Emotional Stress Impact on Health

I think a lot of people underestimate the emotional stress impact on health. Stressful emotions like anger, frustration and hopelessness can cause immune dysfunction and inflammation.

I experienced the effects of this personally a few years ago when I no longer had help for my two young sons, the older of whose Sensory Processing Disorder became severe because he was so stressed at having to share me with his baby brother.

My older son’s constant, and I mean non-stop, crying and screaming sent me over the edge.  I couldn’t deal with the fact that no matter what I did, he couldn’t be consoled.  That’s when I really began to know that there really was something wrong with him; he wasn’t just having normal tantrums.

The frustration of not being able to help him left me feeling rather hopeless, and it was made worse by the fact that no one I knew had a child going through this.

That’s when I developed severe irritability, middle-of-the-night insomnia, shingles (twice), bronchitis, recurrent infections, a case of poison ivy so bad I needed steroids (or thought I did at the time; now I know better), irregular cycles, severe adrenal fatigue, ovarian cysts and uterine fibroids, all within the space of a year or so.

Yes, stress can really do a number on your health!

The good thing is that I’ve learned how to overcome these health challenges and get my health back, but I will tell you that stress can cause all of these problems and more because it causes a constant “fight or flight” feeling that screws up your hormones, causes inflammation and leads to severe nutritional deficiencies and immune dysregulation.

I recently read the book “Healing the Gerson Way:  Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases”, and there was an interesting point made in there:  that typically, but not always, there is an extremely stressful event that occurs in a person’s life 18-24 months before they develop cancer.

I can think of a real-life example of that in a woman I know who recently developed breast cancer.  A couple of years ago, her house burned down, and she lost everything.  Although her family built a gorgeous new house, that was still a lot of stress for her to go through.

The more I learn about health, the more I understand that it’s not just about eating whole foods, although that plays a primary role in maintaining and/or recovering health:  Health is also about having the tools to cope with emotional stressors in our lives, whether that’s having a strong support network, a spiritual and/or meditation practice, exercise and a purpose in life.

Bone Broth Benefits

Bone Broth BenefitsBone broth is one of the staples in my kitchen, and I’m hoping to make it that way in yours, too.  Our ancestors knew about bone broth benefits, but we’ve gotten so out of touch with traditional foods that we don’t realize how healing something as simple as bone broth can be.

Minerals

“Good broth will resurrect the dead” is a South American proverb.  The reason is that animal bones are full of minerals.

So many people are mineral deficient these days, especially those who eat a Standard American Diet full of processed foods that are typically void of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients.

Minerals are necessary for proper functioning of our adrenal and thyroid glands, which help us to deal with stress.  If you’re mineral deficient, you’re likely having a hard time managing stress.

Gelatin

When broth cools, the gelatin in it congeals.  Gelatin contains the amino acids glycine and arginine.  Glycine is helpful for achieving deep, restful sleep as well as for making glutathione, the body’s master antioxidant.  Arginine helps heal coronary blood vessels, keeps the plaque off of arteries and minimizes clotting.

Gelatin also helps heal the lining of the colon, and is especially helpful for anyone with digestive issues.  It’s great for building up hair and nails and because it contains collagen, it’s great for keeping your skin from sagging.

Gelatin has been found to increase cartilage in the joints, so it’s helpful for someone with arthritis.  Not only that, but gelatin is anti-inflammatory, so it can help reduce the pain of arthritis, as well as that of other conditions.

Deep, Hearty Richness

Bone broth is the magic ingredient I use to give my home-cooked meals a satisfying and rich flavor.  Anyone that’s eaten my food knows that it has a deep, hearty richness that comes from my homemade bone broths.

You can’t buy this flavor from a package in a store or even find it in most restaurants, as they use factory-made bases containing MSG or other free-glutamate “foods”.  You really need to make it yourself to taste the difference.  I use it for reconstituting grains and legumes, for sauteing and braising meats and vegetables and for the base for sauces and soups.

Be sure to use bones from pasture-raised or grass-fed land animals or from wild-caught (not farm-raised) fish.  When I buy meat, I buy it with the bone in and skin on.  Fat from the skin is full of fat-soluble vitamins and gives dishes another depth of flavor that’s impossible to duplicate with store- or restaurant-bought food.

I save the bones and store them in the freezer until I have enough to make a batch of bone broth in my slow cooker.

Here are some easy recipes for you to incorporate into your daily routine so that you, too, can realize bone broth benefits.

I wrote this blog post for Dr. Henri Roca, a functional-medicine MD.

