Aaron Hartman, MDFunctional Medicine Specialist | Clinical Researcher

The Science of Stress | Stuck in Fight or Flight_ Understanding Limbic System Dysfunction

22 Feb 2025 · 1 min

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0:31

A lecture-style YouTube video by Aaron Hartman, MD discussing limbic system dysfunction and chronic stress states ("stuck" in fight/flight/freeze). The speaker links common clinical complaints—memory problems, mood changes (anger, anxiety, depression), and "brain fog"—to measurable brain changes, noting use of neuro quantitative MRI to detect volume loss in specific structures. Causes/associations mentioned include biotoxins and traumatic brain injury.

Chapters

Memory and mood is what we see a lot in these individuals. And, you know, they're stuck in fight, flight, freeze, and they're not in that rest and digest mode. And they're moody, or they have mold rage and anger, or they're anxious, or they're depressed, or they're melancholic and they're in their 30s and 40s and they can't remember anything or. We call it brain fog. And there's actually a way to measure this. We do neuro quantitative MRIs in some of these patients. And I see volume loss in these specific structures, mostly around biotoxins. But you see it with traumatic brain injury. We see it with a host of other things.