wanted me to get 8-9 hours of sleep as that is what had been documented to be part of recovery from fibromyalgia. So the dose was doubled and I was taking it every night for sleep for quite a long time. I didn't have any personal experience with narcotics for pain in the past and this medication had been such a part of my life, along with many other medications that kept getting added to the mix, that I just didn't think about it when the drug rep came around to the provider with Lunesta and I was handed a week's worth to try.
Since no pharmacist was involved, that key provider on the medical team was cut out of the loop, unfortunately. I went home and took Lunesta that night and I slept GREAT. The next days I started developing a myriad of awful things going on and finally my
went off and I looked it up online 'benzodiazapine withdrawal' and found out that there was a HUGE error made! According to an expert-provided website I found, the provider should have transitioned to a different benzo for a very short time, then titrated off of that. Instead, I went 'cold turkey' and was in full blown detox and the website said that once you were in that state there was nothing you could do.
Look what I did, back in 2005 -- I turned to the Internet in my moment of need for information.
In 2006 I had a surgery with a medication error made by the nursing staff's poor knowledge and reasoning skills, and the doctor did not catch it because he was perhaps too busy, too tired, and what he said to me later as a reason "I've never had to watch them at that hospital, they were always really good nurses but I should have realized when I saw a lot of new faces that day."
It was mid month, before Christmas when it's the end of the elective surgeries, so it would allow me to have one and not have new patients I'd need to see from the orthopedic doctor in Vail who sent post-op patients for my OT assistant (and me as supervisor) to see, as he was very qualified with that type of thing. The nursing program had just graduated a new flock of inexperienced and cheaper nurses was a part of the problem but I believe the one that made the mistake was the experienced one; she was certainly the one who tried to tell me that the narcots she had mistakenly dispensed in my room now had to be consumed by me despite that we'd just decided those were making me sick and I was to take ibuprofen, show it worked, and go home. I was uncharacteristically angered by what occured, once I 'cleared' a big mentally and was immediately dressed, hair in a pony tail, 'dolled up' with a little mascara and lipstick I managed to get on straight enough I'd look functional to the people needing to let me out of the hospital. And I became a very proactive patient, saying at the nurses station "please call my doctor and let him know I'm ready to discharge"! They tried to tell me he'd never order that as sick as I'd been and this was the first I'd been out of bed in 24 hours. My response was "wanna bet? Trust me, if he hears I'm standing at the nurses station telling you I'm asking for discharge orders, he'll discharge me." And I was right. And he was right to do so. It was not safe there. They then said, when I pointed out I had nowhere to sit in myroom as my bed now had my things ready to go when the family member giving me a ride home and was going to stay with me until I was safe and independent (with driving was the major barrier), they offered me another room! I had a combative, confused, disruptive roommate and they had another room to put me in? I asked them why, if that was the case they'd have not figured that out on their own, last I'd heard we were in an old storage room due to overly busy, and I knew my surgery was four hours delayed due to overly booked, overly full.
And I didn't wait for an answer, I saw the blank look on the poor clerk's face (as I'd been silent in bed, unable to talk due to nausea), and simply said 'I don't want another dollar to go to this hospital today, this is totally unacceptable care, and I will be up in the lobby waiting for my ride who is nearby'. The ride arrived, the nurse came and pulled my IV out in the lobby, trembling and flustered, and went over my discharge instructions. I could have said something like 'I realize you were overwhelmed by the number of inexperienced nurses at a time of high census', and wish I would have in retrospect, but I was shocked at what had just happened, and still processing it through the exhaustion and morphine residue/ film.
I was a simple case. It is not hard to see how it is that someone with Michael Jackson's handlers, money, fame, needs (for performance and other things) came together with his family of origin background and childhood pressures to lead to the story that we all have today as an example to learn from. I respect his life, and I respect more his death and hope that it serves to contribute to health reform much needed in the United States (and beyond).
I recall thinking as I packed my things and put them onto the bed I'd been hostage in for 40 hours aside from short trips I could manage with my nausea (from the medication error) "Someone has to DO something about this --- what happens to other people who don't know what I know --- this is the best city in the US, or among them, supposedly for medical and this just happened to me here...."
