Researchers from McMaster University have explored for the first time the association between adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and biological aging. Previous research has found that people with negative childhood experiences are more likely to develop chronic diseases and live shorter lives. However, whether this association could be explained by accelerated biological aging due to adverse childhood experiences was not known. The findings were published in Psychoneuroendocrinology .
The study revealed that individuals exposed to childhood abuses were biologically older than those not exposed. However, it was unable to establish whether the biological changes were caused by the early life events themselves or by other events that occurred later in life as a consequence. Future research utilizing longitudinal data will help us better understand the factors linking adverse childhood…
