In the USA, the only country in the Western world whose government allows direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription pharmaceuticals, deaths due to said legal meds now outnumber those caused by illegal drugs. Ten percent of the population takes antidepressants, and “new” ailments such as adult-onset ADHD might be laughable if Big Pharma didn't spend billions to scare you into thinking you have them. Preventative medicine, and considerations of diet and psychological health, seem almost foreign to the American “healthcare” system. (Brilliant Vancouver-based Dr. Gabor Mate, born in Nazi-occupied Hungary, has written extensively on the connections among emotional stress and disease, childhood trauma and brain development, autoimmune illnesses, and addiction.) Epidemiologists are waking up: In one study, adults with healthy lifestyles who suffered severe childhood trauma were found to have four times the risk of heart disease (the leading cause of death worldwide) of those who'd enjoyed stable childhoods, leaving us to wonder, Can Childhood Trauma Make You Sick? Physician Nadine Burke, medical director of the Bayview Child Health Center, Robin Karr-Morse, author of Scared Sick: The Role of Childhood Trauma in Adult Disease, and Katie Albright, executive director of the San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center, bring the discussion to Zócalo Public Square. Actor's Gang, 9070 Venice Blvd., Culver City; Wed., Feb. 1, 7:30 p.m.; free, resv. required. zocalopublicsquare.org/upcoming.php?event_id=510.

Wed., Feb. 1, 7:30 p.m., 2012

Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.