Episode 140: Why Does My Body Hold Trauma? How Chronic Fatigue, Autoimmunity & Weight Gain Have An Emotional Trigger with Dr. Partha Nandi

You push through exhaustion, telling yourself it's just stress. Your body sends signals you can't ignore: chronic fatigue, unexplained pain, digestive issues, mood swings. What if these are messages about the emotional wounds that remain unresolved from your past?

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Partha Nandi for a conversation on chronic health issues, share five key insights that transform how we understand trauma's biological impact. This episode gives you the core concepts from the new book, The Biology of Trauma, about how trauma impacts your body, your own biology maintains the survival state and the repair tools needed for healing.

Key Topics & Timestamps:

[00:50] Why I Wrote This Book: For the high-performing person who doesn't realize their body is accumulating trauma until a health crisis forces recognition

[01:18] The 2014 Wake-Up Call: From marathon runner to unable to get out of bed during surgery residency - the moment everything changed

[03:01] Trauma as Biology, Not Psychology: How adverse childhood experiences become measurable disease patterns decades later

[04:29] The Biology of Being Stuck: Understanding functional freeze and why growth becomes impossible in trauma states

[06:14] Science-Based Healing Pathways: Creating biology of safety through mitochondrial support, antioxidants, and repair tools

[08:26] What Makes This Book Different: Bridging Western medicine with trauma healing using specific biomarkers and measurable changes

[10:30] Beyond Trauma-Informed Awareness: Why awareness without actionable tools still fails patients and what to do instead

[17:00] Insight #1 - Internal Response Matters: Trauma isn't the event - it's your body's five-step sequence during overwhelm

[19:01] Insight #2 - The Critical Line: Your invisible boundary between experiences that grow you versus break you

[21:23] Insight #3 - Cellular Trauma Reality: How mitochondria literally change shape and function during overwhelm

[23:51] Insight #4 - Essential Sequence: Safety, support, then expansion - why most people skip the crucial first step

[26:54] Insight #5 - Biology as Healing Ally: How the same systems holding trauma become your greatest recovery resource

Main Takeaways:

• Trauma Becomes Biology: Adverse experiences create measurable changes in cellular function, mitochondrial energy production, and nervous system regulation that can manifest decades later

• Cell Danger Response: When overwhelm crosses a critical threshold, mitochondria physically change shape and switch to survival energy systems, creating chronic symptoms

• Universal Trauma Response Pattern: All overwhelming experiences follow the same five-step sequence - startle, stress, powerlessness, freeze, shutdown - regardless of the trigger

• Biological Markers Matter: Heart rate variability, mitochondrial function, and inflammatory markers provide objective evidence of trauma's cellular impact

• Critical Line of Overwhelm: Everyone has an invisible threshold between experiences that grow us versus break us, which shifts daily based on current capacity

• Essential Sequence for Healing: Recovery requires three phases - safety, support, then expansion - with most approaches failing by skipping biological safety first

• Integration is Required: Trauma affects mind, body, and biology simultaneously, requiring coordinated intervention across all levels for lasting change

• Personalized Repair Approach: Effective healing identifies individual biological blocks rather than applying generic protocols to complex trauma presentations

• Cellular Recovery is Possible: The same mitochondria that hold trauma patterns can restore optimal function when given proper conditions and support

Notable Quotes

"I wrote it really for the person who I used to be. I used to be the person who, despite all of my education, despite even being a very, I would say, high performing person, I didn't realize how much trauma my body was holding and I didn't realize it until I got very sick."

"Your cells experience trauma too. You can't therapy or supplement your way out when your cells and body systems are stuck in survival mode."

"Your mitochondria literally change shape, becoming round and rigid instead of long and flexible, and they switch to a backup energy system that produces less energy but can function under threat."

"When you cross that critical line of overwhelm, your cells engage their own emergency break called the cell danger response. Just like your nervous system shuts down for protection, your cellular powerhouses, your mitochondria shift from efficient energy production to barely surviving."

"Most people skip the safety phase though and jump straight into deep processing, and this often retraumatizes them."

"Your symptoms are messengers, your reactions are information, and your healing journey becomes a collaboration with the incredible wisdom your body has been holding all along."

"It gives me a language to explain myself, my trauma, and my experience to others." - Early Reader

Episode Takeaway

The Biology of Trauma book reveals how adverse experiences rewire cellular function through the cell danger response, causing mitochondria to shift into survival mode and creating chronic health problems years later. Understanding trauma's biological reality at the cellular level provides both validation for mysterious symptoms and specific repair tools. When mitochondria are stuck in survival mode, psychological interventions alone cannot restore optimal cellular function - healing requires addressing biological dysfunction through targeted mitochondrial support, reducing cellular inflammation, and following the essential sequence of safety, support, and expansion at the cellular level. This integrated approach bridges the gap between understanding trauma's impact and having actionable tools to address it, offering hope for those whose symptoms have resisted conventional treatment by targeting the root biological mechanisms where trauma actually lives.

