In the aftermath of the recent tragedies in El Paso and Dayton, it’s nearly impossible to know what to do or say. These acts of gun violence bring up all sorts of painful emotions – grief, sadness, anger, and fear. As the daughter of a pastor, I was taught the importance of weeping with those […]
How Might Epigenetics Influence the Link between PTSD and Inflammation?
Is there a link between PTSD and our body’s immune response? Well, research published in the Journal of Brain, Behavior, and Immunity has stretched beyond focusing on what happens to the body’s nervous and endocrine systems after trauma. . . . . . and researchers have discovered a connection between trauma and the body’s immune […]
PTSD and Emotional Trauma Affects Partners of Veterans, Too
Caring for someone with PTSD can sometimes lead to secondary trauma. And researchers at the University of Utah wondered just how bad that secondary trauma could be. While completing her graduate studies, Catherine Caska Wallace, PhD and her research team studied two groups of male veterans, along with their female partners. In 32 couples, the […]
The Body’s Adaptive Response to Trauma
The pain from trauma runs deep, and its impact lingers in both the brain and body. And so often, people who have experienced trauma are embarrassed by their body’s response to the event – the way it shut down on them when they needed protection most. But in the video below, Stephen Porges, PhD explains […]
The Impact of Trauma on Future Generations
Could trauma’s impact be passed along genetically from one generation to the next? For years, Rachel Yehuda, PhD has been studying the biological impact of trauma on Holocaust survivors and their children. We discussed some of her earlier findings here. At that time, researchers were in the early stages of investigating epigenetic change – the […]