People with PTSD may also experience physical symptoms, such as increased blood pressure and heart rate, fatigue, muscle tension, nausea, joint pain, headaches, back pain or other types of pain. The person in pain may not realize the connection between their pain and a traumatic event.
Physical digestive symptoms associated with PTSD include IBS - diarrhea, constipation, bloating, as well as stomach ulcers, gall bladder disorders and more. When your microbiome is unbalanced from trauma it communicates that message of chaos back to our mind via the vagus nerve.
Your brain is equipped with an alarm system that normally helps ensure your survival. With PTSD, this system becomes overly sensitive and triggers easily. In turn, the parts of your brain responsible for thinking and memory stop functioning properly.
Traumatic stress disorder, mainly PTSD, is related to the immune response, including increases in inflammatory factors and decreases in anti-inflammatory factors. In addition, it has been demonstrated that PTSD and immune diseases have a common genetic basis at the gene expression level.
According to recent studies, Emotional Trauma and PTSD do cause both brain and physical damage. Neuropathologists have seen overlapping effects of physical and emotional trauma upon the brain.
Research has found that people with untreated PTSD are at higher risk of developing heart and circulatory diseases such as atrial fibrillation, stroke, and heart attack, and risk factors such as high blood pressure.
Biologically, trauma has been shown to impact the brain's limbic system, which is responsible for behavioral and emotional responses. It's involved in the autonomic nervous system response that we feel when we sense danger. In other words, our survival instinct.
People with PTSD may also experience physical symptoms, such as increased blood pressure and heart rate, fatigue, muscle tension, nausea, joint pain, headaches, back pain or other types of pain. The person in pain may not realize the connection between their pain and a traumatic event.
Trauma often manifests physically as well as emotionally. Some common physical signs of trauma include paleness, lethargy, fatigue, poor concentration and a racing heartbeat. The victim may have anxiety or panic attacks and be unable to cope in certain circumstances.
Numerous population-based studies have demonstrated that patients with PTSD are more likely to develop and die from CVD. These findings have been confirmed in diverse populations, including Veterans and active-duty military personnel, nurses, and 9/11 survivors.
Many people with PTSD also have a number of other problems, including: other mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety or phobias. self-harming or destructive behaviour, such as drug misuse or alcohol misuse. other physical symptoms, such as headaches, dizziness, chest pains and stomach aches.
Hyperarousal is a hallmark of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD has been associated with increased blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) in veteran populations.
Both the amygdala and the mid-anterior cingulate cortex become over-stimulated when a person has PTSD. However, the hippocampus, right inferior frontal gyrus, ventromedial PFC, dorsolateral PFC, and orbitofrontal cortex all become hypoactive, some to the point of atrophy.
Unexpected rage or tears, shortness of breath, increased heart rate, shaking, memory loss, concentration challenges, insomnia, nightmares and emotional numbing can hijack both an identity and a life.
Ever since people's responses to overwhelming experiences have been systematically explored, researchers have noted that a trauma is stored in somatic memory and expressed as changes in the biological stress response.
PTSD patients have been found to exhibit increased concentrations of circulating inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein and interleukin-6, suggesting dysfunction of the innate immune inflammatory system.
Posttraumatic stress disorder is associated with reduced vitamin D levels and functional polymorphisms of the vitamin D binding-protein in a population-based sample. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry.
Neuroimaging studies have demonstrated significant neurobiologic changes in PTSD. There appear to be 3 areas of the brain that are different in patients with PTSD compared with those in control subjects: the hippocampus, the amygdala, and the medial frontal cortex.
Changes in the brain
One part of the brain responsible for memory and emotions is known as the hippocampus. In people with PTSD, the hippocampus appears smaller in size. It's thought that changes in this part of the brain may be related to fear and anxiety, memory problems and flashbacks.
The high co-morbidity between obesity, metabolic disorders and PTSD suggest that underlying neuroendocrine and metabolic changes are present in PTSD that either increase the risk for systemic metabolic dysregulation or reflect a primary change in metabolism as a result of the traumatic experience.
According to research, people who have been through trauma are also more likely to develop irritable bowel syndrome or IBS. IBS causes you to have pain in your belly, as well as other symptoms. For example: Diarrhea.
Gastrointestinal function is particularly influenced by stress. Common gastrointestinal symptoms due to stress are heartburn, indigestion, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, constipation and associated lower abdominal pain. These symptoms and the alterations in intestinal function that cause them are becoming understood.
Stress affects all systems of the body including the musculoskeletal, respiratory, cardiovascular, endocrine, gastrointestinal, nervous, and reproductive systems.
Traumatic injury disrupts normal immune system homeostasis. Injury disrupts immune system homeostasis and leads to the development of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) and compensatory anti‐inflammatory response syndrome (CARS) in trauma patients.
Stress that's left unchecked can contribute to many health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and diabetes.