EMOTIONAL HEALTH 2

In the last couple of years we have most certainly experienced an increase in uncertainty, tension, confusion, and we have been triggered by countless issues that have arisen in our society and around the world.

Consequently our bodies have been in a heightened state of alert for a very long time now, a state we are just not designed to be in continuously.

This has seen depression rates triple in the US alone and the rest of the world has experienced similar.

In our previous article, we mentioned that if we do not have access to coping strategies, support or resources to help us deal with stress, depression and anxiety, we may face the negative consequences they can have on our health.

In order to truly heal, like all health issues, we must take a wholistic approach.

Stress, depression and anxiety are mostly viewed as psychological issues, however it is important to understand that though the manifestations of these conditions occur at the emotional level, their triggers are often linked to physical and biological abnormalities.

Conditions such as chronic inflammation and oxidative stress, hormonal imbalances, and cell degeneration surprisingly, can all contribute to the development of these mood disorders, and affect our emotional health.

1. Imbalances in the Gut-Brain Axis.

This fascinating connection is a huge contributing factor to our mood.

The gut and the brain are in constant communication.

This communication is bidirectional, not only does the brain talk to or influence the gut, but also the other way around.

Trillions of microbes that live in your gut are continuously producing neurotransmitters (like serotonin, the happy hormone) that majorly influence the behaviour of the person.

Balanced and diverse gut flora is essential for our brain to function properly, and similarly, when the brain is in good health, it is able to support appropriate gut function.

If there are disruptions in the gut-brain axis it can cause nutrient deficiency and hormonal imbalance, which can raise the risk of depression and other mental health disorders.

Please click here to view our video on The Gut-Brain Axis or click here to read our blog post.

2. Nutritional Deficiencies

Deficiency of nutrients like B vitamins, magnesium, zinc, vitamin C, vitamin D, omega 3 fatty acids, CoQ10, and amino acids are commonly detected in patients with mental health disorders like depression as well as neurodegenerative diseases. [1]

Unfortunately, today the amount of these nutrients found in our food has decreased drastically so it is important to talk to your Naturopath to find our what vitamins you may be deficient in so they can prescribe the correct dosages to help protect against the risk of these conditions.

3. Chronic Inflammation and Oxidative Stress.

Firstly, chronic inflammation.

There is mounting research that is linking pro-inflammatory cytokines to mental health disorders.

Cytokines are small proteins that are crucial in cell signalling.

When released they signal the immune system to do its job.

They affect the growth of all blood cells and other cells that help the body's immune and inflammation responses.

Cytokines also play a role in brain development and function, and affect the neural circuits and transmitters within the brain, causing changes in behaviour.

Pro-inflammatory Cytokines are secreted by immune cells and other types of cells that promote inflammation.

They play a role in initiating the inflammatory response.

In the past 20 years extensive research has linked these pro-inflammatory cytokines to depression.

When inflammatory cytokines are administered, it signals the immune system to work hard to restore normal function by healing the injury or infection.

If this happens continuously, or chronically however, the result can affect the brain and cause depression and other psychiatric abnormalities.

Chronic inflammation in general leads to the development of both fatigue and depression. [1]

Next, oxidative stress

Oxidative stress is caused by an imbalance of antioxidants and free radicals in the body.

Free radicals are molecules that contain oxygen and are produced by the body as a result of normal metabolism and energy production. They are missing one or more electrons. In order to 'replace their missing parts', free radicals will aggressively attack other molecules.

This reaction is called 'oxidation'.

This can either be beneficial or harmful.

They are produced as a natural biological response to things such as environmental toxins, exercise and inflammation.

Antioxidants are electron donors. They can donate electrons to other molecules without making itself unstable. They are key in protecting the body against a free radical rampage by allowing the free radical to stabalise.

An imbalance of free radicals and antioxidants can cause your cells to underperform and lead to tissue and DNA damage, and a range of diseases.

This is known as oxidative stress, and can create a lot of different health challenges like . . .

Studies conducted over the past few years suggest that anxiety disorders may be characterized by lowered antioxidant defenses and increased oxidative damage to proteins, lipids and nucleic acids. In particular, oxidative modifications to proteins have actually been proposed as a potential factor in the onset and progression of several psychiatric disorders, including anxiety and depressive disorders. [2]

Cytokines and free radicals can travel through your body, as well as your mind. They are not stopped by the blood brain barrier.

Oxidative stress often occurs with chronic inflammation, and together they take an enormous toll on your immune system and contribute to nearly every disease.

4. Toxicity

The presence of heavy metals and other toxins can affect neurological health.

Sufficient detoxification processes, and avoiding exposure to toxic metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium and arsenic could help to cleanse and restore your body and nervous system, and reduce your risk of developing depression and anxiety.

Exposure to these metals can cause symptoms such as weakening of the Blood-Brain Barrier, altered neurotransmitter levels, destruction of glutathione and other protective proteins and an increase in oxidative stress.

Meet "The Four Firemen."

According to traditional western medicine, the body is separate from the mind and emotional stress has no impact over the body.

According to the ancient art of Chinese medicine, our emotional state and chronic patterns can cause disease and make physical symptoms worse. [3]

From this perspective emotions affect our physiology because specific emotions are related to corresponding organs.

There are areas of the body that need to be functioning correctly in order for us to experience ultimate health. In mind and in body.

I like to call them to 4 Firemen.

