dailyBooks - The Deepest Well - Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity by Dr. Nadine Burke Harris | Conversation Starters

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Dr. Nadine Burke Harriss

The Deepest Well

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First Published in the United States of America 2017

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Introducing The Deepest Well

T he Deepest Well by Dr. Nadine Burke Harris is the result of Burke Harris years of study and experience with children who have suffered from adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). She takes her reader on a journey through her coming to understand ACEs and the lasting effects that it can have on a childs future. However, Burke Harris makes this more than just a medical study. With gripping honesty and transparency, Burke Harris reveals her personal struggles throughout her studies and the impact her findings had on not only her professional goals, but on her personal goals as well.

After pursuing a medical degree from the University of California, Davis, a masters degree in public health from Harvard, and a pediatric residency at Stanford, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris wanted to make her mark on the world. She wanted to make a difference in her community. So, she decided to go to one of the poorest, most violent areas in the San Francisco areaBayview-Hunters Pointand set up the Bayview Child Health Center. It was there that she first discovered the effects of ACEs. While she was able to provide previously unavailable treatment to children living in poverty, there was some other problem under the surface. She recognized trends in childreneveryday childhood illnesses, but with an underlying current of mental health issues like anxiety and depression. This sparked a curiosity about the correlation between mental health and physical well-being in child in particular.

Burke Harris explains that, as a medical doctor, she had been trained to treat illnesses with properly prescribed medicine. As a person with a public health degree, though, she wanted to know why there was such a pattern and prevalence of these illnesses of kids in the Bayview-Hunters area in particular. They were clearly physically sick, but did it have something to do with how they were also so obviously mentally unwell? She wanted to know the cause and take it head-on rather than just putting a bandaid on it, so to speak. Thus, began the journey of her research.

Burke Harris dove deep into the world of psychological and medical journals, trying to find answers of the question of correlation between physical health and mental health of children. Then, one day, she struck gold. A colleagueaware of her researchpointed her to a study known as the Adverse Childhood Experience Study that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) had conducted. The study pointed out the negative effects of ACEs on a childs mental health, which caused negative effects on their physical health. These gleaned insight into exactly what she was witnessing everyday.

Burke Harris explains that the CDC study and her own research found that children with difficult beginnings like domestic violence, foster care, substance abuse, divorce/separation, and other difficulties in that realm have wear on their natural fight or flight chemical reactions in their brain. Living in an environment where a child feels like they are in constant danger causes them to experience the fight or flight reaction far more than our bodies are supposed to. This causes chemical changes in the body like weakening of the immune system, chemical imbalances in the brain that can lead to depression and anxiety, and it can even lead to changes in the way our DNA is read in the body. These leads not only to illness in childhood, but it can also lead to heart disease, cancer, and even Alzheimers later in adulthood. It can even cause so much damage as to take off 20 years from ones life expectancy.

Burke Harris, the CDC, and others studying the affects of ACEs recognize that this trend is not only in the poorest regions of the world. According to Burke Harris, 1 in 8 people have experienced some form of ACEs and are at risk for the negative affects to health that come with it, regardless of race, education, or economic status or background. It is a public health issue, it is a medical issue, it is a world health issue that Burke Harris addresses with perfect clarity in The Deepest Well. Its an issue close to the heart of every reader, no matter their background.

The Deepest Well found its popularity increasing after The New Yorkers Paul Tough wrote an article about Dr. Nadine Burke Harris research entitled The Poverty Clinic: Can a stressful childhood make you a sick adult? Its popularity can also be attributed to Burke Harris Ted Talk entitled How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime, which has been viewed over 3 million times. Such publicity has resulted in The Deepest Well receiving a perfect 5 star rating on Amazon.