EPISODE 69
Stored Trauma and Thyroid Autoimmunity with Dr. Aimie Apigian
“All autoimmune conditions are tied into trauma.” – Dr. Aimie Apigian
While many of us categorize chronic stress as a trigger in the development of autoimmune thyroid conditions, today’s guest does not. Dr. Aimie Apigian believes that many people are being diagnosed with stress or even chronic stress when they should be diagnosed with trauma. She attributes this misdiagnosis to the way we define trauma and stress.
Dr. Aimie Apigian, MD MS MPH is the leading medical expert on how life experiences get stored in the body and restoring the body to its best state of health through her signature model and methodology, The Biology of Trauma™. She is a Board-Certified Preventive Medicine physician with a Masters in Biochemistry and a Masters in Public Health. In addition to her medical training, she is also a Functional Medicine physician and has training and certifications specifically in neuro-autoimmunity, nutrition, and genetics for addictions, mental health, and mood and behavioral disorders. Dr. Aimie also has several certifications in various trauma therapies.
In this conversation, Dr. Aimie and I talk about what got her into this work, how her journey with healing her thyroid led to the development of her signature methodology, the difference between trauma and stress, what you can do to prepare your body for healing, the risk of being retraumatized by healing modalities, how you can help your body to heal itself, and more. Enjoy the episode!
During this episode, you’ll learn about:
- How Dr. Aimie’s son inspired her to go deep into studying trauma and its impact on the body
- Dr. Aimie’s recognition that her declining health was a result of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)
- How the quest for healing led to the development of Dr. Aimie’s signature methodology
- Why Dr. Aimie says all autoimmune conditions are trauma-related
- How you can tell the difference between a stress response and a trauma response
- Mind-body medicine and finding the right tools for your trauma response
- Triggers for the trauma response
- The connection between physical and emotional trauma
- What research shows about the connection between ACEs and the development of autoimmune conditions
- Working with your trauma response, so it no longer drives your health
- The three arms to Dr. Aimie’s signature approach, the Biology of Trauma
- Determining whether you’re ready to process the depth of your trauma
- Building regulation skills to prevent retraumatization
- How to know when your therapy is retraumatizing you
- Why Dr. Aimie focuses on teaching how to give your body what it needs to heal itself
- Next steps you can take if you’re not seeing the health results you expected by changing your diet and lifestyle
Connect with Dr. Aimie Apigian
Mentioned in this episode
- Save My Thyroid | Episode 68: The Single Trigger That Caused Josie Warren’s 8 Autoimmune Conditions
- Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
- Journal Articles
- Dube, Shanta, et al. “Cumulative Childhood Stress and Autoimmune Diseases in Adults.” Psychosomatic Medicine, vol. 71, no. 2, 2009, p. 243
- Heim, Christine, and Wadhwa, Pathik. “Childhood maltreatment is associated with increased risk of subclinical hypothyroidism in pregnancy.” Psychoneuroendocrinology, vol. 84, 2017, pp. 190-196
- Jung, Sun Jae, et al. “Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Incidence of Thyroid Dysfunction in Women.” Psychological Medicine, vol. 49, no. 15, 2019, pp. 2551–2560
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