Episode 18: What Truth do Trauma Professionals Need to Know About Grains? with Dr. Peter Osborne & Dr. Tom O'Bryan
- THA Operations
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
When Food Becomes the Battle
Food is not supposed to be a battle. But for many people, grains and gluten create one, and that battle affects your trauma healing.
You're doing the nervous system work and addressing your Biology of Trauma®. You're practicing regulation and building capacity. But something isn't shifting the way it should.
Here's what many trauma professionals miss: inflammation from food keeps your nervous system reactive. When your body is fighting a daily immune response to what you eat, it can't fully heal trauma.
I interview two functional medicine experts today: Dr. Peter Osborne and Dr. Tom O'Bryan. They share the truth about how grains and gluten impact your body. This matters for you, your clients, and anyone healing trauma.
The Grain and Gluten Connection
Not everyone reacts the same way to grains, but the impact on inflammation is real for millions of people. Your gut health affects your brain health in ways that directly influence trauma recovery.
You don't need celiac disease to react to gluten. Non-celiac gluten sensitivity is real and affects more people than we realized. The symptoms show up as chronic inflammation, gut issues, brain fog, anxiety, depression, and nervous system dysregulation that won't resolve.
What happens in your gut directly impacts your brain through the gut-brain axis. Inflammation from grains can create the exact symptoms that look like unhealed trauma including difficulty regulating emotions, brain fog that mimics freeze states, anxiety that seems disconnected from triggers, depression that doesn't respond to nervous system work, and chronic fatigue that looks like overwhelm.
Dr. Osborne and Dr. O'Bryan explain how grains trigger immune responses in sensitive individuals. How that inflammation crosses the blood-brain barrier. How it affects neurotransmitter production and nervous system function. How it keeps your biology in defense mode even when you're working on regulation.
When food triggers your immune system, eating becomes stressful. Your body treats meals as threats, and that's not how healing works.
Why This Matters for Trauma Healing
Many trauma practitioners miss the food-inflammation connection. They work on nervous system regulation while their clients eat what keeps them inflamed, and then wonder why progress stalls.
When your body is fighting inflammation from food every single day, it can't heal trauma. Your nervous system stays reactive because your immune system is activated. Your biology stays in defense mode because it's literally defending against what you're eating.
This doesn't mean everyone needs to eliminate grains. This means understanding whether food is blocking your specific healing process. Whether inflammation is keeping your nervous system from shifting despite good trauma work.
The Biology of Trauma® approach recognizes that healing happens at multiple levels. You need nervous system regulation and you need to remove inflammatory triggers. You need trauma processing and you need gut healing. You can't separate the body's systems when they're constantly communicating with each other.
Dr. Osborne and Dr. O'Bryan share how to identify if grains are affecting you. What testing helps reveal sensitivities. What symptoms to watch for that indicate food-related inflammation. How to support your body instead of fighting it.
The Functional Medicine Approach
This isn't about trends or unnecessary restriction. It's about understanding your body's biology and supporting it instead of inadvertently working against it.
The functional medicine approach looks at root causes rather than just managing symptoms. It recognizes that inflammation from food affects every system in your body including your nervous system, your brain function, your emotional regulation, and your trauma recovery capacity.
Testing can identify specific sensitivities. Elimination diets can reveal what your body actually reacts to. Working with practitioners trained in both trauma and functional medicine can address both nervous system healing and inflammatory triggers simultaneously.
Food becomes fuel again when you stop eating what inflames you. Your body can redirect energy from constant immune defense to actual healing. Your nervous system can regulate more easily when it's not fighting inflammation. Your trauma work can finally gain traction when biology isn't blocking it.
Dr. Osborne and Dr. O'Bryan emphasize that this knowledge empowers rather than restricts. When you know what affects your body, you can make informed choices. When you understand the connection between food and nervous system function, you can support your healing more effectively.
This Episode Is For:
✓ Trauma professionals whose clients aren't progressing despite good nervous system work
✓ People with chronic inflammation, gut issues, or brain fog
✓ Anyone wondering if food is blocking their healing
✓ Practitioners wanting to understand the food-trauma connection
✓ Those with anxiety or depression that hasn't responded to standard treatments
✓ Anyone interested in functional medicine approaches to trauma healing
What You'll Learn
Listen to understand how grains and gluten affect trauma healing and why addressing inflammation matters for nervous system regulation. Discover how to identify if food is keeping you stuck. Learn why trauma professionals need to know about the gut-brain connection.
Your body can't heal trauma while fighting inflammation from food. Remove the battle and support the healing.
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.
Join the Conversation
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode. What resonated with you? What questions came up?
Please keep comments respectful and supportive. This is a community of people committed to healing. We welcome diverse perspectives and honest questions, but we don't tolerate personal attacks, spam, or content that could harm others on their healing journey.
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