The impact of trauma……..
Infographs from Ruth Buczynski as part of the Treating Trauma Master Series (NICABM)
continued….
Cortisol, stress, trauma and health…..
‘Your hormones relay the messages from the brain to tell the rest of the body what to do next. If you are sending stress signals from the brain, they will be relayed to the adrenal glands. The adrenal glands sit on top of your kidneys. The adrenal glands release a stress hormone called cortisol when they receive a danger signal from the brain’.
‘Cortisol is a hormone. Almost every cell contains receptors for cortisol, so cortisol will behave according to the cell it’s acting upon. When cortisol is balanced, it will help control blood-sugar levels, fluid balance, help you wake up in the morning, reduce inflammation, help with memory, and aid in fertility and blood pressure regulation. Cortisol, like stress, is not bad. Too much cortisol can be damaging. When you are chronically releasing cortisol because you are chronically overwhelmed and chronically sending danger messages through your relay system, you will start seeing tissue and organ breakdown in your body, as well as weight gain and a decrease in your libido. This is one of the root causes of leaky gut. Cortisol breaks down the protective lining of your intestinal wall. Prolonged cortisol release can interfere with sleep or cause you to wake up fatigued in the morning even if you did get 8 hours of sleep. It can cause weight gain in the belly area, even when you are exercising and eating well. It affects your immune system, contributes to joint pain and inflammation, tanks your libido level, and can cause anxiety and depression— all of which are common symptoms in autoimmune disease as well. Adrenal fatigue is a primary cause of hormone imbalance in both men and women’
Extracts from Solving the Autoimmune Puzzle: The Woman’s Guide to Reclaiming Emotional Freedom and Vibrant Health by Keesha Ewers (2017)
Sharing…
Extracts from Solving the Autoimmune Puzzle: The Woman’s Guide to Reclaiming Emotional Freedom and Vibrant Health by Keesha Ewers (2017)
‘Autoimmune disorders now cumulatively make up the third leading cause of death in the industrialized world. Recognized in about 50 million people, but only 1 out of 3 are diagnosed, diagnosable autoimmunity is present in at least 72 million people in the US. To provide a context to evaluate the celiac impact of autoimmune diseases, cancer affected approximately 9 million people and heart disease affected approximately 22 million people in the United States. We know that you are 10 times more likely to develop an autoimmune disorder if you have celiac disease. How far early childhood trauma goes into those cases and would provide an avenue for healing is the great front ier’.
‘I am one of the 50 million Americans who has received an autoimmune diagnosis…….. I found a way out and have written this book as a roadmap for you to find your way out too’
The four pillars of the Freedom Framework can be applied to any autoimmune disease to get you from feeling awful to feeling like a human again.
The steps are:
Un-Cover root cause(s)
(The five root causes are: 1. Physical 2. Mental 3. Emotional 4. Spiritual 5. Your Story)
- Confront the data collected through laboratory testing and your own story.
- Connect your beliefs and behaviors with your current reality.
- Create the life you want to be living with full intention.
These will be the anchor pieces to your puzzle. They are: 1) your genetics, 2) environmental toxins, 3) leaky gut, and 4) trauma. This last piece of the puzzle is the one I call the missing piece.
I have not “cured” my autoimmune disease. I have “reversed” it. I have “ended” it. Why this distinction? Because if I went back to the diet, beliefs, behavior patterns and ways of dealing with stress and anger that I once had when I was first diagnosed, I would once again activate the genes that put me at risk for RA in the first place’.
‘Women are diagnosed with 80% of the over 145 identified autoimmune diseases (that number is still growing). Several autoimmune diseases, including lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, myasthenia gravis, and multiple sclerosis, afflict women anywhere from two to 10 times more often than they do men……
…..our sex hormones, our x chromosomes, and a history of pregnancy all play a role in the development of autoimmune disease, but there are other important pieces to the autoimmune puzzle in women as well. One of those pieces is what I call the autoimmune mindset. The autoimmune mindset is formed in childhood and impacts your health in adulthood’