“The primary cause of PTSD appears to lie firmly within a chain of newly identified, physiological breakdowns of the body beginning with hidden breathing reflex to trauma. It is these physical elements which are causing most of the horrible physical and psychological suffering of PTSD, not a malfunctioning mind!” - David Rubenstein, PhD.
Although trauma initiates a long chain-reaction of brain/body suffering, it is the Chronic Stress Cycle-Syndrome (CSCS) that is the direct cause of the condition of PTSD, and not the trauma itself. The driving mechanism of action in the Chronic Stress Cycle is a subtle but extremely powerful, influential breathing issue, from which the remaining symptoms of PTSD are downstream. Shocking new evidence indicates unambiguously that the vast majority of PTSD is a physical syndrome of bodily malfunctions, not a disorder of the mind.
The Nature of PTSD: Surprise!
Hypo-Homeostasis: Can’t Get There from Here
This overview exposes a newly identified physical condition of the body. It more fully explains the many aspects of PTSD. It is called “hypo-homeostasis.” Homeostasis is your brainbody’s ability to return to a resting state. It’s part program and part anatomy too. It involves all organs including brain and heart, all muscles, and all systems are under the umbrella of homeostasis. It is a tendency toward a relatively stable equilibrium of the mind and body with the ability to rise in full energy and return completely to calm or sleep. This function in a PTSD patient is significantly compromised and, in many cases, almost non-existent: something ruined your homeostasis’ ability to function. PTSD exists because the body’s homeostasis guidance has been lost.
That "something" is called the “Chronic Stress Cycle-Syndrome” which appears sometime after trauma and is universally present in all military PTSD cases. By identifying its components in their naturally occurring sequence a new model of PTSD has been rendered. One key to emerge was how the body and mind became chronically unable to return to a resting state as part of homeostasis. This clue changed the direction of investigation, and asked a new question: could PTSD be a physical, not mentally caused condition? Do we know exactly what is broken?
It is a fact that the main problem with PTSD is an issue of “state.” In other words, the state or condition of constant, unrelenting stress in the background punctuated by episodes of high stress daily keeps you in a “revved-up state”. (Some will be in an opposite or ‘depressed state’ which is the same distance from neutral, just in the other direction.) The state you most frequently find yourself in would be your ‘default state.’ It’s just where you naturally go. This is all the evidence needed to conclude that the result of the trauma you experienced was a critical injury to your brainbody’s ability to utilize homeostasis. Your body says fight or flight nearly all the time. It’s like being stuck in second gear on the freeway at 70 MPH. You have “hypo-homeostasis,” (hypo = below normal or non-existent) or the inability to return to a resting state.
No matter what you do the hypo-homeostasis wins out. It would likely be a futile goal to find any person suffering from PTSD that also didn’t have hypo-homeostasis. It would be difficult to find a single symptom you are suffering from that is not influenced by hypo-homeostasis. That symptom is either directly caused by or negatively influenced by your body’s inability to return to its natural neutral state. This fact fractures the innate healing capacities and potentials meaning your body has an inability to heal properly in its current ‘state.’
Homeostasis in PTSD
In PTSD the brainbody simply cannot return to ‘an even keel of balanced, psycho-physical states of being in which we recover from the stresses in life’ which we call “homeostasis.” The most fundamental biological action we do as human beings is breathing. Breathing itself discloses the actions of continuously adjusting the speed and type of respiration. The act of adjusting the breathing is homeostasis in action – trying to meet the demands the brainbody encounters every moment.
How PTSD and Cancer Need an Inner Toxic Environment to Survive
PTSD is like cancer: it needs a certain internal environment to survive. Kill off its supply of toxics and the cancer dies. We know, for example, that every cancer grows best in a 1) de-oxygenated environment with 2) excess carbon dioxide and with 3) high sugar content and 4) high acidity or low alkalinity also known as “pH.”
By far, the most important nutrient to the human bodybrain is oxygen.
This is the only chemical which possesses such profound and immediate control of the condition of a human being. If you disagree in any way, or test this biological Prime Directive, you lose. Period. 100% of the time. Any questions?
So, the type of mechanics of breathing results in a particular velocity of oxygen delivery. It is not enough to acquire the oxygen we need, but rather it is the type of mechanical inhale which determines the amount of oxygen delivered - this is the Holy Grail of Respiratory Science and the key to optimized oxygen delivery to the brainbody. Fortunately, we know how to optimize the physical, mechanical techniques to idealize the delivery of oxygen for optimized brain function. Optimized brain function should be understood to be that which avoids triggering the limbic region and to promote the cortex’s being dominantly in charge of the life. That means the fight or flight reactions are biologically attenuated or severely lessoned in frequency, intensity, and duration.
It is true that PTSD is largely sustained by the seemingly subtle, continuous lack of this chemical, oxygen.
Clinically speaking, although the saturation of oxygen within the blood is generally plentiful, oxygen is not being delivered at the rate it is needed automatically triggering the fight/flight mode in the brain. Although we do briefly overview some of the issues generated by low grade hypoxia, the list is truly daunting. The reader is further encouraged to investigate how far the chain reaction goes and how far reaching its implications.
Also, chemically the body becomes highly acidic leading to many other issues like immune system decline, inflammatory-based diseases, digestive problems, amplified body pain, and skin problems. This is by definition a toxic state of physiology within the body. Unfortunately, this toxic state has now become the new default normal as is always the case with PTSD. This abnormal ‘default normal’ indicates that the homeostasis function has failed or is severely impaired. In fact, it is these physical aspects that provide a perfect internal environment for PTSD to flourish. PTSD requires a toxic internal environment to maintain its symptomology.
If you fix the internal physical environment, the symptoms of PTSD go away.
A State Conducive to Healing
Breakdowns in homeostasis means that the idea of psychotherapy is simply discordant to the patient's bodily state(s) - explaining at least in part why most soldiers with PTSD are not interested in psychotherapy. It would be immeasurably better if the patient was trained to be calm and relaxed prior to and during psychotherapy. When our anti-stress treatment model stopped or decreased multiple physiological disturbances, beginning with a reset of their breathing system, mental health issues had a strong, immediate, natural tendency toward rapid, sustained self-healing with little or no psychotherapy and very little drama.
The key understanding here is that the strategy of restoring breathing and sleep is a biological reversal on PTSD.
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