Resources Related To This Episode

Resources/Guides:

• The Biology of Trauma book - Available now everywhere books are sold. Get your copy

Related Episodes:

• Episode 122: Shutdown Before Stress: The Misstep in Trauma Healing That Often Gets Missed

• Episode 129: Why You're Still in Survival Mode (Even After Years of Therapy and Healing Work)

Related YouTube videos:

• Why Your Body Is Wired for Danger: Understanding Trauma's Impact on Your Nervous System

• Mitochondria’s Role in Trauma Work with Gabor Maté 

Your host: Dr. Aimie Apigian, double board-certified physician (Preventive/Addiction Medicine) with master's degrees in biochemistry and public health, revolutionizes trauma healing by revealing how our cells—not just our minds—store trauma. Her book "The Biology of Trauma" (foreword by Gabor Maté) transforms our understanding of how the body experiences and holds trauma. After adopting a child during medical school sparked her journey, she developed an integrative science-based sequence for the healing journey. Through her practitioner training, podcast, YouTube channel, and international speaking, she bridges functional medicine, attachment and trauma therapy, proving that repairing trauma's impact on the mind, body and biology is possible.

Cellular Trauma and Mitochondrial Dysfunction: Understanding How Your Body Stores Fear at the Biological Level

High-performing individuals often push through exhaustion, dismissing symptoms as normal stress from busy lives. Yet chronic fatigue, unexplained pain, digestive issues, and mood swings may signal something deeper: cellular trauma patterns accumulated over years without conscious awareness.

The biology of trauma reveals how adverse experiences program lasting changes in mitochondrial function, nervous system regulation, and immune responses. These biological alterations can manifest decades after original events, creating health crises that conventional medicine struggles to address effectively.

What Happens When Your Body Holds Trauma You Don't Remember

Trauma becomes biology through measurable cellular changes that persist long after psychological memories fade. Research demonstrates how adverse childhood experiences increase risk for autoimmunity, chronic fatigue, depression, and early death through specific biological pathways rather than simple psychological mechanisms.

The disconnect between conscious trauma awareness and biological trauma patterns explains why many successful individuals develop mysterious health problems despite apparent life stability. Their cells carry adaptive responses to early overwhelm, creating symptoms that appear unrelated to current circumstances.

The High Achiever's Hidden Pattern

Surgery residency taught me that pushing through physical limits was expected, even celebrated. Running marathons and biking 100 miles seemed proof of mental toughness and physical resilience. The morning I couldn't get out of bed shattered this illusion completely.

Common signs of hidden cellular trauma in high achievers:

• Dismissing physical symptoms as "just stress" from busy schedules

• Prioritizing external achievements over internal body signals

• Believing willpower can overcome any physical limitation

• Experiencing unexplained fatigue despite athletic conditioning

• Developing health problems that resist standard medical treatment

My health scorecard revealed the truth: overweight despite athletic training, depression requiring two medications, anxiety, chronic fatigue syndrome, and newly discovered autoimmunity. Every symptom correlated with adverse childhood experiences research, yet I couldn't identify obvious trauma in my background.

This pattern repeats across high-performing populations. Educational achievement and professional success mask underlying biological dysregulation until system breakdown forces recognition of deeper issues requiring comprehensive intervention approaches.

How Cells Experience Trauma Through the Cell Danger Response

Mitochondria serve as cellular powerhouses, producing energy for every biological function from thinking to digestion. When overwhelm crosses your critical threshold, these tiny structures engage an emergency protocol called the cell danger response.

During this protective mechanism, mitochondria literally change shape from long and flexible to round and rigid. They switch from efficient energy production to barely-surviving backup systems that generate less energy but function under perceived threat conditions.

Cellular Shutdown Creates Cascading Effects

Physical manifestations of cellular trauma:

• Brain fog from neurons struggling with compromised energy production

• Digestive dysfunction when gut cells cannot maintain protective barriers

• Chronic pain through microinflammation and altered blood flow patterns

• Sleep disturbances from cells stuck in perpetual alert mode

• Immune system dysregulation creating chronic inflammation

This biological reality explains why willpower alone cannot overcome trauma patterns. When cellular powerhouses have switched to survival mode, no amount of caffeine, determination, or positive thinking can restore optimal function without addressing underlying cellular dysfunction.

