How Your ACE Score Impacts Your Health: The Link Between Childhood Trauma and Chronic Illness
by Taylin D. Ramirez
Have you ever taken the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) questionnaire? It’s just 10 questions. A simple score. But that number can say a lot about your past—and your body’s future.
If you’ve ever wondered why you deal with chronic pain, fatigue, migraines, or autoimmune flares that doctors struggle to explain, it might be time to look beyond lab results and into your story. Because research shows a powerful connection between childhood trauma and long-term physical health.
Let’s break it down.
What Are ACEs, and What Does the Score Mean?
ACEs—or Adverse Childhood Experiences—refer to stressful or traumatic events that happen before age 18. These can include things like:
Emotional, physical, or sexual abuse
Neglect
Divorce or separation of parents
Growing up with a caregiver who had a mental illness, substance use, or was incarcerated
Domestic violence in the home
Each "yes" answer on the ACE questionnaire gives you 1 point. So your ACE score can range from 0 to 10. You can take the ACE test here.
A higher score doesn’t mean you’re broken. It means you’ve lived through a lot, and your body may still be carrying the weight of it.
The ACE Study: A Wake-Up Call About Trauma and Health
In the late 1990s, the CDC and Kaiser Permanente launched a groundbreaking study on over 17,000 people. The results shocked the medical world.
They found that the higher your ACE score, the greater your risk for chronic physical and mental health conditions, including:
Autoimmune diseases
Diabetes
Heart disease
Stroke
Cancer
Depression and anxiety
Chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia
Even people who didn’t smoke, drink excessively, or engage in risky behavior still faced higher risks, just because of what they went through as children.
Interested in learning more? Check out these podcasts that dive into the topic further. (Armchair Expert - Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, Psychiatry and Psychotherapy - Episode 203, Thriving Minds Podcast - Episode 114)
How Trauma Affects the Body
When you grow up in a high-stress environment, your body stays in survival mode. Your brain constantly releases stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline to protect you. That’s great in the short term. But over time, constant activation of this stress response wears down your systems.
Here’s what long-term childhood trauma can do to your body:
Dysregulate your nervous system (hello, hypervigilance and fatigue)
Weaken your immune system (making flares and infections more likely)
Affects gut health (linked to IBS, food sensitivities, and inflammation)
Disrupt hormonal balance (leading to fatigue, reproductive issues, and more)
So no, you’re not imagining it. Your trauma has a biological footprint.
ACE Scores Are Not a Life Sentence
Here’s the hopeful part: your ACE score tells you where you’ve been, not where you’re going.
While you can’t change your past, you can change how your body and brain respond to it today. This is where trauma-informed mental health support, lifestyle care, and safe relationships come in.
You can:
Re-regulate your nervous system through therapy, breathwork, or somatic practices
Reduce chronic stress through pacing, boundaries, and rest
Build resilience by learning how to feel safe in your body again
Work with a trauma-informed therapist to address core beliefs shaped by early experiences
Why ACEs and Chronic Illness Deserve More Attention
If you live with a chronic illness, you might have felt gaslit or dismissed. Maybe you’ve been told “it’s all in your head” or you just need to “think positive.” But trauma-informed care shifts that narrative.
You’re not broken. You adapted to survive.
Understanding your ACE score helps put the pieces together. It opens the door to healing that isn’t just about medications or diagnoses—it’s about reclaiming your story, your safety, and your self-worth.
Ready to Start Healing?
If this resonates, you’re not alone. Many people are just beginning to understand how childhood trauma affects their adult health. You don’t have to carry it alone anymore. Therapy can help you explore the impact of your ACE score and take meaningful steps toward healing, physically and emotionally.
You deserve care that sees the whole you—past, present, and future.
