„Oh, do you have nose-pain?“ My mother used to mock me. Yes, I did. I had inexplicable inflammation everywhere in my body. I tried not to bring it up but sometimes hope got the better of me. Maybe there would be advice or even comfort. But no. „I can tell from the tip of your nose“ a German saying goes, meaning internal state or intentions are „written all over your face“. Obvious for everyone to see. Well, the tip of my nose is now visibly carved in on one side. Possibly because of the chronic inflammation which can degrade cartilage.
Chronic psychological stress like my parents put me through primes the immune system and can lead among other things to inexplicable inflammation, like the one in the tip of my nose.
The study I found that is looking at inflammation and cartilage degradation is 30 year old now. But I am grateful for the amount of well conducted research that accumulates and is available on the internet for anyone to dig around in. So, Da Silva et al. found that the interleukin-1 in particular is linked to the degradation of cartilage. Interleukins are mediators of the immune system that are produced in one cell and then transported to another for example via the blood stream. Interleukin-1 mediates common things like a fiver response but is also associated with the PTSD. In a nut shell then: my parents causing me PTSD – that leads to inflammation – which leads to degradation of cartilage. Essentially then my parents are molding me, my face in particular and I have abuse written all over my face. And I do think we as humans pick up on those things even if we usual can’t name it directly or follow the chain of causality.
But there is more …
Da Silva et al. were linking their experiments on inflammation and cartilage degradation to menopause. Women in menopause are in particular risk of diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. In rheumatoid arthritis the inflammation degrades the cartilage in the joints. Menopause is essentially a lack of estradiol. Therefore in this experiment they surgically removes the ovaries of the mice. Then thy observed the raise in interleukin 1 and the consequential degradation of cartilage. To prove the connection they put the mice on estradiol replacement therapy and the degradation of cartilage stoped.
Estradiol is one of the hormones that gets dysregulated in PTSD and in fact I was prescribed it regularly for a lack thereof. So, I could even go one step further and say: my parents caused me PTSD – which leads to dysregulated estradiol – lack of estradiol causes inflammation – which leads to degradation of cartilage.
With this chain of events straightened out I can again conclude: I am not weird, not even my nose-pain is strange. My body has very normal reactions to abuse.
Inflammation-induced cartilage degradation in female rodents (1993) J. A. P. Da Silva, P. Colville-Nash, T. D. Spector, D. L. Scott, D. A. Willoughby
