How Upbringing Shapes Us – Literally

Here’s a hypothetical: consider a young girl raised in a low-income abusive household. Her father is an alcoholic, her mother is flighty and neglectful, and she gets bullied at school. Surprisingly, the morphology of her organs can be altered simply as a result of the cards she was dealt early on.

We’ve all heard the long-standing debate of nature versus nurture. Conventionally, most scientists would agree that one’s likelihood of developing diseases is due to a combination of nature – internal factors such as genetic make-up – and nurture – external factors such as lifestyle. This story, while accurate, fails to paint the full picture of how ailments occur. Research has demonstrated that the story of pathogenesis begins much earlier than that: our upbringing.

Perhaps the most straightforward linkage, childhood adversity has been shown to be associated with a higher risk of developing psychological disorders. Experiencing trauma during childhood, such as bullying, neglect, or abuse, is strongly correlated with developing mental disorders later in life, especially post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, psychosis.¹

Interestingly, traumatic events aren’t the only mental disorder risk factors during upbringing. Studies have shown that children raised in urban environments have twice the risk of developing schizophrenia compared to those in rural areas, due to an increase in the volume of gray matter in the prefrontal cortex. In other words, growing up in a city plays a role in sculpting the brain’s architecture.²

Cardiovascular disease (CVD), currently the leading cause of death in the United States, tends to be advertised as the direct result of lifestyle choices, like diet and exercise. While accurate, childhood exposures cannot be neglected as risk factors.

A lower socioeconomic status during childhood was correlated with a larger left ventricle mass in adulthood. In general, experiencing psychosocial adversity was linked with calcified coronary artery. Being exposed to racism from a young age was associated with stiffer arteries. Experiencing sexual abuse in childhood correlated with a thicker carotid artery. Clearly, it’s not just the brain — all of these morphological changes to the heart’s structure are directly linked to stroke, coronary heart disease, and CVD.³

Chronic illness is another indirect result of a disadvantaged upbringing. Those with dysfunctional home environments are 2.6 times more likely to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) later in life. Not only that, but there is a strong correlation with such experiences and poor metabolic biomarker levels, such as cholesterol, hemoglobin, and maximum oxygen consumption. All of these increase one’s risk of developing chronic diseases, like autoimmune disorders, stress disorders, cardiovascular and pulmonary disease, diabetes, obesity, and psychiatric disorders.⁴

An unhealthy upbringing increases risk of developing dementia in older age. Extreme poverty, malnutrition, low parental education, exposure to secondhand smoke, and crowded households are all factors that are strongly correlated with a greater risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. These environmental factors result in less efficient cognitive function and impaired brain development.⁵

Applying a more biopsychosocial lens on pathogenesis is necessary to fully understanding what makes us susceptible to disease.⁶ It’s easy to have a narrow approach to identifying risk factors. If you smoke too much, you’ll get lung cancer. If you drink too much, you’ll get liver cirrhosis. If you have too much junk food, you’ll get diabetes. But we must acknowledge that there are a slew of other factors that go into disease pathogenesis.

Broadening our efforts to encompass prevention of childhood risk factors is essential. Public health programs, government financial assistance for families, better educational funding in impoverished areas, and overall a greater emphasis on the importance of a healthy upbringing are all necessary preventative measures that can decrease a child’s risk of developing life-threatening diseases later on.

Childhood experiences are critical to who we become, not just mentally but physiologically. Whether it’s the brain, heart, or lungs, upbringing has the power to change the way we are structured and wired.