What does being raised in an abusive household have to do with heart trouble later on in life?<\/p>\n
A Brock University research team is examining the connection between exposure to traumatic events in childhood and cardiovascular diseases that show up decades later.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur project as a whole is based around the premise that experiencing different childhood adversities such as maltreatment, abuse and severe household dysfunction is associated with higher rates of cardiovascular disease, cancers and different chronic conditions throughout the lifespan,\u201d says Health Biosciences PhD student Kylie Dempster.<\/p>\n
Under the supervision of Professors of Health Sciences Deborah O\u2019Leary and Terrance Wade, Dempster is examining how childhood dysfunction affects cardiovascular development into adulthood through a model called biological embedding.<\/p>\n
\u201cBiological embedding is the prevailing theory by which chronic diseases become imprinted in individuals following childhood adversity, mainly by changing the body\u2019s stress response,\u201d says Dempster, whose research is being funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).<\/p>\n
This process generates a \u201ccascading effect that generally leads towards higher resting inflammation levels,\u201d says Dempster. \u201cWe are investigating how the effects of childhood adversity and these biological embedding processes influence changes in arterial stiffness, blood pressure regulation, and heart size and function from childhood to young adulthood.\u201d<\/p>\n