My next patient was literally the first one sent to me ever for 'fibromyalgia' - -she'd sought me out via a recommendation by her massage therapist. And she did very well with our approach addressing the body and the mind (she had spiritual stress from her history too which in theory could be addressed by the behavioral / mental health therapists but that part we didn't quite get to initially).
In 2005 with the medication error related to my sleep medication and withdrawal symptoms from the narcotic, which was an unintended consquence of trying the new Lunesta samples provided with instructions from one of my medical doctors, lead me to Googling and finding, in a moment of real panic, an educational site as part of a treatment facility in England which was just for benzodiazapine withdrawal; it said that over the course of a year, improvements with the symptoms would be made but whatever you had at a year would basically be where you were at. This sounds a lot like stroke rehab/brain injury status quo information and I've seen improvements made long after the six month or one year mark, so I'm somewhat optimistic, but I do have lasting effects still today. The body/mind/spirit gravitates towards it's natural place of wellness if you remove the barriers and challenges.
For others to learn from, that was not the only physician born in the 1960s who was very 'lax' about being concerned about 'the N word' (Narcotics --- The F word is Fibromyalgia. Hey, I gotta have a sense of humor with this stuff!
) The first one was the woman who initially switched me from the safer sleep aids I'd been on to the benzodiazapine when I was about 40 and she was about my age. The first doctor that got me on a Rx for sleep was a very good osteopathic doctor, I believe, but she'd been out of the loop staying home with children and was just back (hence I got her as a new patient at a clinic near my home at the time). I was having blood sugar or blood pressure problems, or perhaps seizures, and was in her office a lot for a while. She was trying to figure out how to refer me with the lousy HMO insurance my former employer had provided (there are better and worse HMOs), to get me the tests and advise she thought I needed from experts. Knowing I had to sleep in order to be at the mid-day appointment the next day I took an OTC sleep aid and was just blotto zombie talking with her the next day and said 'is there something I can do better than (OTC brand) for insomnia?' and she prescribed Sonata. Then the next MD who I had to go to for a sprained ankle, and I liked, was who then got me onto the old, cheap, 'no worries about it' benzo for sleep. That was 2000.
After that, in 2008, another wanted to prescribe Xanex for the first time in my life to me for 'sleep', and said "people say to me 'what about becoming addicted and my response is 'so what if you become addicted? Just keep taking it!' I tried the medication, it didn't work for me for sleep -- I just felt like I was in a semi-wakeful/sleep state. I find that sometimes providers go with what other patients have told them they 'like' without adding in the clinical reasoning which is what patients rely on those who have gone to medical programs to do. He was also of my era. .. I started realizing that perhaps all of us who 'partied' in college and perhaps after in some cases were kind of lax about prescribing narcotics and other medications. It's like it was flowing like water. Such is the encouragement of the organized medicine system's ways. So I have learned, as all consumers with complex conditions do. I hope by sharing what I have learned it will lessen the difficulites on any one's own path to wellness.
After that experience, I was SO wary of narcotics that I didn't even want anything along those lines when I had an abdominal hysterectomy in late 2006, the surgery I was referring to, above! I was grateful to have yoga and breathing/mindful meditation in my background from before I had fibromyalgia. I have long 'known' and 'believed' in the mind/body connection because I've just 'been there' with it.
But when it comes to things like the mind having a part to play in autoimmune dysfunction, THAT does make sense, it just was a step beyond where I'd been before with my knowledge and beliefs. I hope this has taken you steps forwards as well, IF this is to resonate with you/for you. And if not, that's fine too. Everyone has their own realities to experience and there are many paths to get from one place to another. I just hope people open their minds to these concepts to be considered, at the least.
To wellness. Live and Learn! Learn and Live Better!! ~~ Mardy
The Lumigrate HOPE graphic:
Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate [8] and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!
