Understanding PTSD Through a Functional Medicine Lens
PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, is something many people silently experience, often long after the traumatic event is over. It can affect how we sleep, think, feel, and even how our bodies function. For some, it shows up as panic attacks or nightmares. For others, it’s a constant feeling of being “on edge” or disconnected from life. It can significantly impact our work, professional relationships, personal relationships, and social lives.
While traditional approaches like talk therapy and medication can be helpful, they don’t always dive deep enough, especially when the trauma is stored in the body. That’s where functional medicine offers a different path: one that looks at the whole person, not just symptoms.
Trauma doesn’t just live in the mind — it lives in the body. When something overwhelming or threatening happens and we’re unable to process it fully, our nervous system can stay stuck in a state of fight, flight, or freeze. The stress response is controlled in part by the adrenal glands, which release hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. Over time, if the stress never entirely turns off, those glands can become overworked, leading to what many refer to as adrenal fatigue or HPA axis dysregulation. This can leave people feeling burned out, anxious, wired but tired, and unable to bounce back from even small stressors.
You might not consciously think about the trauma anymore, but your body remembers through hormone imbalances, muscle tension, chronic pain, sleep disruption, anxiety, or difficulty feeling calm and safe. These physical symptoms are often the result of long-term stress overload, and they won’t fully resolve without addressing both the mental and physical sides of healing. That’s why we need tools that not only help people process trauma emotionally, but also support the body in releasing what it has been holding onto — chemically, hormonally, and neurologically.
At Michigan Health and Wellness, we take a root-cause approach to PTSD. We explore how trauma impacts the brain, nervous system, immune system, and even the gut. We utilize natural, non-invasive therapies to help the body reset and begin healing from the inside out.
In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at how trauma affects the body and how tools like the Theta Chamber, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and other natural approaches can support deep, lasting recovery. If you or someone you love has been struggling with PTSD, know this: there is hope.
What Is Functional Medicine & How Does It View PTSD?
Most medical treatments for PTSD focus on managing symptoms — things like anxiety, insomnia, or depression. And while symptom relief matters, our functional medicine approach takes things further by asking: What’s causing those symptoms in the first place?
Functional medicine views health as a complex, interconnected system. That means if someone is struggling with PTSD, their emotional health isn’t treated in isolation. Instead, practitioners examine how factors such as brain chemistry, immune function, hormone balance, gut health, and even past infections may all contribute to the body’s response to stress and trauma.
For example, many people with PTSD also deal with:
- Chronic inflammation
- Digestive issues or food sensitivities
- Hormonal imbalances
- Fatigue or brain fog
- Sleep problems that don’t improve with medication
Rather than treating each of those symptoms separately, functional medicine looks for patterns and explores how trauma may be influencing the body on a deeper level.
With this model of care, PTSD is not just something happening in the mind — it’s a whole-body response to a past experience that was too overwhelming to fully process at the time. By supporting the body’s ability to regulate itself through nutrition, nervous system support, detox pathways, oxygen therapy, and other means, we help create the physical conditions for emotional healing to occur.
It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. It’s about understanding how your body is responding to trauma and creating a personalized plan to support long-term recovery.
Healing Through the Body: A Natural Approach to Trauma Recovery
When we experience trauma, our brains may eventually “move on,” but our bodies often do not. That’s because trauma isn’t just an emotional memory — it’s also a biological imprint left in the nervous system.
For many people with PTSD, their body is still reacting as if the danger is happening right now — muscles stay tight, the heart races easily, sleep stays light or broken, and the mind stays on high alert. Even if someone knows they are “safe,” their body might not fully believe it yet.
That’s why body-based healing — or healing through the nervous system — is such an important part of the recovery process. These approaches help people reconnect with their physical sense of safety, release stored tension, and calm the body’s stress response in a way that talk therapy alone often cannot reach.
One well-known method is called somatic experiencing, a therapy that evaluates how one’s body expresses deeply painful experiences and applies mind-body modalities to support trauma recovery. It gently helps people tune into their physical sensations and begin to release the trauma held there. However, there are also other tools that can support this kind of healing, including specific types of movement, breathwork, neurofeedback, and technologies such as the Theta Chamber, which we will discuss in the next section.
The good news? The body wants to heal. When we give it the right conditions — safety, support, and tools to regulate — it can begin to release what it’s been holding onto. And with that, the path to recovery gets clearer.
The Theta Chamber: Rebalancing the Brain and Body
As we’ve explored, trauma isn’t just something we think about — it’s something the body holds onto. And when the brain is stuck in high-alert mode, the body can’t fully relax, heal, or feel safe. That’s why one of the most powerful things we can do for someone with PTSD is to help reset the nervous system, starting with the brain.
One innovative tool that supports this kind of deep reset is the Theta Chamber.
The Theta Chamber is a non-invasive therapy offered at Michigan Health and Wellness that uses a combination of light, sound, motion, and gentle electrical stimulation to help the brain enter a deeply relaxed state. Specifically, it’s designed to encourage what’s called the theta brainwave state — a natural rhythm our brain enters during deep meditation, creativity, or just before sleep. This state is known to support emotional processing, memory reconsolidation, and a sense of calm.
Why is this important for someone with PTSD? Because many trauma survivors get stuck in high-frequency brainwave states linked to anxiety and hypervigilance. The Theta Chamber helps shift the brain out of that “survival mode” and into a calmer, more balanced place where healing can begin.
