Trauma does not just vanish when the danger passes—something relegated to a distant memory. It can settle into the body, altering biology in ways we are only beginning to fully understand. Long after memories fade or are pushed aside, the body can continue to respond, through the immune system, the heart, and even the cellular processes that shape how fast we age. Trauma is not only psychological. It is physiological.

For decades, we have recognized the emotional consequences of traumatic events. What science now makes clear is broader and more consequential: life’s shocks can recalibrate the body’s internal systems. They can disrupt cardiovascular rhythms, weaken immune regulation, increase inflammation, and accelerate biological aging. Trauma can become a long-term health risk, not just a painful chapter in a person’s past.

This is the terrain my team studies at The Sumner Stress Lab at UCLA, where psychology, biology, and public health intersect. We examine how experiences such as violence, disaster, or serious, life-threatening illness can redesign emotional experience and physiology. At the center of this work is a tenet that should no longer be controversial: the divide between mental and physical health is artificial. The body is an integrated system. Stress in one domain reverberates throughout the whole.

The urgency of this research is undeniable. Trauma is widespread and unevenly distributed across society. Millions experience it each year—many repeatedly—and its effects do not just disappear with time. Our research shows that people who develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) face significantly elevated 

risks for developing cardiovascular disease and accelerated biological aging. Experiencing a life-threatening cardiac event can also trigger the onset of PTSD which, in turn, is linked to a worse prognosis. In a country where heart disease remains the leading cause of death, ignoring trauma’s role is not just an oversight, it is a missed opportunity for prevention. 

In our lab, we approach trauma as a systems problem with wide-reaching consequences. Trauma doesn’t just shape how we feel. It shapes how long, and how well, we live. We trace the connections between mind and body: immune systems recalibrating in ways that erode resilience, inflammation rising under a sense of chronic threat, heightened physiological reactivity to danger and safety alike, telomeres shortening after adversity as if time itself were speeding up. In this work, we focus on diverse cohorts, aiming to understand how psychological and physiological responses intertwine to shape long-term cardiovascular risk after various types of traumatic experiences.

Our research underscores a central lesson: the body behaves less like a machine with isolated parts and more like an ecosystem shaped by cumulative stress and feedback loops. Importantly, this research is not about inevitability. Biology is not destiny. The same systems that encode trauma at the level of the brain and body are also capable of change.

The promise of this work lies in action. Preventing heart disease and its consequences requires taking trauma seriously. If we can identify the patterns that predict onset of disease, clinicians can intervene earlier, shifting medicine from crisis response to prevention. Trauma is not just a mental health issue—it is a cardiovascular one. And understanding how the body remembers may be one of the most powerful tools we have for protecting health across the lifespan.

Dr. Jennifer Sumner is a clinical psychologist and Associate Professor of Psychology at UCLA. Her program of research lies at the intersection of the psychological and physical health consequences of trauma exposure. Dr. Sumner received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Pomona College and her Masters and PhD in Clinical Psychology from Northwestern University. She completed her predoctoral internship program at the Charleston Consortium (Traumatic Stress Track) and received postdoctoral training as an Epidemiology Merit Fellow at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. When not in the lab, Dr. Sumner enjoys spending time with family and friends, hosting dinner parties, hiking in the Los Angeles mountains, and practicing yoga.