In order to get people back if they started out in the Fibromyalgia's Top Picks forum at Lumigrate, or if you joined this thread here otherwise but want to go see what I've added about fibromyalgia specifically related to childhood trauma, it's a very well-done study back in the late 1990s, and only proves that 'this information's being studied, it's really up to YOU, the people and providers who are specifically interested in this type of patient's needs, to find and act upon.
www.lumigrate.com/forum/high-rates-childhood-traumaadverse-childhood-experiences-found-studies-people-fibromyalgia-and [15]
Thank you for spending your time/energy at Lumigrate.com to learn! And it's not costing you a dime, nor will it, to get what YOU 'need to know' on your own, as you go. Short guidance, like a desk clerk, we help at no charge, and more extensive there is a fee for the service. Thank you for supporting us with your reads as much as anything, that helps us indirectly to get the content providers/experts we have and many other things that help us grow and help more people. ~~ Mardy
Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate [8] and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!
You or your child's issues can be influenced not only by what has been encountered since conception, but before. For generations, according to those who subscribe to this theory. One of the biggest educators in the United States about chronic illnesses and what causes them AND what to do to reverse symptoms is worthy of indepth study, I believe. Hence, I've studied his work in-depth, and bring key components of it to the Lumigrate YOUsers such as with this comment. There is much more about him at Lumigrate, use the Search bar to find more if you wish.
Deitrich Klinghardt, MD is a German-born and raised physician whose career has been based out of the United States for decades, while he also continues to work with patients and providers to learn from and teach to in Europe. He had a pain management clinic in the 1980s in Santa Fe, New Mexico and currently is in the Seattle, Washington area.
His stated goal is to educate both the providers and the consumers, professionals and laypeople. Most of his work that you find online, whether in written form, watchable or listenable, will include reference to the transgenerational traumas.
The best overview I found online about Dr Klinghardt is at this website (link below) which is an interesting one, about healing chronic illness. This is the link to the profile / overview page about Dr. Klinghardt (MD, PhD):
honeyhoneyhealing.com/blog/main/dietrich-klinghardt-md-phd/ [17] AND what you'll find there. But please go to HoneyHoneyHealing dot com and see the other things at the website. My intention with Lumigrate is to find the pearls among the oysters and make our YOUsers' time online more effective, since it's familiar terrain for me to navigate a lot of resources in a Search on topics I'm familiar with. (I realized this when having to hop in on something emergent from an area other than health that I was not familiar with about the time that Lumigrate launched in 2009.)
From 2008 at this resource -- www.lymeneteurope.org/forum/viewtopic.php [23] -- which has Dr Klinghardt's protocol for Lyme at that time, the portion that applies to this aspect we're focusing on here is:
In order to provide a baseline about his theory on transgenerational trauma, here's what NaturalWorldHealing dot com has on a thread about Dr Klinghardt's Vertical Healing System (which they say is modified a bit). Unless someone is familiar with energy medicine's principles, it might not be easy to understand how it is that someone's descendants can have effects from long-ago trauma in parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc.
I found this link at the Natural World Healing website, which is a mental / behavioral focused website without a lot of bells and whistles, but they have interesting information, from what I saw when finding them looking for information about Klinghardt and transgenerational trauma affecting current wellness/illness reality in people.
www.naturalworldhealing.com/verticalhealingsystem.htm [24]
Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate [8] and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!
Oh did I know where to put THIS link when I saw this being covered at HowToExitTheMatrix dot com. I'd found my way to the website because of a very popular topic that was shared by TONS of my Facebook friends, so I shared it too (as it was really good about mind control of the media) and at the bottom of the website where they advertise other new topics at the website, I saw the information about trauma being woven into the DNA of Native Americans. I was so pleased when I read that they were citing ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences).
Here's the link to the article at HowToExitTheMatrix. I suggest you GO because, as I've said here, there's a lot at that website to explore for me, and I might presume it could become a good source of continued education for YOUsers of Lumigrate (meaning YOU!).
howtoexitthematrix.com/2015/06/05/trauma-may-be-woven-into-dna-of-native-americans/ [26]
And here, below the line, is excerpted information that I found particularly interesting for those who 1) don't want to take the link as I suggest at the moment or ever and 2) so YOU can see WHAT is at this topic that I'm suggesting going to!