 

pH Testing

pH TestingpH testing is an easy way to determine your level of health.  I’ve got some pHion diagnostic pH test strips that I got on Amazon, and they measure pH between 4.5 (very acidic) and 9.0 (too alkaline).

An optimal pH of urine and saliva (says the lablel) is in the range of 6.75 to 7.25, which is right around a neutral pH of 7.0.

I just measured my own pH, and I’m at 7.5, which is optimal.  Given what I know about nutrition, I’d guess it’s easier to correct a too-alkaline pH rather than a too-acidic condition.

The Standard American Diet (SAD) is very acidic because it’s full of sugar, processed grains, starches, meats and dairy, all of which are acidic (sugar being the most acidic).  SAD foods are typically low in alkaline foods such as sea vegetables, vegetables and sea salt.

Dr. Mark Sircus, author of “Sodium Bicarbonate – Full Medical Review“, says that the “first step in maintaining health is to alkalize the body”.  He also writes that “The closer the pH is to 7.35 – 7.45, the higher our level of health and well being”.

I have to say I feel pretty great right now, and my pH is 7.5.  I’m curious to see how it measures when I’m not feeling well.  I’d guess it’d be on the more acidic side.

Interestingly, Dr. Sircus writes that “cancer cells have a lower pH than surrounding tissue” because “excessive acidic pH leads to cellular deterioration, which eventually brings on serious health problems such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, osteoporosis and heartburn.”

A low pH can also be associated with colds, the flu, viral infections, allergies, asthma, cancer and neurological disorders.

If you want to get vain about it, Dr. Sircus points out that there is “a relationship between the aging process and the accumulation of acids”, so there’s another reason to eat your veggies – so you won’t age so fast!

Now that I’ve read this book, I’ll be more diligent about tracking the pH of my family and tracking it versus how we feel.  How about you – have you ever checked your pH?

 

THE “R” WORD

road to recovery signYou may or may not know my personal recovery story. I have recovered my 2 sons, now ages 5 and 7, from sensory processing disorder (SPD), asthma, allergies, acid reflux and eczema with a biomedical approach, which means correcting nutritional and hormonal deficiencies, removing toxicities and correcting gut dysbiosis.

I’m still working on failure to thrive, mitochondrial dysfunction, hypothyroidism and persistent eczema in my older son. In addition, they both had developmental delays, and my older son had severe hypotonia as a baby.

I have recovered from immune dysregulation, in which I had shingles twice, the worst case of poison-ivy ever, bronchitis (which I’d never had before), constant sinus infections and constant colds that would last 3-4 weeks at a time.

My older son had immune dysregulation, too, when he was younger: he would go to preschool, get sick and be out for at least a week at a time, then go to school the next week, get sick, and the cycle repeated ad nauseum (pun intended).

I also had severe adrenal fatigue, which was caused by dealing with my older son’s severe SPD.

Adrenal fatigue caused middle-of-the-night insomnia, in which I would be awake for hours at a time in the middle of the night and be so dead tired the next day that 3 hour naps wouldn’t help.

I later learned that adrenal fatigue was the cause of the onslaught of my “female problems”, which I’d never had before: a suddenly irregular menstrual cycle, a uterine fibroid and ovarian cysts.

I also found out I have two types of anemia: iron-deficiency (the more commonly known about kind) and folate-deficiency. I learned how these and most of out other problems can be tied back to gut dysbiosis and its chronic infections, especially Candidiasis.

I also discovered that I am hypothyroid and that this may have played a large part in my sons’ problems when I was pregnant with them.

I found out that I was loaded with heavy metals, especially mercury and lead, which are the most neurologically damaging. I immediately had my sons tested and found out they were full of them, too.

It’s been very hard going through this, as most people, even most doctors, don’t know about the causes of all these problems. They don’t understand that all of these problems are related, and they certainly don’t know that recovery is possible.

We got a lot of help from changing our diets and seeing a naturopath, a functional-medicine doctor and a holistic nutritionist, as well as from me doing never-ending research about how all of these problems are connected.

We’ve recovered from so much, although there is still more work to be done. In any case, we are so much better off now than we were 4 years ago, when all of these problems hit a crescendo.

I want people to know that recovery is possible, which is why I joined the non-profit Epidemic Answers. We seek to educate parents about the causes of these problems as well as let them know that recovery is possible.

In fact, we’re making a documentary film to show the world that recovery is possible because most people just don’t know that.

Most people don’t know that a child can recover from autism or asthma or that an adult can recover from an autoimmune disease, even multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis.

If you want to learn more about our film, you can find out more by watching this video or by visiting our website. Please help us get this film made!

