Coach Debbie Potts here… today is another bonus episode to talk about how we need to take care of the WHOLE self in order to reduce accumulations of chronic stress.
Stress is on… Immune System is off.
Where is our immune system?
80% in our gut.
How do we improve our immune system?
Reduce CHRONIC Stressors.
What causes CHRONIC stress?
Right now we have lots of stressors in our world including fear of the unknown, financial stress and loss of schedule or life.
We can choose to take ownership of our health and wellness but taking this opportunity to slow down, reset and reboot.
- This is the time to start being fat adapted.
- This is the time to be in nutritional ketosis.
- This is the time to do intermittent fasting.
- This is the time to get outside for light activity and exercise.
Take this opportunity to do stuff you have not been able to find time to do as myself- yoga, cold morning walks outside, daily use of my Sunlighten infrared (FRED), home circuit training with exercises I haven’t done for a while at the gym plus more time outside in the afternoon when the sun is shining above.
Mixing up our routine is beneficial- good for the brain and muscle confusion!
Take care of the WHOLE you by reducing sources of CHRONIC stressors that you CAN control as nutrition, slowing down, stop multi-tasking, breathing, nature walks, reduce environmental and reduce blue light exposure.
Let me know if you want to investigate “under the hood” to find out your HIDDEN internal stressors that are contributing to your “beaker of stress” overload and leading to a domino effect of internal breakdown and burnout at a cellular level.
You don’t know about these HIDDEN internal sources on CHRONIC Stress unless you run functional lab testing and look at the WHOLE picture – instead of treating lab results, symptoms and anything specific.
I have been there…the struggle is real.
I want to thrive each day… and not just “survive” the day.
Do you agree?
What if you are living life each day at 50% capacity?
If your car is operating at 50% capacity… would you not take your car in for an inspection?
Why don’t we do that for our own body and take ownership for our health?
Perhaps we settle for the “way things are” or blame the aging process!
Let me give myself as an example.
I have been feeling better – increased energy, quality sleep and overall happiness each day since my roller coaster health breakdown and cellular burnout started being obvious to me in March 2013.
Recently, I have run a few main functional labs that we use in our FDN “Health Detective” program then clinically correlated my own intake forms, nutritional therapy, genetics and lifestyle habits.
My labs show that I have not restored the vitality of my cells as much as I could be to thrive at optimal level EACH day.
It is not the aging process but rather the damage we have put on our body for the years of living life as a race with chronic external stress as well as our HIDDEN internal stressors that go undetected for years unless we run well-chosen functional lab tests at least once a year.
The key to a good health detective investigation is to clinically correlate all of the information, data, food log, symptoms, complaints and test results into one big pile then sort and find the missing pieces of the puzzle to restore balance- homeostasis.
What are my “main health complaints” and symptoms? Well I won’t share them all but primarily my focus is to be able to run long distance again without my heart rate going into the “black hole” zone after one mile plus gain muscle/lose fat and improve libido.
My Current Symptoms:
- Inability to lose weight
- Lose of muscle
- Slight fatigue – could be better but adapted
- Low libido
- Poor endurance running- fine cycling …heart rate goes up high when run after one mile no matter how much MAF training is done
- Mitochondria function? Oxidative stress levels marked high. I need to test OATS, food sensitivity and gut Zoomer or wheat Zoomer when I have the funds.
My DUTCH panel... my hormones were in balance and some were out of balance. Here is my confidential review with doctors at DUTCH… only for practitioners but I am using myself as a case study to help others reduce chronic stress, fatigue, weight gain and more unexplained symptoms. Remember everyone is unique and we put all the pieces of the puzzle together for an individual.
Your progesterone levels are within range, thus you ovulated 5-7 days prior to collecting these samples!
Your estrogen, however is low, at least on the days you collected the samples.
Low estrogen can contribute to weight gain and difficulty losing weight.
One of my favorite supplements to use in a picture with normal progesterone but low estrogen is maca, specifically Maca Harmony by Femmenessence.
