The importance of early life for an individual's mental health

“The first thousand days” is an increasingly used term and is not considered pediatric and covers a total of nine months after pregnancy (270 days) and the first two years of life (730), reinforcing the theory that treatment must be performed. The child begins with the mother during pregnancy.

This period is marked by important events related to nutrition, the neuropsychomotor development of the baby and its stimuli, health care, vaccination and hygiene, among others.

The first to highlight the importance of these thousand days was the English physician David Barker, who noted that children born during World War I, whose pregnancy was threatened by the torments of this era, were born underweight and, throughout their lives, developed diseases that could be related to the conditions experienced in this early life.

The idea is that during the early years the child goes through important developmental processes that are directly influenced by the environment to which he belongs. These include physical growth, the maturation of the brain and its psyche, the acquisition of movement, the development of learning ability, and social and affective initiation.

Many experts in the field of mental health have been making efforts to conclude what would have the greatest influence on determining whether the genes or the environment were. And at the last World Congress on Psychiatry, which took place late last year, it was no different. The research presented showed possible changes in genes that would determine vulnerability to develop schizophrenia, bipolar mood disorder, autism, depression and attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder.

According to professor and psychiatrist Luis Augusto Rohde, human neuronal plasticity is very significant, especially in the early years of life, which allows our genes to be modified and influenced by external factors. “Every second, it is estimated that between 700 and 1000 new connections between neurons will be formed during this period. However, another important fact that analysis has shown is that, in fact, gene functioning is activated or deactivated by early childhood environmental experiences. The possibility of reversal of environmental influences is gradually decreasing as the thousand days pass, ”said the professor.
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