-Improving the developmental trajectory of a child by helping the parents and improving the home environment is probably the single most important thing we can do for the health of that child,- says McEwen, Alfred E. Mirsky Professor and head of the Harold and Margaret Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology at Rockefeller. -Adverse childhood experience is a of large contributors to such chronic health problems as diabetes and obesity, psychiatric disorders, drug abuse - almost every major public health challenge we face. These cause much human suffering and also are a huge financial burden on our society.-

McEwen is co-chairing a symposium at the AAAS meeting Friday morning titled -Stress and the Central Role of the Brain in Health Inequalities,- which will feature research from Harvard, Columbia and the University of Pittsburg as well.

Source: Rockefeller University