A Sheriff And A Doctor Team Up To Map Childhood Trauma

The University of Florida's Dr. Nancy Hardt has an unusual double specialty: She's both a pathologist and an OB-GYN. For the first half of her career, she brought babies into the world. Then she switched — to doing autopsies on people after they die.

"I want to prevent what I'm seeing on the autopsy table. ... A lot of times, I'm standing there going, 'I don't think this person had a very nice early childhood.' "

Dr. Nancy Hardt, pathologist, University of Florida

It makes perfect sense to her.

"Birth, and death. It's the life course," Hardt explains.

A few years ago, Hardt says, she learned about some research that changed her view of how exactly that life course — health or illness — unfolds.

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