In the final installment of this three-part Origins of Chronic Disease series, top naturopathic physicians Robert Kachko, ND, LAc and Peter Bongiorno, ND, explore how our life experiences, trauma, and social connections fundamentally shape our health outcomes. Discover why your biography becomes your biology—and what you can do about it.
What you’ll learn
- How adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) increase risk for depression, heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic conditions by up to 200%
- The physiology of chronic stress: Understanding the HPA axis, allostatic load, and why your body gets "stuck" in trauma
- Why connection matters: The surprising health impacts of loneliness, purpose, and community (including a 50% reduction in mortality risk)
- Nature's medicine: How forest bathing, tree canopy exposure, and grounding reduce inflammation and improve cardiovascular health
- The path to recovery: Evidence-based frameworks for moving through trauma and building resilience
This isn’t just theory—it’s a roadmap for understanding how stress, disconnection, and past experiences drive disease, and how targeted interventions can restore health.
About the series
The Origins of Chronic Disease: An Integrative Health Perspective is part of the Modern Medicine Series, presented by the Atria Health and Research Institute. These videos share a three-part framework for understanding why people get sick through biology (how you live), ecology (the conditions in which you live), and biography (what you’ve lived through). Atria’s Integrative Health team explains that chronic disease is predictable, and largely preventable, when we address the root causes rather than just treating symptoms.
Part one: The Biology of Chronic Disease
Part two: The Ecology of Chronic Disease
Part three: The Biography of Chronic Disease (this video)