A new book by engineer, inventor, and childhood trauma survivor Michael Menard is shining a spotlight on what he calls one of the world’s most overlooked health emergencies: unresolved childhood trauma.
In Greater Than Gravity: How Childhood Trauma Is Pulling Down Humanity, set for release on March 19, 2026, Menard argues that childhood trauma is not just a personal struggle but a major global public health crisis driving addiction, suicide, incarceration, and preventable death.
According to research cited in the book, nearly 1 billion children ages 2 to 17 worldwide experienced trauma in the past year alone. Menard also points to an estimated 3.5 billion adults—roughly 65% of the global adult population—who continue to carry the long-term effects of unresolved childhood trauma.
“We’ve been looking at mortality the wrong way,” Menard said. “Death certificates record what people die from — heart attacks, overdoses, cancer. They don’t record what people die because of. When you trace these deaths back to their root cause, childhood trauma is number one.”
Menard approaches the issue through a systems-thinking lens, applying decades of public health data to identify patterns often ignored in traditional healthcare discussions. His conclusion is stark: many of society’s most devastating outcomes are rooted in early-life trauma.
His perspective is also deeply personal.
Raised in poverty in Kankakee, Illinois, as one of 14 children, Menard witnessed firsthand how trauma shaped lives and futures. He lost two brothers to addiction, a loss he now understands through the lens of shared childhood adversity.
Despite those early hardships, Menard went on to become a global vice president of engineering at Johnson & Johnson, earn 14 patents, and serve as an advisor to both NASA and the United Nations.
“I spent my career solving complex problems,” Menard said. “This is the most important one I’ve ever worked on.”
The book also offers solutions, introducing readers to trauma-responsive care and practical ways institutions can better address emotional wounds before they turn into lifelong health crises.
To support that mission, Menard also founded United Against Childhood Trauma, a nonprofit focused on turning awareness into action.
Dr. Glenn Schiraldi, who wrote the book’s foreword, described childhood trauma as “the largest threat to the well-being of humanity known today.”
With Greater Than Gravity, Menard hopes to shift the conversation from symptoms to root causes—and push society to treat childhood trauma with the urgency it deserves.