Your heart works hard.

93,600 times a day. 655,200 times a week. 34,070,400 times a year. 850,000,000 by age 25.

That’s how many times the average heart beats for the average person. Well over a billion times by age 30. Several billion times in the average human life.

An organ that never gets a rest, your heart works hard for you. It supports other vital organs and keeps the entire body humming right along. It’s easy to forget that the heart is also one of the most vulnerable of key organs. 

One in four hearts will have heart disease

Heart disease is responsible for the death of one in four people, making it the leading cause of death for both men and women (Centers for Disease Control). 

We don’t always see a heart attack coming. When blood flow to the heart is reduced or completely cut off (by plaque,  cholesterol, fat, or other substances), oxygen to the heart is affected, and heart attack results. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control, someone in the United States has a heart attack every 40 seconds (Centers for Disease Control). But you don’t have to be a statistic.

Many are aware of the most effective ways they can actively reduce their risk of heart disease.

1)   Eating a heart-healthy diet with fiber and plenty of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains.

2)   Staying physically active ( >150 minutes of exercise each week that increases heart rate).

3)   Not smoking.

4)   Maintaining healthy cholesterol and blood pressure numbers.

5)   Drinking alcohol in moderation, or not at all.

The common but ignored risk factor

What most people don’t realize, and the medical community doesn’t always recognize or address, is that one of the greatest risk factors for heart disease is adversity or trauma in childhood, also known as ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences). One of the social determinants of health (SDOH), childhood trauma has a significant impact on a child’s development as well as overall health as an adult.

Much of what we know about ACEs comes from the CDC Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experience Study, which studied ten types of childhood traumatic events and the impact on long-term health. Some of the traumatic early life events that can lead to negative health outcomes in adults: emotional, sexual, or physical child abuse, parental abandonment or neglect, divorce, having a parent with a mental health condition or substance abuse issue, or having a parent incarcerated. 

“Adverse childhood experiences are the single greatest unaddressed public health threat facing our nation today.” — Dr. Robert Block, former president of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The more adverse experiences a child has, the higher their ACEs score. And the higher the ACEs score, the poorer the long-term health outcome. 

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