Are you struggling to fix some aspect of your health? It feels like a lot of people have been reaching out to me with the same problem. A common denominator of most situations, is treating the problem like a single issue. And the reason we don’t get the a desired result is we are working in isolation. Let’s elaborate on why working in isolation won’t fix your health problems.
When we talk gut health, skin health, hormone health, etc, they aren’t caused by one single thing. So why the heck do we still try to fix them that way? Our body’s systems are all interconnected. Yes, this includes detoxification, digestion, blood sugar, stress and hormones. Each and every one of these is connected in one way or another. If one system falls, the rest start to crumble too.
For instance, let’s start with chronic stress. Picture this, you work a high stress job, you’ve got a beautiful, but irritable child, a family member is fighting a chronic illness, or all of the above. This daily stress impacts your hypothalamus and adrenal glands. During times of stress, the hypothalamus has reduced release of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). GnRH is a hormone responsible for the releasing hormones like follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH). In turn, stress inhibits the production of sex hormones estradiol, follicle stimulating hormone, and luteinizing hormone. So you may have hormone imbalances and trouble getting pregnant.
Then you’re stuck with depleted estrogen that impairs your glucose metabolism. So now you’ve got crazy blood sugars, insulin resistance, and you start putting on weight. After all that, now the wacky hormones and excess weight make you even more stressed. The added stress lights up your cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine levels…further decreasing FSH and LH. Because the body doesn’t want you to worry about pregnancy in case you’ve got to run for your life. It’s a survival mechanism.
In the meantime, your stress hormones impact digestion and cause gut inflammation. Add this on to the overly processed foods your eating due to stress. Your impaired digestion and gut inflammation lead to leaky gut, higher toxic load, and poor nutrient absorption.
To make matters worse…a weak gut lining impacts detoxification by allowing toxins to pass through to other tissues. These extra toxins put extra stress on the liver. Those toxins bind w/ receptors that induce inflammation and impair insulin receptors. Since your digestion sucks you can’t absorb of nutrients well so you don’t have the nutrients, vitamins, and minerals to support the extra burden on the liver.
Furthermore, a stressed out digestive tract has limited ability to “rest and digest,” meaning you get constipated. Constipation means you reabsorb toxins, again putting even more strain on the liver and detox systems, while also leading to bloating, unhealthy microorganisms, and decreased barrier function. As added pressure is put on the liver, it is no longer able to keep up with toxin load and toxins are stored in tissues like fat, the brain, and our CNS.
Can you see why working in isolation won’t fix your health problems? I hope that didn’t get too “sciency” but…A vicious circle am I right? If you’re sick of working in isolation, send me a message to see how I can help. In the meantime, find me on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
