Book Review: The Biology of Trauma

How the Body Holds Fear, Pain, and Overwhelm, and How to Heal It

Author Aimie Apigian MD

Review by the Bioregulatory Medicine Institute

In The Biology of Trauma, Dr. Aimie Apigian bridges psychology, neuroscience, and functional medicine to explain how trauma is not just an emotional wound—it’s a biological process that becomes embedded in the body. Drawing on her background as a physician and trauma specialist, she reframes trauma as a state of physiological overwhelm that disrupts the nervous system, hormones, immune function, and even cellular energy production.

When the body experiences more stress than it can process, the nervous system becomes trapped in survival states like fight, flight, or freeze. This unresolved “overwhelm” alters physiology, impacting hormones, immunity, energy, and digestion. Healing begins when the body feels safe enough to shift out of protection and back into connection. Apigian emphasizes that recovery must start from the body up—through regulating the nervous system, addressing inflammation and nutrient balance, and restoring cellular health—before emotional or cognitive therapies can take full effect.

Key Take-Aways

• Safety first: The body must regain a sense of safety before healing can occur.

• Trauma changes biology: Chronic stress reshapes the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems.

• Healing is sequential. Regulation → repair → integration. You can’t rush the process; the nervous system heals in layers.

• The body keeps score: Physical symptoms often mirror unresolved trauma.

• Restoration is possible: By supporting the body’s biology, the mind naturally follows toward resilience and wholeness.

The Biology of Trauma is a compelling, integrative look at how the body stores and expresses trauma—and how biology can be the doorway to healing. It’s especially valuable for anyone exploring the overlap between mental health and physical health, or for practitioners seeking a body-first, science-informed framework for trauma recovery.

Bioregulatory medicine is a total body (and mind) approach to health and healing that aims to help facilitate and restore natural human biological processes. It is a proven, safe, gentle, highly effective, drugless, and side-effect-free medical model designed to naturally support the body to regulate, adapt, regenerate, and self-heal. BRMI is a non-commercial 501(c)(3) foundation and will expand and flourish with your support. Our goal is to make bioregulatory medicine a household term.

This review is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for the direct care of a qualified health practitioner who oversees and provides unique and individualized care. The information provided here is to broaden our different perspectives and should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.