Understanding cell danger response reveals why traditional stress management techniques often fail with trauma-related symptoms. The problem operates at a cellular level that requires specific biological interventions alongside psychological processing.

The Universal Five-Step Trauma Response Sequence

Your nervous system follows a precise pattern during overwhelming experiences, regardless of the specific trigger. Whether facing physical danger, emotional overwhelm, or chronic powerlessness, your body moves through identical internal steps: startle, stress, powerlessness, freeze, shutdown.

The universal trauma response sequence:

1. Startle - immediate nervous system alarm activation

2. Stress - mobilization of biological resources for action

3. Powerlessness - hitting the wall of inability to change circumstances

4. Freeze - protective immobilization when action proves impossible

5. Shutdown - complete system conservation to preserve core functions

This universal sequence means someone experiencing a car accident and someone enduring childhood emotional abuse process similar internal landscapes. The external circumstances differ dramatically, but the biological response pattern remains consistent across trauma types.

Why Internal Response Matters More Than External Events

Dr. Gabor Maté's insight revolutionizes trauma understanding: "Trauma is not what happens to you, it's what happens inside you as a result of what happened to you." This shifts focus from cataloging adverse events to understanding biological response patterns.

Working with my adopted son Miguel revealed this principle clearly. His explosive behavioral reactions weren't character flaws but his nervous system cycling through survival responses based on early life experiences. His body was doing exactly what it was designed to do.

Understanding this sequence provides a roadmap for healing. When you know the steps your nervous system takes into trauma states, you can trace them back in reverse to find your way home to safety and regulation.

Your Critical Line Between Growth and Breakdown

Everyone possesses an invisible threshold separating experiences that build resilience from those that create trauma. Like a muscle that handles increasing weight until it suddenly tears, your nervous system operates within dynamic capacity limits that shift constantly.

This critical line gets crossed through two primary mechanisms: too much too fast, or too little for too long. Sudden overwhelming events like accidents represent the first pathway. Chronic under-support leading to gradual breakdown represents the second.

How Daily Capacity Fluctuates

Factors that influence your critical line:

• Sleep quality and duration affecting nervous system recovery

• Nutritional status supporting or depleting cellular function

• Current support systems providing external resources

• Accumulated stress load from recent or ongoing challenges

• Physical health status impacting overall resilience

Research demonstrates this principle through judicial decision studies. Judges make 65% favorable parole decisions after breaks versus nearly 0% when fatigued. The same legal case receives dramatically different outcomes based solely on the judge's current capacity state.

Your personal threshold moves daily based on these factors. The same work deadline that energizes you when well-rested might overwhelm you when depleted from poor sleep or relationship stress.

Understanding where your line exists and what influences its position changes everything about approaching healing. Instead of pushing through symptoms or managing them, you learn to recognize approaching overwhelm and either increase capacity or decrease demands before crossing into trauma territory.

The Essential Sequence for Nervous System Recovery

Your body exits trauma following the same precise sequence it used to enter, but in reverse order. Recovery requires systematic progression through three distinct phases: safety, support, then expansion.

Most healing attempts fail because they skip directly to processing without establishing biological safety first. Consider the yoga instructor whose startle response was so severe that her toddler's innocent hug would make her jump. Despite years of mindfulness training, she couldn't regulate because her nervous system had never learned foundational safety.

Phase One: Establishing Biological Safety

Key components of the safety phase:

• Learning to track nervous system states moment by moment

• Creating micro-experiences of felt safety in your body

• Establishing consistent routines that signal predictability

• Building tolerance for regulation without forcing calm

• Accepting that safety might initially feel foreign or uncomfortable

Safety involves developing these capacities gradually. For those whose systems have been stuck in survival mode for years, feeling genuinely safe for even 30 seconds can require significant conscious effort.

This phase focuses on stabilization rather than activation or processing. Your nervous system needs consistent signals that current circumstances differ from past threat conditions before it can safely release protective responses.

Phase Two: Targeted Support and Repair

Biological repair components:

• Supporting mitochondrial function through targeted nutrition

• Reducing brain inflammation with specific interventions

• Healing gut dysfunction affecting the gut-brain axis

• Addressing oxidative stress from prolonged activation

• Optimizing sleep and circadian rhythm regulation

Somatic and emotional repair:

• Completing interrupted protective responses through body work

• Integrating fragmented aspects of self through parts work

• Addressing internal conflicts creating ongoing stress

• Processing stored emotions in a regulated nervous system

• Building capacity for emotional tolerance and expression

Support addresses specific blocks preventing your system from naturally returning to regulation. This phase requires simultaneous attention to biological repair, completing interrupted protective responses, and integrating fragmented aspects of self.