1. Digestive System

It all begins here. If the gut is not functioning as it should emotions that we may experience include:

• Worry
• Low self-esteem
• Obsession
• Easily crying
• Defensive
• Compelled to neatness

2. Liver

If the digestive system becomes chronically ill, illness then spreads to the liver. Emotions that manifest here are:

• Irritability
• Anger
• Stubbornness
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Resentment

3. Immune System

After the liver, the immune system is then compromised, unleashing emotions such as:

• Shame
• Embarrassment
• Awkwardness
• Confusion
• Seems to always be the victim

4. Kidneys

And finally, if illness moves to the kidneys, extreme emotions may eventuate including:

• Panic Attacks
• OCD
• PTSD
• Fear
• Paralysed
• Timid
• Impending Doom
• Dread
• Can't get out of bed

The good news is these are all able to be healed. To do so, we must heal them in the correct order.

We could describe it to be like clearing the path to ultimate wellness . . .

Before this, however, in order to heal anything we must get our alkalinity right.

This is the first Step in Dr Wayne's 3 Step process that is over 4,000 years old.

Acidity is the number one driver of all illness.

To read more about this, please click here to go to our blog on pH and Alkalinity.

After this, The second step now needs to be addressed. Treating Chronic Inflammation and Oxidative Stress is key and encompasses the second step. We go into this in detail in our blog on weight loss. Click here to access this post.

Then we can cleanse and heal the 4 filters, or the Four firemen in this order: The Digestive System, followed by the Liver, the Immune system and the Kidneys.

Along with healing these at a physiological level, we will also see real results psychologically.

The good news is that exercise, increasing your water intake and changing your eating habits to a diet that includes wholefoods, lots of vegetables, healthy carbohydrates and avoiding sugar and alcohol will help these filters to detoxify and clean themselves, as they were designed to do.

However, to begin with, seeking the advice of your practitioner will be most beneficial.

…and we know who that is…

Dr Wayne will be able to identify where your body most needs detoxifying, prescribe the right medicines and tailor a unique detoxifying program for you.

Another, often overlooked root cause of depression, anxiety and the way we handle stress is our subconscious belief systems.

From a Western medicine perspective, 95% of all thoughts are programmed prior to the age of 7.

This statement suggests to us that it is set for life, that there is no changing our thought patterns, that there is no opportunity to re-program.

Ancient medicine however, has said the cause to all disharmony, disease and suffering, including stress, depression and anxiety is due to the "mistake of the intellect".

This is also known as "pragya-aparadh".

Pragya-apardh is when the intellect loses connection with the wholeness of our consciousness and identifies itself solely with the physical body.

When the mind is disconnected in this way, we are unable to pay attention to even the most basic cues or signals sent to us by our body.

This manifests into poor diet and lifestyle choices, ill health and suffering. The 'mistakes' are classified into three groups :

• 1. Lack of intellect/ignorance
• 2. Acting despite of awareness, and
• 3. Loss of memory in favour of poor decision. . . Decisions are no longer made from the level of consciousness… we have forgotten our selves.

When we feel this isolation and separation from the whole, we feel stress. Stress is connected to fear and these are major players when it comes to all illness, disease and suffering.

Regaining your health means realigning with your bodies intelligence.

I much prefer this ancient medicine perspective by using the word "mistake", as this can be remedied with a little work, awareness and support.

Science suggests that the average human has about 70,000 thoughts a day and 80% of these are pessimistic or negative, and 90% of these are from the past.

The law of attraction states that what we think about most becomes our reality.

Therefore, if most of our thoughts are from the past, then we create our future FROM our past.

The more past memories we have due to psychological trauma, stress or negative experiences the more we hoard these memories in our subconscious.

This can create chronic inflammation within the amygdala, causing it to swell which then leads to depression and anxiety.

In general, the person who is depressed is usually, subconsciously and unknowingly thinking about the past, whereas the person who is anxious is subconsciously and unknowingly thinking about the future.

Interestingly, all negative emotions are acidic to the body.

One of the best things we can do for our brain health and acidity levels is to simply breathe deeply.

The following shall help enormously for reducing acidity:

• * Breath work exercises,
• * Yoga especially Salute to the sun,
• * Exercise and
• * Meditation

These techniques can drastically transform our brain health.

If you feel you need to go deeper into your subconscious to lift or re-write some of the more challenging self-limiting beliefs, then a psychology program such as PSYCH-K may be able to help you. To find out more click here.

Over the years, Wayne has looked at many ways of trying to change subconscious beliefs fast. For example, he has taught meditation, meditated with five to ten thousand people, he is a hypnotherapist, he has studied and practiced many different types of kinesiology techniques, he has travelled the world seeking answers to this question.

To date, the only technique that Wayne has found that brings fast and lasting results of letting go of old subconscious beliefs, is PSYCH-K.

PSYCH-K is a form of energy psychology that uses certain Kinesiology processes to reprogram our subconscious beliefs that may be self-deprecating, self-limiting or self-destructive.

Wayne has adapted and expanded on this technique, using the knowledge and wisdom he has accumulated on his journey, creating a unique and powerful tool that can help to remove the emotional charge associated with these subconscious negative beliefs.

This can be conducted via phone, zoom or in person, making it more accessible than ever before.

By freeing the mind of this emotional charge, we may see a decrease in chronic inflammation in the amygdala and an improvement in mood, patience, memory, and our ability to handle stress and overcome depression and anxiety, just to name a few.

If you would like to know more about PSYCH-K, please click here to watch an informative video.

We hope you have found this helpful.

Our next email in the series will give you some tools you can use to help manage feelings of depression, anxiety and stress.

Until next time,

Dedicated to Improving Your Wellbeing and Committed To Helping You Achieve Abundant Health and Wealth,

The team at Unique Health and Wellness.