The Science Behind Regulate and the Primal Trust Approach
This curated research compendium brings together the foundational science supporting nervous system regulation, brain retraining, and functional neurology. Rooted in psychoneuroimmunology and Polyvagal Theory, these peer-reviewed studies and summaries explain why traditional treatment plans often fall short—and how regulation practices can help patients finally move out of survival mode and into lasting healing.
Explore evidence behind:
Chronic stress, HPA axis dysregulation, and limbic system impairment
Immune dysfunction in conditions like CFS, Lyme, and mold illness
The role of vagus nerve stimulation, eye exercises, and somatic tools in neuroplasticity
Why symptom relief often starts by creating safety in the nervous system
How brain retraining and interoceptive awareness foster recovery at the root level
Each module is backed by real research and clinical insights, offering you a clear bridge between neuroscience and compassionate care. Use this as a resource to deepen your confidence, support clinical conversations, and stay grounded in the ‘why’ behind every Primal Trust tool.
What is the Chronic Stress Response?
The chronic stress response refers to the continuous activation of the body’s stress systems, specifically the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the autonomic nervous system, due to persistent exposure to stressors. When the body encounters a stressor, it releases stress hormones like cortisol, which are essential for immediate “fight or flight” responses. However, with chronic stress, these hormonal and neurobiological responses become dysregulated, leading to an overexposure of tissues and organs to stress hormones. This dysregulation contributes to inflammation, changes in brain structure, and adverse effects on the cardiovascular, immune, and neuroendocrine systems, increasing the risk of conditions like depression, anxiety disorders, heart disease, and neurodegenerative illnesses.
Scholarly articles support this understanding of chronic stress. Research indicates that dysregulated cortisol production, resulting from continuous HPA axis activation, impacts neural circuits involving the hippocampus, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex, which are essential for emotional regulation and memory. These alterations contribute to increased anxiety, impaired memory, and heightened pain sensitivity. Furthermore, chronic stress is linked to systemic inflammation, which can exacerbate or trigger various health conditions, including autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases.
For more in-depth exploration, you can refer to academic sources like those provided by MDPI and Oxford Academi which discuss cortisol’s role in chronic stress and its physiological impact on the body’s systems.
CSR and Limbic System Impairment
Limbic system overactivation is characterized by an exaggerated response of the brain’s emotional and autonomic control centers, primarily involving structures such as the amygdala, hippocampus, and hypothalamus. This heightened activation is often linked to chronic exposure to stress or trauma, leading to dysregulated emotional processing, hyperarousal, and maladaptive behavioral responses.
Indicating Factors of Limbic System Overactivation:
These articles provide insights into how chronic stress and trauma can lead to overactivation of the limbic system, with implications for conditions such as anxiety, PTSD, and mood disorders.
What is the Chronic Stress Response?
The chronic stress response refers to the continuous activation of the body’s stress systems, specifically the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the autonomic nervous system, due to persistent exposure to stressors. When the body encounters a stressor, it releases stress hormones like cortisol, which are essential for immediate “fight or flight” responses. However, with chronic stress, these hormonal and neurobiological responses become dysregulated, leading to an overexposure of tissues and organs to stress hormones. This dysregulation contributes to inflammation, changes in brain structure, and adverse effects on the cardiovascular, immune, and neuroendocrine systems, increasing the risk of conditions like depression, anxiety disorders, heart disease, and neurodegenerative illnesses.
Scholarly articles support this understanding of chronic stress. Research indicates that dysregulated cortisol production, resulting from continuous HPA axis activation, impacts neural circuits involving the hippocampus, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex, which are essential for emotional regulation and memory. These alterations contribute to increased anxiety, impaired memory, and heightened pain sensitivity. Furthermore, chronic stress is linked to systemic inflammation, which can exacerbate or trigger various health conditions, including autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases.
For more in-depth exploration, you can refer to academic sources like those provided by MDPI and Oxford Academi which discuss cortisol’s role in chronic stress and its physiological impact on the body’s systems.
CSR and Limbic System Impairment
CSR and Limbic System Impairment
The Low Functionality Cohort improved by
87% within 3 months
All participants who practised for 6
months improved by an average of 60%
Lyme sufferers improved by an average of 51%
in just 3 months! (Chronic fatigue and long haul Covid was 40%, and Mold illness was 35%, etc)
Obviously those with the most to gain are those whose functionality is the lowest, and here we found even more significant gains with the low functionality group (33% or lower self-rated entry functionality) improving by 87%, and the very low functionality group (25% or lower) improving by 115%.
We fully expect another three, 6 and 12 months of practice of the Regulate principles and tools to help people make the real gains. And our confidence is backed up by data where Primal TrustTM members who took 6 months to complete Regulate™ made better than twice as much progress as those taking 2 months.
We believe that taking the time to gain a deeper understanding of the beneficial mindset, and approaches, and then spending more time integrating these into a daily routine to deploy the techniques and knowledge is the right way to go about nervous system change. For certain, we saw that for those who rushed through the course there was less improvement in the short term. Though we do believe these people would gain the same benefit had the survey been conducted after 6 months for them also.
At Primal TrustTM we strongly believe that the people who come here for help need to make deep nervous system change, and in reality for our members this, as well as learning, effort and consistency, takes time. So we are looking forward to our metrics from 6 and 12 month’s time we aim to share later this year. For now, we are pleased to share the improvements people have made from just completing the Regulate™ course.
Other highlights were that respondents who reported increased functional capacity by an average of 51%; those reporting Long Covid or CFS symptoms improved by an average of 40%. Anxiety and Mold sufferers reported improvement of 35%. Again all of these improvements were achieved in an average of just 3.5 months, and this time included the actual learning and practice of the Regulating tools.
Read the studies below
