This Tool For Healing Childhood Trauma Is Surprisingly Simple

Movement as Medicine: Exercise isn’t just good for our bodies — it’s also a great way to burn off stress and improve mental health. Now, new research suggests that physical activity can do more for some people than just make them feel better in the moment. It may actually rewire parts of the brain affected by childhood trauma and improve brain connectivity.

The Study: Research published in the journal Biological Psychiatry examined 75 adults who experienced at least one “adverse childhood experience” (ACE) before age 18, such as abuse or parental mental illness. Researchers used fMRI brain scans to analyze how exercise influenced communication and connectivity among three brain regions responsible for emotional regulation: amygdala, hippocampus, and anterior cingulate cortex. On analyzing the data, researchers found that those who exercised more had increased activity and connection in key brain regions compared to those who did not.

The Takeaway: The research suggests activity can manage some effects of childhood trauma and support neuroplasticity. Less physically active participants had reduced connectivity in these emotion-regulation regions.

Keep in Mind: The amount of exercise was self-reported, so recall bias or inaccuracies in the data are possible. But it aligns with an existing body of evidence linking exercise to strengthening the brain’s “stress buffers.”