The Link Between Past Trauma, Chronic Stress & Chronic Disease

Today, I want to explain the link between past trauma, chronic stress and chronic disease.

I first want to establish that this is a safe place. What's shared in this post and video above may be hard to read or hear. Feel free to stop and start as you see fit.

I speak from experience of sexual abuse trauma by my father that I harbored for way too long. Let me explain. Psychological trauma is a normal response to an abnormal event which is no longer serving you. The traumatic event itself is absolutely horrific, but harboring it and not dealing with it for 20+ years only set me up for health issues.

Let's walk through what happens in the body during a stress response.

When your brain and body perceive an actual threat, fear or anticipate a threat, the primitive part of the brain known as the limbic system kicks in. Regardless of how big or little the situation may be, your body treats it like you are running from a bear.

Physiological things happen in the body, resulting in a hormonal cascade. There is lots of adrenaline and cortisol flooding the system, which then causes a further cascade.

All of your senses become hyperalert to take in as much information as possible. The brain goes down a series of responses deciding if it is best to fight, flight, freeze or flop - which one it thinks is best to do in order to survive.

In fight or flight you need to have lots of oxygen available in case you need to run from the hypothetical bear or fight it. Blood gets diverted to those areas that need it, like the heart, lungs and big muscles.

If you are going to run, you need more energy. That results in the blood sugar metabolism getting switched on.

But, there is a chance you might get injured. The clotting system gets primed in case you get cut so you don’t bleed out.

Because you may get cut, that means your skin - that outer layer of protection - can get breached, causing a risk of infection. Therefore, your inflammation and immune system are turned on.

Things that aren’t as important get switched off. For example, you don’t need to digest food if you are being chased by a bear. Your reproductive systems get turned off because the body isn’t thinking about reproducing and making babies.

Let's recap. During stress/trauma, your digestion and reproduction is turned off. Your immune system, clotting system, and blood sugar metabolism systems are turned on, along with a flood of stress hormones. If we get stuck in this response, our bodies are in a prime state to develop chronic disease.

Now, let's turn our attention to the wild and observe how animals deal with stress. Watch this short video and this one. Pay close attention to the response - the breathing, the end of the stress response, and what the two animals do.

Now, let's talk about what we just observed. In the wild, animals are either caught, killed and eaten, or they survive. And when animals survive, as we see in the videos, they breathe to relax their stress response. They shake off the excess adrenaline. It brings the body back to balance. Then, they can carry on with life. 

Consider what we do as humans. We have these same physiologic responses as the animals, but we never go through the process of addressing past trauma and current stress. It is breeding chronic disease in our lives. Even if you aren’t a Swiftie, we all need to learn to deal with our current stress and past traumas, and literally SHAKE IT OFF!

While stress is typically a part of our modern world, and we can't control every aspect of what happens to us, we can decide what we will do in response. If you've been living in chronic stress for a while, have been diagnosed with chronic illnesses, and don't want to take a pill for the rest of your life, let's chat. There's hope!

Functional medicine looks for the root causes of disease, including stress and trauma, and deals with them using a holistic, multi-faceted approach.

If you'd like to discuss your health challenges with Dr. Deborah Bowers, Functional Pharmacist & Health Coach, schedule a complimentary discovery call here.