ACE - Adverse Childhood Experiences and their impact on our health

In this foundational episode, Dr. Sharma — triple board-certified physician, certified Menopause Practitioner, and certified life coach — unpacks adverse childhood experiences from the ground up. What counts as an ACE. Why the metabolic consequences of early trauma can look like willpower problems, lifestyle failures, or "unexplained" disease — and why that framing is wrong. ACEs aren't just a childhood story. They reshape the stress response, dysregulate the HPA axis, and leave a biological fingerprint that shows up decades later as chronic disease, metabolic dysfunction, and yes — obesity. In this broad overview episode, Dr. Sharma breaks down what ACEs actually are, how they wire the nervous system for survival in ways that can work against us in adulthood, and why understanding this science isn't about blame — it's about finally having a framework that makes sense of so much suffering.Whether you're a patient trying to understand your own health history, or a clinician looking to bring more trauma-informed care into your practice, this episode meets you where you are.This is the foundation. Stay tuned — the next episode goes deeper into what we can actually do with this knowledge.