Here’s how it works:
- Rotational movement gently spins the body in a controlled way, which stimulates the balance system in the inner ear (called the vestibular system). This movement can help calm the nervous system and bring the body out of a state of fight-or-flight.
- Binaural audio plays two slightly different tones in each ear, which the brain processes as a single, soothing rhythm. This technique helps encourage a relaxed mental state and has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety.
- Specialized light patterns flash in a rhythmic way while your eyes are closed, guiding the brain toward slower, calmer brainwaves. It’s like giving your brain a gentle reminder to slow down and reset.
- Cranial-electrotherapy stimulation (CES) uses a mild, painless electrical current to stimulate areas of the brain involved in mood, sleep, and emotional regulation. It can help balance brain chemistry and support relaxation — many people report feeling lighter or more centered afterward.
While the technology might sound advanced, the goal is simple: to help the brain and body reconnect with a state of rest and safety. And for people with PTSD, that experience can be incredibly meaningful — even life-changing.
Studies on therapies like neurofeedback and CES (cranial-electrotherapy stimulation) have shown promising results in reducing PTSD symptoms by improving brainwave balance and emotional regulation. The Theta Chamber brings several of these elements together in one session, offering a multi-layered approach to nervous system healing.
It’s not a quick fix, and it’s not meant to replace other forms of care. But as part of a larger functional medicine plan, the Theta Chamber can be a valuable tool for calming the brain, easing the body, and helping trauma survivors finally feel at home in themselves again.
Other Natural Therapies That Support PTSD Recovery
While the Theta Chamber can play a powerful role in calming the brain and resetting the nervous system, it’s often just one part of a broader, whole-body healing plan. Because PTSD affects so many systems in the body, it is important to support healing from multiple angles — not just neurologically, but also physically, nutritionally, and emotionally.
That’s why, in functional medicine, we often combine different natural therapies to create a more complete and personalized recovery process. Here are a few additional approaches that can support the body’s healing from trauma:
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT)
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized chamber, which allows more oxygen to reach your tissues, especially areas of the brain and body that may have been affected by long-term stress or injury. HBOT is currently being explored as a therapy to support brain recovery in people with PTSD and brain injuries, thanks to its potential to improve oxygen flow, reduce inflammation, and stimulate healing processes. For many patients, it also improves energy levels, sleep, and mental clarity.
Nutritional and Gut Health Support
You may be surprised to learn that gut health plays a significant role in overall mental health. About 90% of the body’s serotonin — a chemical that helps regulate mood — is produced in the gut. When trauma and stress disrupt the gut microbiome, it can contribute to anxiety, depression, and immune dysfunction. Functional medicine looks at nutrition, food sensitivities, and digestive health as key areas to support when treating PTSD naturally.
Nature-Based and Movement Therapies
Spending time in nature, engaging in gentle movements like yoga or walking, and therapies that reconnect the body with rhythm and breath can help restore a sense of safety and control. According to recent research, nature-based interventions have shown promise in reducing PTSD symptoms by lowering cortisol levels and improving emotional regulation.
Acupuncture and Nervous System Regulation
Acupuncture has been used for centuries to support emotional balance and regulate the flow of energy in the body. For trauma survivors, it may help calm the nervous system, reduce chronic pain, and support emotional release. It’s often paired with breathwork or meditation to deepen the body’s relaxation response.
Class IV Laser Therapy
Class IV laser therapy offered at Michigan Health and Wellness uses light energy to stimulate healing in tissues that have been affected by stress, injury, or inflammation. This non-invasive treatment enhances circulation, alleviates pain, and promotes cellular regeneration. For those with PTSD-related tension, chronic pain, or nervous system dysregulation, laser therapy can help the body shift out of a stress state and into healing mode.
. . .
Functional medicine isn’t about finding a single cure — it’s about creating the right conditions for healing by supporting the brain, the body, and everything in between. The therapies above can work together with the Theta Chamber and other tools to help patients not just manage symptoms, but truly start to recover and rebuild.
What Makes Our Approach Unique
What makes healing from trauma truly work isn’t just the tools — it’s how those tools are used.
At Michigan Health and Wellness, we don’t treat PTSD as just a diagnosis. We understand it as a deeply personal experience that affects the body, mind, and spirit in different ways for different people. That’s why our care doesn’t start with protocols — it starts with listening.
Many of our patients come to us after trying other treatments that didn’t go far enough. Some individuals may feel dismissed or have been advised to “just manage” their symptoms. Here, our approach is different. We don’t rush. We don’t assume. And we don’t separate physical health from mental health.
What sets our care apart is how we bring together a thoughtful blend of therapies, guided not just by science, but by the patient’s own story. Whether it’s supporting brain healing with the Theta Chamber, restoring calm with laser therapy, or rebuilding energy through nutrition, each person’s plan is uniquely theirs.
It’s not just about what we offer. It’s about how we walk with people through it — with patience, trust, and compassion.
There Is Hope for Healing
Living with PTSD can feel like being stuck in survival mode — always alert, always tired, and unsure how to feel “normal” again. But healing is not only possible — it’s something your body is wired for.
With the right tools and support, the nervous system can relearn how to feel safe. The brain can form new patterns. The body can let go of what it has been holding.
At Michigan Health and Wellness, our goal is to help you heal, not just cope. If you have been carrying trauma and are ready to explore new ways to support your recovery, know that there are natural, effective options available. And you don’t have to figure it out alone. Contact us today to take the first step in your healing journey.
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