We've been counting the bodies wrong - 1

From a book 'Greater Than Gravity' by Michael J Menard

Buried beneath the weight of society’s progress lies a silent epidemic: the profound and lasting impact of childhood trauma - a force that not only shatters individual lives but threatens the foundation of our communities.

We've been counting the bodies wrong. When someone with severe childhood trauma dies of a heart attack at 55 instead of 75, we record it as heart disease. When they overdose, it's addiction. When they take their own life, it's suicide. But these aren't separate epidemics - they're symptoms of the same hidden crisis that's been destroying lives for generations.

Michael J. Menard grew up one of fourteen children in a 900-square-foot home below the poverty line. He watched childhood trauma ripple through his family - claiming two brothers to addiction and leaving invisible wounds across generations. Yet from these origins, Michael rose to become a world-renowned inventor with fourteen patents, advising NASA and the United Nations, and serving as Vice President of Worldwide Engineering at Johnson & Johnson.

His book, 'Greater Than Gravity', is a meticulously researched exposé that connects dots no one else has connected - revealing how childhood trauma alters brain development, ravages the immune system, and creates cascading destruction across mental, physical, spiritual, and social dimensions of life. Michael brings his engineer's mind to humanity's greatest unaddressed public health crisis, transforming cold statistics into compelling human stories while offering concrete pathways to healing.

Michael obviously focuses on health issues in the USA. Let's take a look at those and then I'll try to apply these observations to the UK.

A landmark 2021 US study of over 20M participants found that childhood adversity is directly attributable to 439,072 US deaths per annum. The study did not include drug overdose deaths and when a proportion of those are added in and child deaths from abuse and neglect, the true death toll is 511,427. This makes childhood trauma the number one root cause of death in America. However, what is recorded on death certificates is; heart disease, cancer, drug overdose, etc.

Michael's analysis shows the following relationship between childhood trauma exposure (Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)) and premature death:

• 1 ACE exposure: 2 years of life lost on average
• 2 ACEs: 4 years of life lost
• 3 ACES: 6 years of life lost
• 4 ACEs: 8 years of life lost
• 6+ ACEs: 20 years of life lost.

Childhood trauma steals more years of lives in the US than cancer, heart disease, stroke, accidents, etc., combined and by a significant multiplier. Yet vast sums of money are spent on these latter issues and comparatively nothing on preventing childhood trauma.

Looking now at the UK, a 2014 national representative study of 3900 individuals found that 52% had 0 ACEs, 23% 1 ACE, 16% had 2-3 ACEs and 9% 4 or more ACEs. My own much smaller national survey (+-5% confidence level) in 2023, post COVID, showed a worsening picture; 38% had 0 ACEs, 13% 1 ACE, 24% 2-3 ACEs, 25% 4 or more ACEs. Given the pressure on families from austerity, the increase in child poverty, COVID, etc., one can see that ACEs would increase given increased stress in the home.

The population in the UK in 2025 is estimated as 69.5M people. Using the 2014 accredited study results, 23% have 1 ACE x 2 years lost = 32.0M years of life lost, 16% have 2-3 ACEs x 5 years lost = 55.6M years lost, 9% have 4 or more ACEs x let's say average 12 years lost = 75.1M years lost. Total = 162.7M years of life lost. Using my own study, this increases to 310.0M years of life lost. If we say the average life span is 80 years, then this is equivalent to between 2.0M and 3.9M lifetimes lost.

Michael posits that ACEs are similar to a contagion that is believed to be the world's greatest unaddressed public health threat. It is only transmitted to children under the age of 18. Those that contract it may not immediately experience adverse effects, but they are at significant risk of developing serious mental and metabolic illness decades later. It already shortens millions of lives and treatment costs for associated illnesses and disorders cost £billions per annum. Exposure increases high-risk and criminal behaviour.

A study published in the Lancet in 2019 estimated that the total annual costs attributable to ACEs were estimated to be US$581 billion in Europe and $748 billion in north America. More than 75% of these costs arose in individuals with two or more ACEs.

In part 2, we look at how we can disrupt this cycle of childhood trauma..