By Mary Annette Pember
Trauma is big news these days. Mainstream media is full of stories about the dramatic improvements allowing science to see more clearly how trauma affects our bodies, minds and even our genes. Much of the coverage hails the scientific connection between trauma and illness as a breakthrough for modern medicine. The next breakthrough will be how trauma affects our offspring.
The science of epigenetics, literally “above the gene,” proposes that we pass along more than DNA in our genes; it suggests that our genes can carry memories of trauma experienced by our ancestors and can influence how we react to trauma and stress. The Academy of Pediatrics reports that the way genes work in our bodies determines neuroendocrine structure and is strongly influenced by experience. [Neuroendocrine cells help the nervous and endocrine (hormonal) system work together to produce substances such as adrenaline (the hormone associated with the fight or flight response.] Trauma experienced by earlier generations can influence the structure of our genes, making them more likely to “switch on” negative responses to stress and trauma.
In light of this emerging science and how it works with the way we react to trauma, the AAP stated in its publication, Adverse Childhood Experiences and the Lifelong Consequences of Trauma [28], “Never before in the history of medicine have we had better insight into the factors that determine the health of an individual from infancy to adulthood, which is part of the life course perspective—a way of looking at life not as disconnected stages but as integrated across time,” according to the AAP in their recent publication examining the role of Adverse Childhood Experience (ACES) on our development and health. The now famous 1998 ACES study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Kaiser Permanente showed that such adverse experiences could contribute to mental and physical illness.
Folks in Indian country wonder what took science so long to catch up with traditional Native knowledge. “Native healers, medicine people and elders have always known this and it is common knowledge in Native oral traditions,” according to LeManuel “Lee” Bitsoi, Navajo, PhD Research Associate in Genetics at Harvard University during his presentation at the Gateway to Discovery conference in 2013.
According to Bitsoi, epigenetics is beginning to uncover scientific proof that intergenerational trauma is real. Historical trauma, therefore, can be seen as a contributing cause in the development of illnesses such as PTSD, depression and type 2 diabetes.
What exactly is historical or intergenerational trauma? Michelle M. Sotero, an instructor in Health Care Administration and Policy at the University of Nevada, offers a three-fold definition. In the initial phase, the dominant culture perpetrates mass trauma on a population in the form of colonialism, slavery, war or genocide. In the second phase the affected population shows physical and psychological symptoms in response to the trauma. In the final phase, the initial population passes these responses to trauma to subsequent generations, who in turn display similar symptoms.
According to researchers, high rates of addiction, suicide, mental illness, sexual violence and other ills among Native peoples might be, at least in part, influenced by historical trauma. Bonnie Duran, associate professor in the Department of Health Services at the University of Washington School of Public Health and Director for Indigenous Health Research at the Indigenous Wellness Research Institute says, “Many present-day health disparities can be traced back through epigenetics to a “colonial health deficit,” the result of colonization and its aftermath.”
According to the American Indian and Alaska Native Genetics Research Guide created by the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), studies have shown that various behavior and health conditions are due to inherited epigenetic changes.
Authors of the guide refer to a 2008 study by Moshe Szyf at McGill University in Montreal that examined the brains of suicide victims. Szyf and his team found that genes governing stress response in the victim’s hippocampus had been methylated or switched off. Excessive trauma causes us to produce hormones called glucocorticoids which can alter gene expression. Chronic exposure to this hormone can inhibit genes in the hippocampus ability to regulate glucocorticoids. Szyf suggested that the genes were switched off in response to a series of events, such as abuse during childhood. All victims in the study were abused as children [29].
Nature or Nurture? It’s Both! ..........and the article goes on, but I'm stopping there. Go on the link to read the full thing, see the photos of the people involved or the interesting photos chosen to be included.... once again, the link is:
howtoexitthematrix.com/2015/06/05/trauma-may-be-woven-into-dna-of-native-americans/ [26]
Live and learn. Learn and live better! ~~ Mardy
Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate [8] and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!