\n
\n
![\"EarthSnap\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1766790432_598_earthsnap-banner-news.webp.webp\")
\n<\/a><\/p>\n
Across a large collection of stored patient samples and medical records, the same pattern of altered lab values appeared alongside PTSD<\/a>.<\/p>\n Working within that dataset, Younga Heather Lee, Ph.D., at Mass General Brigham<\/a>, documented that these routine measurements consistently aligned with both inherited risk and diagnosed PTSD.<\/p>\n Those signals held across cholesterol, glucose, liver function, and blood cell counts, showing that the pattern extends beyond any single organ.<\/p>\n Such convergence points to a body-wide footprint of PTSD, setting up the need to understand how these changes unfold and what they mean for long-term health.<\/p>\n Trauma affects more than memory<\/p>\n PTSD can follow terrifying events and keep the body\u2019s danger response active long after the threat has passed.<\/p>\n When that response stays switched on, stress hormones, sleep disruption<\/a>, and inflammation can push organs away from normal balance.<\/p>\n Symptoms may include flashbacks, avoidance, poor sleep, and feeling on edge, but those experiences often bring physical wear too.<\/p>\n Blood tests cannot capture fear or memory, yet they may show how long-term stress has changed the body\u2019s chemistry.<\/p>\n Routine labs show hidden stress<\/p>\n Routine lab work gave the team a practical path because many patients already have these results in medical records.<\/p>\n The researchers checked 241 distinct blood and chemistry measurements, then looked for markers tied to both inherited PTSD risk and recorded diagnosis.<\/p>\n Sixteen markers survived that double test, including cholesterol, glucose, liver readings, blood cell counts, and other common measures.<\/p>\n Because these results come from everyday care, future validation could move faster than tests requiring special equipment.<\/p>\n PTSD affects the whole body<\/p>\n Cholesterol and glucose point toward heart and metabolism stress, where the body handles fuel and blood vessel health.<\/p>\n Liver markers included albumin<\/a>, a protein that helps hold fluid in the blood and carries hormones and medicines.<\/p>\n Another liver signal, bilirubin, forms when the body breaks down old red blood cells.<\/p>\n Blood cell counts added immune and clotting clues, showing that PTSD-linked changes did not cluster in one organ.<\/p>\n Genetics clarify PTSD effects<\/p>\n A genetic score helped separate body changes that may follow PTSD from traits that merely sit beside it.<\/p>\n That polygenic risk score<\/a>, a DNA-based estimate built from many inherited differences, captured inherited vulnerability rather than a single PTSD gene.<\/p>\n A second method, Mendelian randomization, uses natural genetic differences to test which direction a health effect may run.<\/p>\n Those analyses supported PTSD as the likely upstream driver for several liver, cholesterol, and blood-clotting changes.<\/p>\n Body-wide signals emerge<\/p>\n The pattern fits a body-wide picture rather than one isolated pathway or one stray lab abnormality.<\/p>\n Lower protective cholesterol<\/a> and higher fat-carrying cholesterol suggested stress on the system that manages fats in the blood.<\/p>\n Liver and immune markers widened the concern because they sit near chemical processing, infection defense, and chronic inflammation.<\/p>\n \u201cThis multi-system impact helps us understand why untreated PTSD can have such devastating effects on patients\u2019 overall health,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n Rethinking PTSD care<\/p>\n For doctors, the practical promise lies in using familiar tests to spot patients who need broader follow-up.<\/p>\n A PTSD visit could eventually include closer checks of cholesterol, glucose, liver health, and blood counts.<\/p>\n Abnormal results would not prove that trauma caused the problem, but they could trigger earlier prevention for chronic disease.<\/p>\n That approach treats PTSD as a condition with mental symptoms<\/a> and physical consequences, not as two separate stories.<\/p>\n Findings need broader testing<\/p>\n The findings still need testing in larger groups with more racial, ethnic, social, and geographic diversity.<\/p>\n All participants in the main analysis had European ancestry, so the results may miss patterns in other populations.<\/p>\n Medical records can also undercount PTSD because many people never receive a diagnosis or avoid care.<\/p>\n Until validation is complete, clinicians should use these markers as research clues rather than stand-alone screening tools.<\/p>\n What comes next for PTSD care<\/p>\n For patients, the strongest message may be that trauma can leave marks beyond thoughts and mood.<\/p>\n A measurable body signal can make suffering feel less dismissed and help clinicians explain related health risks. <\/p>\n Better monitoring may also help people choose treatment earlier, before stress-linked wear turns into long-term disease. <\/p>\n Still, blood work should support therapy<\/a>, medication, sleep care, and social support rather than replace them.<\/p>\n The new work ties genetic risk, clinical diagnosis, and routine lab results into a unified picture of PTSD\u2019s physical effects across the body. <\/p>\n The next challenge is practical: showing that these markers can guide better care for real patients without reducing PTSD to a single blood-based measure.<\/p>\n The study is published in Molecular Psychiatry<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter<\/a> for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.<\/p>\n Check us out on EarthSnap<\/a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls<\/a> and Earth.com.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Post-traumatic stress disorder is usually described through what people feel \u2013 fear, anxiety, and intrusive memories. But new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[163,85,46,522,523],"class_list":["post-421075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}