Phase Three: Authentic Expansion

Characteristics of healthy expansion:

• Shifting from "what's wrong with me?" to "how can I be most alive?"

• Building from regulation rather than survival states

• Exploring new experiences without triggering protective responses

• Developing capacities that were inaccessible during trauma

• Creating authentic relationships and meaningful goals

Expansion represents life beyond symptom management. Growth in this phase occurs naturally rather than being forced. Your nervous system has developed enough capacity and safety to explore new possibilities.

Why Integration Matters More Than Single Approaches

Traditional trauma treatment often focuses on psychological processing while missing biological components entirely. Alternatively, medical approaches address physical symptoms without considering emotional or nervous system factors. Neither approach alone proves sufficient for lasting transformation.

Why single approaches fall short:

• You cannot think your way out when cells remain in survival mode

• You cannot supplement your way out without addressing emotional patterns

• You cannot process your way out without supporting cellular function

• Trauma affects multiple systems requiring coordinated intervention

• Sustainable healing requires addressing root causes across all levels

Measuring Biological Recovery

Objective markers of nervous system healing:

• Heart rate variability improvements showing autonomic balance

• Mitochondrial function tests revealing cellular energy recovery

• Inflammatory markers indicating reduced systemic activation

• Sleep quality improvements reflecting nervous system regulation

• Sustained energy without requiring stimulants or caffeine

Subjective indicators of integrated healing:

• Physical symptoms improving without forcing or managing

• Emotional regulation during challenging situations

• Relationships becoming easier and more authentic

• Decision-making clarity even during stressful periods

• Natural completion of stress cycles without getting stuck

Tracking both objective and subjective markers provides comprehensive feedback about intervention effectiveness while maintaining motivation during challenging healing phases.

The Gap Between Trauma-Informed Awareness and Effective Action

Many healthcare institutions attempt to become "trauma-informed" without providing practitioners with actionable intervention tools. Being aware that trauma affects patients while lacking knowledge to address it differently fails to improve outcomes.

Common gaps in trauma-informed care:

• Recognizing trauma without knowing how to address it biologically

• Awareness training without practical intervention skills

• Psychological focus missing cellular and nervous system components

• One-size-fits-all approaches ignoring individual biological differences

• Symptom management rather than root cause resolution

Awareness without intervention capability often increases frustration for both patients and providers. Recognizing trauma's impact while feeling helpless to address it effectively can create additional stress rather than facilitating healing.

Bridging Western Medicine with Trauma Biology

This integration provides specific biomarkers and measurable interventions rather than vague wellness concepts. Heart rate variability, mitochondrial function, immune markers, and oxidative stress levels offer objective assessment tools for trauma's biological impact.

Medical training prepares practitioners to understand physiology and biochemistry but rarely addresses how emotional experiences translate into cellular dysfunction. This gap leaves many providers ill-equipped to recognize or address trauma's biological manifestations.

Personal Assessment: Recognizing Cellular Trauma Patterns

High achievers often excel at overriding body signals in service of external goals. Learning to recognize cellular trauma patterns requires developing new awareness of subtle biological indicators that you may have trained yourself to ignore.

Early warning signs of cellular trauma:

• Energy patterns requiring stimulants to maintain function

• Digestive issues that fluctuate with emotional stress

• Physical symptoms resisting standard medical treatment

• Inflammatory markers elevated without clear medical cause

• Sleep disturbances and cognitive symptoms like brain fog

Nervous system indicators:

• Emotional responses disproportionate to current triggers

• Difficulty relaxing even in safe environments

• Startling easily or feeling constantly "on edge"

• Mood fluctuations that seem unrelated to circumstances

• Feeling disconnected from your body or emotions

Your body responds to perceived threats based on past programming rather than current reality. Recognizing these patterns as adaptive responses rather than personal failures creates space for compassionate healing approaches.

Building Your Personalized Recovery Protocol

Effective healing requires assessing psychological, emotional, and biological factors to identify your primary blocks rather than applying generic protocols. Starting with your biggest current obstacle prevents overwhelm while creating momentum toward comprehensive recovery.

Assessment framework:

• Evaluate biological markers including energy, sleep, and inflammation

• Assess nervous system capacity and regulation patterns

• Identify emotional patterns and relationship dynamics

• Determine which domain requires immediate attention

• Start with the most significant current limitation

Implementation strategy:

• Begin with one sustainable change addressing your primary block

• Build gradually on small successes rather than attempting overhaul

• Track both subjective improvements and objective markers

• Connect with practitioners understanding trauma's biological reality

• Adjust interventions based on capacity and readiness

Some individuals need biological support first - addressing mitochondrial function, inflammation, and cellular repair before psychological processing becomes effective. Others require nervous system stabilization through somatic work before cellular interventions prove helpful.

