Why Your Body Keeps the Score: The Biology Behind Chronic Pain and Autoimmune Issues with Dr. Aimie Apigian

Are you one of those midlife women who seems to attract every health issue while others around you remain mysteriously unaffected? Have you ever wondered why your husband can eat junk food and maintain perfect health while you struggle with chronic pain, autoimmune issues, or stubborn weight gain despite doing “everything right”?

The answer might not be in your genes, your diet, or even your toxic load – though these all play a role. Instead, the culprit could be stored trauma patterns in your nervous system that have been quietly sabotaging your health for decades.

I recently had a conversation with Dr. Aimie Apigian, a medical doctor and expert in trauma biology, that completely shifted my understanding of why so many of us in midlife face these seemingly random health challenges. What she revealed about stored trauma and nervous system healing offers hope for women who have been searching for answers to their chronic health issues.

What is Stored Trauma Really?

When most of us hear “trauma,” we immediately think of major life events – abuse, accidents, or devastating losses. But Dr. Aimie explains that stored trauma is much more nuanced and far more common than we realize.

“By the time we’ve reached midlife, we have all experienced accumulative trauma in a lot of different ways, even if your brain doesn’t recognize a specific event,” she explains. The key isn’t the severity of what happened, but rather the inner experience during those moments.

Stored trauma occurs when two specific conditions are met: you feel completely alone, and there’s nothing you can do to make the bad thing stop. This combination creates a specific biological state that gets wired into your nervous system as your default response to stress.

The 1970s Connection: When “Normal” Created Trauma

If you were born in the 1970s like I was, this conversation might hit particularly close to home. Dr. Aimie points out that many parenting practices from that era unknowingly created stored trauma responses in our developing nervous systems.

The cry-it-out method was standard practice – parents were told that letting babies self-soothe was healthy. Many of our mothers received injections to stop breast milk production because formula was considered superior. These weren’t acts of poor parenting; they were following the best advice available at the time.

But from a nervous system perspective, a crying baby who receives no response experiences that fundamental trauma response: feeling alone while something distressing happens that they can’t stop. This creates neural pathways that can influence health responses decades later.

How Stored Trauma Becomes Your Biology

The most crucial insight Dr. Aimie shares is that stored trauma doesn’t just stay in your past – it literally becomes your biology. Your immune system, digestive system, lymphatic system, and even your structural vulnerability to injuries are all influenced by these early adaptations.

“Those adaptations don’t go away,” she explains. “Those adaptations actually become our immune system. They become our digestive system. They become our lymphatic system.”

This explains why you might find yourself in that frustrating cycle of addressing one health issue after another – fixing your gut health, removing mold exposure, optimizing your thyroid, detoxing heavy metals – only to have new problems emerge. You’re treating symptoms of a nervous system that’s still stuck in survival mode.

The Trauma Load Concept

Dr. Aimie introduces the concept of “trauma load” – the cumulative burden of stored trauma responses your body carries. The higher your trauma load, the more vulnerable you become to toxins, infections, and injuries because your nervous system’s natural healing pathways are compromised.

This trauma load affects your detoxification systems, making you more sensitive to environmental toxins. It influences your immune system, potentially leading to autoimmune conditions. It even affects your structural integrity, making you more prone to injuries and slower to heal.

Why Your Nervous System Keeps You Stuck

Your nervous system’s primary job is to keep you alive, and it does this by constantly scanning for danger. When stored trauma exists, your nervous system continues to perceive threats even when you’re objectively safe.

This is why you might feel that background anxiety, struggle with sleep, or find your body responding dramatically to stressors that don’t seem to affect others. Your nervous system adapted to an environment that required hypervigilance, and those adaptations are still running the show.

Dr. Aimie shares a powerful insight about relationships: “Our nervous system chooses people, places and things based on what feels safe. And until we’ve healed some of our past pain, what feels safe may not be what is healthy.”

The Three Levels of Nervous System Healing

The hopeful news is that stored trauma can be addressed through comprehensive nervous system healing. Dr. Aimie outlines three essential levels that must be addressed:

1. The Mind Level

This involves changing your self-talk and thought patterns. However, positive thinking alone isn’t enough – you need to address the underlying nervous system dysregulation driving those thoughts.

2. The Body Level (Somatic Work)

Physical practices that help create a “felt sense of safety” in your nervous system. This might include breathing techniques, specific movements, or even simple practices like placing a pillow over your stomach to signal safety to your nervous system.

3. The Biology Level

Addressing the cellular and systemic changes that stored trauma has created in your body. This often does include supplements, dietary changes, and what some call “biohacking” – but only as part of a comprehensive approach.

Why Supplements Alone Don’t Work

Many women try to shortcut the nervous system healing process by jumping straight to the biology level – taking supplements, trying elimination diets, or investing in expensive testing. While these approaches can be helpful, they often fail when used in isolation.

Dr. Aimie explains this tendency as a trauma pattern itself: “When we don’t feel like we have enough energy, we will always want to choose the easiest route. Our nervous system will drive us to choose what feels easiest.”

The challenge is that stored trauma requires healing at all three levels. Skip the mind and body work, and your nervous system continues sending danger signals that counteract your biological interventions.

The Path Forward: Nervous System Healing in Midlife

The message here isn’t one of doom but of hope. Understanding the biology of stored trauma provides a roadmap for healing that many women have never had access to.

Neuroplasticity – your nervous system’s ability to change and adapt – continues throughout your life. When you create the right internal and external environment through comprehensive nervous system healing, your system can finally shift from survival mode to thriving mode.

This doesn’t mean dismissing real structural issues, hormonal imbalances, or toxic exposures. Instead, it means addressing these issues within the context of a nervous system that’s finally operating from safety rather than survival.

If this resonates with your experience, consider starting with awareness. Notice when your body feels tense without obvious reason. Pay attention to that background anxiety or hypervigilance. Observe your responses to stress compared to others around you.

Dr. Aimie’s book “The Biology of Trauma” provides a comprehensive guide to understanding and addressing stored trauma through nervous system healing. You can find resources and assessments at biologyoftrauma.com.

Remember, recognizing stored trauma patterns isn’t about blame or dwelling in the past. It’s about understanding the biology that’s been influencing your health so you can finally address the root cause rather than just managing symptoms.

Your nervous system adapted to help you survive. Now it’s time to help it learn to thrive.

The contents of the Midlife Conversations podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider. Some episodes of Midlife Conversations may be sponsored by products or services discussed during the show. The host may receive compensation for such advertisements or if you purchase products through affiliate links mentioned on this podcast.