Maca can help the brain communicate with the ovaries and can thus help increase estrogen levels.
I also think stress reduction and looking for ways to slow down in life and take more down time can be helpful for the HPO (and HPA!) axis. Of course, you could consider consuming and absorbing adequate healthy fat and protein in your diet for overall hormone support.
Your estrogen metabolism patterns look good!
Your androgen levels are interesting.
Your testosterone is slightly above range for your age, which is not necessarily a bad thing as you are not having symptoms of androgen excess.
You just have the testosterone of a 30 year old! Your 5a-DHT is within range, however your 5a and 5b-androstenediol are below range, lowering the overall androgen load on your body.
Overall for androgen support I like weight lifting, high intensity interval training, zinc, maca and good sleep.
Low libido can also be due to other factors such as stress, low DHEA (your DHEA is on the lower end of range for your age – you could consider oral DHEA), neurotransmitter issues, sleep issues, etc.
Your melatonin is low end of range.
As you are having issues with sleep you could consider melatonin supplementation, or you could support serotonin with things like 5-HTP or L-tryptophan, being mindful of serotonin syndrome (as serotonin converts to melatonin!).
Your metabolized cortisol is on the low end of range, and your free cortisol and cortisone are at the low end of range and your DHEA is at the low end of range – this may mean lower function of the adrenal glands from lower ACTH signaling from the brain – which we can see often from chronic stress on the body.
The maca will help to support the adrenal glands. You could also consider panax ginseng, rhodiola (research shows about 400-600 mg daily can help with mood, energy, depression), glandulars.
This may help with your fatigue, and better adrenal function can be helpful for weight loss! Also, when a woman is struggling with weight loss and has high Pyroglutamate, I like to support glutathione.
Your MMA is above range so you could be deficient in B12.
Dr. Kelly at DUTCH for my MD review consult
From my Saliva test last fall – I was also below average on cortisol and DHEA.
- Cortisol has one of the most distinct circadian rhythms in human physiology. This is regulated by the central clock located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus.
- Cortisol acts as a secondary messenger between central and peripheral clocks, hence its importance in the synchronization of body circadian rhythms.
- Optimal regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is critical for a successful response to any stressor as well as in non-stressful situations.
- Dysregulation of the HPA axis in basal conditions or in response to acute or chronic (including psychosocial) stress is closely related to the onset and/or progression of many diseases.
- The anabolic steroid, dehydroepiandosterone sulfate (DHEA-S), is secreted from the adrenal cortex.
- It plays a significant role in the body as a precursor to sex steroids as well as a role in HPA axis response to stress.
- The Cortisol to DHEA-S ratio provides a snapshot of the waking values of these hormones and is reported specific to the age and gender of the patient.
- In general, an elevated cortisol:DHEA-S ratio is indicative of progressive HPA axis dysfunction in which acute and/or chronic stressors have taken their toll on homeostasis.
- The cortisol:DHEA-S ratio is generally considered to be a measure of catabolic vs. anabolic activities, but it may be better described as the overall burden of glucocorticoid signaling on tissues, since DHEA acts not only as an anabolic hormone, but appears to function to down-regulate the cellular effects of cortisol.
- Therefore, the signaling burden of cortisol is not just a function of available free cortisol, but of the DHEA-S available as an opposing signals
- Biohealth Labs
My gut pathogen panel... Blasto Hominos was gone but stubborn H.Pylori was still hiding out in my stomach organ – probably contributing to poor protein digestion, liver congestion, gut wall (IP) damage, leaky gut and poor amino acid into neurotransmitters.
Helicobacter pylori… what the heck is it?
H. pylori is a common type of bacteria that grows in the digestive tract and has a tendency to attack the stomach lining. It infects the stomachs of roughly 60 percentTrusted Source of the world’s adult population. H. pylori infections are usually harmless, but they’re responsible for the majority of ulcers in the stomach and small intestine.
The “H” in the name is short for Helicobacter. “Helico” means spiral, which indicates that the bacteria are spiral shaped.
