“There are a lot of ways to really help people heal and help people think about getting to the root causes of neurologic endocrine immune disruptions that are part of the toxic stress response. The stress busters are seven ways that have been shown by science to improve neurologic, endocrine, and immune function.” – Dr. Rachel Gilgoff

In this video, the last in our three-part series, Dr. Rachel Gilgoff discusses the evidence-based strategies that help mitigate and treat toxic stress and improve health. Dr. Gilgoff provides examples of how providers and families can incorporate these strategies – supportive relationships, quality sleep, balanced nutrition, physical activity, mindfulness practices, experiencing nature, and mental health care – into their clinical practices and daily routines to improve overall wellbeing.

Dr. Gilgoff is a child abuse pediatrician and serves as a member of the Pathways to Resilience Expert Advisory Committee. She has been a clinical advisor to the California ACEs Aware initiative since 2020. Dr. Gilgoff has worked at the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital & Research Center and helped develop and implement the Pediatric ACEs and Related Life Events (PEARLS) study as a co-investigator with the Bay Area Research Consortium. Her work now focuses on prevention efforts and program development and aims to incorporate trauma interventions into routine pediatric clinical practice.

Watch the first two videos in Dr. Gilgoff’s series here. To learn more about how providers can use toxic stress mitigation strategies such as stress busters, watch Dr. Gilgoff’s webinar for the ACEs Aware initiative here.