How Trauma Impacts the Immune System
The little known secrets of our interlaced connections of health and healing from a bio-psycho-immunological affect.
Someone recently asked me how trauma influences immune function. Here goes… [in brief]
Traumatic events lead to proinflammatory cascade of hormones and body’s safety systems for fighting infections / antigens / environmental pathogens. “The environment is dangerous, I must protect myself!”
Cytokines are released a part of the immune response to the environmental threats. Cytokines further increase inflammation and serve as an adaptive purpose to help the body in a time of need, but can often get overwhelmed and go haywire.
Panic. Trauma. Fight or Flight. Sympathetic Overdrive.
We commonly think about inflammation with physiological disease we can see manifest with redness, itching, pain, and swelling but also in conditions of autoimmunity, depression, anxiety, brain fog, heart disease, diabetes… and ultimately most disease processes – including traditional signs of aging, inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis, eczema, asthma, obesity, thyroid disease, and the list goes on… endometriosis, fibromyalgia, etc.
Both physical and psychological stressors, such as a traumatic car wreck, stub of the toe or loss of a parent, pet, or growing up in a household of domestic violence, lacking parental attachment, or other traumatic life events can trigger acute inflammatory effects as well as chronic longstanding inflammation when the threat never goes away (whether real or perceived) and healing never happens.
What we see in modern ‘science’ and industrialized systems of modern ‘medicine’ are most known to neglect, ignore, overlook and overtly dismiss these connections in health – but they are real and they are powerful.
Hope this helps provide us with greater insight and wisdom to take on the next breath of life with greater encouragement for the lifelong journey of health and healing, recovery and relapse. None of us are perfect. We are all on our own journey. We must not judge others who are behind us or beyond our current place in life.
We each have a gift to give and still so much more to learn.
We each have a life to live and experiences to enjoy and to grieve, to cherish to mourn.
Health and healing takes time. It takes heart. It takes discipline and determination.
An open mind, an open heart, and an open hand.
In community, health and healing can become easier and more encouragement.
Your own individual healing journey is unique to you, but I can certainly assure you that we all are made of similar strands of human DNA.
We are in this together. For now and forever.
For past problems and future hardships.
For life’s growing pains and joyful blessings.
IF YOU HAVE A STORY, SHARE IT.
IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION, ASK IT.
If trauma can have this level of negative effect on our lives, then healing can have just as powerful an impact to push us out of fear and into freedom, emotional release and unforeseen progress in all areas of health and wellbeing.
This is why we must hold onto hope and hold onto each other in this wild ride.
No need to be afraid. Healing happens in the light. So don’t stay in the dark.
Now you know.