 

BOOK REVIEW: IT’S ALL GOOD, GWYNETH PALTROW’S COOKBOOK

Gwyneth Paltrow It's All Good book coverMy husband bought me a copy of Gwyneth Paltrow’s cookbook, “It’s All Good:  Delicious, Easy Recipes That Will Make You Look Good and Feel Great” the other day for my birthday.  I have to say I was pleasantly surprised!

She openly talks about the health problems that she had that led to her needing to make dietary changes.  I can relate because I’ve had to do the same for myself and my children.  [Read more…]

WHAT WORKS FOR POISON IVY?

poison ivyI was outside gardening today, pulling out strings of poison ivy vines, and I thought about how I had a nasty rash of poison ivy a few years ago.

It was all over me, and it was spreading.  I was also going through a very stressful time dealing with my son’s worsening Sensory Processing Disorder, and I believe the stress was making it worse.  [Read more…]

ADRENAL FATIGUE

exhaustionI became severely stressed when I began taking care of my two boys without any help because that’s when my older son’s sensory issues and “fight, fright or flight” issues really kicked in.  [Read more…]

HOW MY SON’S SENSORY PROCESSING DISORDER CAUSED MY SEVERE HEALTH DECLINE

tired womanHaving a son with a developmental delay was very hard on me.  He didn’t walk until he was 20 months old.

This was extremely hard for me because he didn’t walk until 3 weeks before his little brother was born, and I was having to carry him everywhere.

I suppose the bright side is that he didn’t weigh a whole lot, given that he was also a failure-to-thrive baby.  [Read more…]

RETAINED REFLEXES, LEARNING AND HAPPINESS

baby crawling on a floorMy older son with sensory processing disorder (SPD) benefited greatly from going to a land-based occupational therapist (OT) for six months.  I asked her what we should do about him learning to swim, given that he had such a bad experience with it when he was 2 years old.

You might remember that he was so overwhelmed by the lights, sounds, the way the water felt, and his gravitational insecurity in the water that one day after class he came home and wiped down half the kitchen to relieve his stress.  That’s a pretty strong reaction from a toddler.  [Read more…]

Antidepressant Side Effects

Antidepressant Side EffectsA few years ago, when I was going through an extremely stressful time with my older son’s worsening Sensory Processing Disorder, I became very irritable and cranky.  I also developed middle-of-the night insomnia, where I would lie wake for 2-3 hours at a time in the middle of the night.

I went to my gynecologist, who was my primary care doctor at the time, and he put me on Zoloft, an antidepressant.  It definitely helped with the irritability but it, and the Ambien he gave me, did nothing for my insomnia.

I wasn’t crazy about taking pharmaceuticals.  Antidepressants come with many possible annoying and/or dangerous side effects, about which Harvard Medical School published an article:  “What Are the Real Risks of Antidepressants?”  Possible antidepressant side effects are:

  • Insomnia
  • Skin rashes
  • Headaches
  • Joint and muscle pain
  • Stomach upset
  • Nausea
  • Diarrhea
  • Reduced blood-clotting capacity
  • Stomach bleeding, especially if taking NSAIDs (aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen)
  • Uterine bleeding, especially if taking NSAIDs (aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen)
  • Tics
  • Muscle spasms
  • Repetitive muscle movements
  • Parkinsonism (rigid and trembling limbs, a shuffling gait, loss of fine motor control)
  • Compulsive restlessness
  • Anxiety (ironic given that antidepressants are often given to people with anxiety)
  • Low libido or performance
  • Discontinuation symptoms
  • Self-destructive thoughts
  • Suicide

My search continued because I was also experiencing a whole host of other health issues:  shingles, uterine fibroids, ovarian cysts, irregular cycles, bronchitis and constant, lingering colds and sinus infections.

Given my own issues and those of my son, I researched the gut-brain connection, especially to find out what effects digestive issues, which my sons had had since birth, had on Sensory Processing Disorder.  The gut is called “the second brain”; most neurotransmitters used in the brain are made in the gut.

This concept was popularized by Dr. Michael Gershon in “The Second Brain:  A Groundbreaking New Understanding of Nervous Disorders of the Stomach and Intestine“.

Digestive issues can also create nutritional deficiencies, many of which can contribute to the initial conditions that an antidepressant was prescribed for in the first place.

Given that neurotransmitters are made in the gut, it stood to reason that working on digestive issues would help all of us, and it did.  I began to sleep through the night without taking medication, my sons’ sensory issues improved (as did their acid reflux), and I was no longer a cranky mommy.