H. pylori often infect your stomach during childhood. While infections with this strain of bacteria typically don’t cause symptoms, they can lead to diseases in some people, including peptic ulcers, and an inflammatory condition inside your stomach known as gastritis.
H. pylori are adapted to live in the harsh, acidic environment of the stomach. These bacteria can change the environment around them and reduce its acidity so they can survive. The spiral shape of H. pylori allows them to penetrate your stomach lining, where they’re protected by mucus and your body’s immune cells are not able to reach them. The bacteria can interfere with your immune response and ensure that they’re not destroyed. This can lead to stomach problems. https://www.healthline.com/health/helicobacter-pylori#risk-factors
- Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is a gram-negative bacterium that causes chronic inflammation (infection) in the stomach and duodenum, and is a common contagious cause of ulcers worldwide. These bacteria are sometimes termed “ulcer bacteria.”
- Helicobacter pylori causes chronic inflammation (gastritis) by invading the lining of the stomach and producing a cytotoxin termed vacuolating cytotoxin A (Vac-A), and thus can lead to ulcer formation.
- Chronic infections with Helicobacter pylori weakens the natural defenses of the stomach so most individuals with symptoms need to be treated to prevent ulceration formation.
- Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori or, as it is sometimes termed, stomach bacteria) is a spiral-shaped gram-negative bacterium that can cause chronic inflammation of the inner lining of the stomach (gastritis) and in the duodenum (first part of the small bowel) in humans.
- This bacterium also is considered a common cause of ulcers worldwide; as many as 90% of people with ulcers are infected with H. pylori.
- However, many people have these organisms residing in (colonising or mucosa-associated) their stomach and upper digestive tract and have few or no symptoms.
- LPS (lipopolysaccharide) is part of the H. pylori outer membrane and can be toxic when the bacteria die and lyse.
- Researchers also suggest that stomach acid stimulates the bacterium to grow and produce the cytotoxin, and increases invasion of the lining of the stomach by the bacteria, with resulting inflammation, and peptic ulcer formation (peptic ulcer disease). Other investigators have shown that these bacteria and their products cause alterations in the cells of the stomach lining that when altered are associated with stomach and other cancers, although these are infrequently seen diseases.
My metabolic assessment… “RED” Zone -elevated. Lipid peroxidation is a” mechanism of cellular injury and is used as an indicator of oxidative stress. The elevation of lipid peroxides serves as an early warning of the potential long-term effects of oxidative stress. Oxidative stress can result from exposure to toxins or pathogens, inappropriate lifestyle – such as over-exercising and smoking – or byproducts of normal metabolism. Lipid peroxides are unstable and decompose to form a series of compounds, such as malondialdehyde (MDA). MDA can be quantified through a controlled reaction with thiobarbituric acid, generating Thiobarbituric Acid Reactive Substances (TBARS). “
My metabolic assessment also showed me that I had poor protein digestion via the urinary indican test (+2) results.
“Urinary Indican is an effective screening tool for assessment of protein digestion, dysbiosis, SIBO, and malabsorption states. Also known as indoxyl sulfate, indican is produced when there is putrefaction of tryptophan from dietary protein by dysbiotic bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract. Problems with protein digestion are often caused by the following factors: Helicobacter pylori, parasite infections, dysbiosis, a lack of digestive enzymes, and liver dysfunction. Inability to digest protein can lead to bowel putrefaction, adverse effects on glycemic control, and hormone imbalance.”
Biohealth Metabolic Assessment
And to come for me… Organic Acids Test and updated MRT or Vibrant Wellness Food Sensitivity test.
Also, I would read DIRTY GENES by Dr. Ben Lynch and use their STRATEGENE report to find out your genetic snps…
What is my next step?
To follow my 90-day “DRESS for Health Success” protocol to repair, rebuild and restore my internal health so I can activate all body systems to be running at full and optimal capacity!
Stay tuned for my progress as my Matula Tea arrives today- it is to eliminate H. Pylori in 30 days!
Until next time… go play, laugh and be silly!
Positive attitude-positive vibes-positive life.