The Promise of Biological Understanding

Understanding trauma's cellular impact transforms your relationship with symptoms from adversarial to collaborative. Symptoms become messengers providing information about biological needs rather than enemies requiring elimination through willpower.

The transformation understanding brings:

• Symptoms as information rather than personal failures

• Body wisdom rather than body betrayal perspective

• Collaboration with healing intelligence rather than fighting symptoms

• Addressing root causes rather than managing surface manifestations

• Hope for genuine recovery rather than lifelong symptom management

Your nervous system developed protective patterns based on past experiences and biological capacity. When you align intervention efforts with biological reality, transformation accelerates beyond what traditional approaches suggest possible.

The same biological systems that stored trauma patterns possess remarkable capacity for repair and regeneration when provided appropriate support and conditions. Your mitochondria can restore efficient energy production. Your nervous system can develop new regulatory patterns. Your cells can exit survival mode and return to optimal function.

This understanding provides genuine hope for addressing root causes rather than managing symptoms indefinitely. Healing becomes possible at any age through neuroplasticity and cellular repair mechanisms that remain active throughout life.

Helpful Research

Cell Danger Response Theory Naviaux, R.K. (2014). "Metabolic features of the cell danger response." Mitochondrion, 16, 7-17.

Dr. Robert Naviaux's research establishes the scientific foundation for understanding how trauma affects cellular function at the mitochondrial level. His work demonstrates how cells shift into protective metabolic states during perceived threats, literally changing the shape and function of mitochondria as described in this blog. When cells remain stuck in this danger response chronically, it creates the biological basis for symptoms like chronic fatigue, brain fog, digestive issues, and chronic pain that characterize trauma's physical impact. This research validates why addressing cellular dysfunction is essential for trauma recovery, not just psychological processing.

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Cellular Programming Felitti, V.J., et al. (1998). "Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults." American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 14(4), 245-258.

The landmark ACE study provides epidemiological evidence for how early experiences program adult health outcomes through biological pathways, including cellular and mitochondrial dysfunction. This research supports the core premise that trauma becomes biology, showing increased risks for autoimmunity, chronic fatigue, depression, and early death through measurable cellular changes. While the study identified how adverse experiences affect long-term health, it didn't provide solutions for reversing these cellular effects - which is where understanding mitochondrial repair and the cell danger response becomes crucial for healing.

Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Chronic Disease Morris, G., & Berk, M. (2015). "The many roads to mitochondrial dysfunction in neuroimmune and neuropsychiatric disorders." BMC Medicine, 13, 68.

This comprehensive review demonstrates how mitochondrial dysfunction underlies many conditions associated with trauma, including chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, depression, and autoimmune disorders. The research validates the connection between cellular energy production compromise and the symptoms experienced by trauma survivors. Understanding these mitochondrial pathways provides specific targets for intervention, explaining why supporting cellular energy production through targeted nutrients, reducing oxidative stress, and addressing inflammation can dramatically improve trauma-related health conditions when combined with nervous system healing approaches.

This Episode Is For: 

✓ High-performers pushing through exhaustion

✓ Anyone with chronic fatigue and unexplained symptoms

✓ People with autoimmunity and trauma history

✓ Those whose bodies seem to work against them

✓ Practitioners needing biological framework for trauma

✓ Anyone interested in cell danger response

✓ People ready for measurable healing approach

✓ Those wanting to understand trauma at cellular level

What You'll Learn

Listen to Dr. Aimie explain how chronic symptoms have emotional triggers. Learn the five key insights including why trauma is an internal response. The five-step sequence of startle, stress, powerlessness, freeze, and shutdown. The critical line of overwhelm that shifts daily between growth and breakdown. How mitochondria literally change shape during trauma, becoming round and rigid. Switching to survival energy systems creating chronic symptoms persisting over time. The essential healing sequence of safety, support, and expansion that works. How the same biological systems holding trauma become your recovery resource. And why psychological interventions alone cannot restore cellular function without addressing mitochondrial support, antioxidants, and biological repair tools needed at the cellular level where trauma actually lives affecting function.

Trauma lives in your cells—healing requires biological repair, not just therapy.

Listen to Episode 140 with Dr. Partha Nandi →

Disclaimer

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The information shared reflects my clinical expertise and research, but every person's biology and healing journey is unique. Always consult with qualified healthcare providers before making changes to your treatment plan or starting new interventions. If you're experiencing a mental health crisis, please contact emergency services or a crisis helpline immediately.

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