Have you ever wondered why your body seems to “hold onto” things that no medication, diet, or breathwork can fully fix? For me, that was asthma.
For decades, I searched for solutions. Prescriptions, nutrition, even breathing practices. Each thing helped a little, and many were health-promoting in their own way. But nothing freed me from the daily struggle to breathe or the dependence on inhalers.
It wasn’t until I began working with the emotional roots of asthma — though at the time I didn’t even realize that’s what I was doing — that something shifted. By allowing my body to release the unresolved pain and grief I had been carrying, I experienced lasting relief. I haven’t had chronic asthma in the years since.
And that’s why I get so passionate about this conversation around Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the way they affect health — not just mental health, but our whole body.
What Science Shows Us
In the mid-1990s, doctors at the CDC and Kaiser Permanente studied over 17,000 people and asked about their childhood experiences. What they discovered was shocking at the time: the more difficult experiences someone had in childhood — like neglect, abuse, a parent’s addiction, or violence at home — the more likely they were to develop major health problems later in life.
Not just “emotional struggles.” We’re talking about asthma, heart disease, autoimmune issues, cancer, depression, addiction — even shorter life expectancy.
Why? Because childhood trauma affects the HPA axis (the brain-body stress response system). When stress keeps firing over and over, especially during development, it changes how the brain, hormones, and immune system function. It’s like the body is always “bracing for the bear,” even when the danger is long past.
Why This Matters for You
Most people who hear about the ACE study are surprised. Many don’t think their childhood “counts” as traumatic, so they assume they’re fine. But here’s something important to remember: trauma is not just what happened to you. Some even say trauma is not the event itself, but the impact of the event inside of you when your needs weren’t met.
That’s why some people live with chronic conditions even when their ACE score looks low. And that’s where the expanded ACE questions come in. They include experiences many of us recognize — like being forced to “be the adult” in the family, feeling smothered by a parent who didn’t let us become our own person, or growing up believing we were a burden. These experiences shape the nervous system just as much as the original ACEs.
When I first took the ACE score, I felt like my story was being invalidated because not all my experiences fit neatly into those ten questions. Yet I knew in my bones they were deeply harmful to my development. Later, when I discovered the expanded questions by Dr. Lissa Rankin, I finally felt so very seen and validated. Maybe they will do the same for you.
My Story: Asthma and the Missing Piece
Asthma is one of the conditions that shows up more often in those with high ACE scores. And yes — I lived it.
As mentioned, I tried the medical route, the nutritional route, the herbalist route, even breathwork and more. All of it gave me pieces of relief. But the deeper healing came when I began to process my emotions, release trauma stored in my body, and allow somatic expression. That’s when my body no longer needed to express asthma.
This is why I’m passionate about whole-person healing: spirit, soul, and body. Because they are not separate. They are deeply connected.
The Hope: Tools for Healing
What the research shows is sobering, but not hopeless. In fact, it’s empowering, because now we understand what’s happening — and we have tools to change it.
In my work, I use Neurosomatic Intelligence tools to support the nervous system and HPA axis, paired with emotional processing when there’s capacity. This combination helps the body learn safety again, integrate what was too much in the past, and move toward healing.
You don’t have to stay stuck in old patterns. And you don’t have to manage symptoms forever without addressing the roots.
If you’re curious about how your own childhood might still be affecting your health today, here are two places to begin:
Take the Original ACE Questionnaire Explore the Expanded Developmental Trauma Questions
If your ACE score seems “low” but you still find yourself struggling, the extended questions might offer the validation and clarity you’ve been missing.
And if you’re someone wondering: Will I have to be on medication for the rest of my life? — I want to gently invite you to consider another possibility. I can’t make promises, but I can share my own story. With the support and monitoring of my doctor, I was able to gradually reduce — and eventually discontinue — all the medications I had been taking for chronic conditions.
It required work, yes. But what I received in return was far greater than just a medication-free life. It was a sense of well-being and wholeness I would never have known had I continued to rely on prescriptions alone to manage my symptoms.
If you feel a stirring that more might be possible for you, I’d love to walk alongside you. You can schedule a session with me and experience what it feels like to bring your spirit, soul, and body into alignment for real, lasting change.
Your past may explain what’s happening in your body today — but it does not have to define your future. Healing is possible. I’ve lived it. And you can too.
