Latest / Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease / 092 // 5 Types of Stress &1 Thing to Do

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092 // 5 Types of Stress &1 Thing to Do · Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease

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  Hey, welcome to the Health of the Hashimoto's podcast. Today's episode is about
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  the five types of stress.
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  We are surrounded by stress. There's always stress.
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  In fact, as I was preparing to record this, I hit record and GarageBand looked so funny on my Mac.
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  It's still funny. I hope it sounds okay. I have spent several hours trying to
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  troubleshoot and I cannot figure out what went different.
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  I know that it did this once before and it magically fixed itself.
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  Like the next day. I don't know. I've turned off my computer.
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  I've turned it back on. I've restarted everything. I've done so many things.
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  So it's a little ironic that today's topic is stress.
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  Before we talk about stress, I want to invite you into the app.
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  It is available for you. And I am so excited to watch people come into the app,
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  start conversations and go through the free mini course that you will find in there.
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  So in the app, you're going to find a supportive community.
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  Obviously I'm just, you know, starting the app. So the community is tiny right
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  now, but we are supportive.
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  There's a supportive community. We're going to be there for you every step of the way.
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  And also you can binge the free mini course. It is called Hashimoto's Decoded.
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  And you're going to learn, you know, what causes Hashimoto's and why you might have Hashimoto's.
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  You're going to finish that mini course with clear steps to regain control of your health.
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  And there's also my full course, which is the Holistic Hashimoto's course.
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  That is also within the app. And that's going to help you as you grapple with,
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  you know, fatigue, brain fog, weight struggles, all the different things of Hashimoto's.
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  I'm going to give you a solution so that you can take steps to get back to who you used to be.
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  I hear that all the time. I don't recognize who I am, or I just want to be like
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  me again, or I'm not showing up like me.
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  We all know who we used to be and who we are inside, and we want to reflect
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  that with our actions and.
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  What we look like too. So the Holistic Hashimoto's course is going to help you
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  uncover your autoimmune root causes and you will take clear,
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  simple, and sustainable steps so that you can regain your energy and you can feel like yourself.
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  Again, that's what we want. I got a message today from somebody and she was
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  citing different experts in the Hashimoto's world online and saying that that
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  everybody has a course and everybody seems to have different recommendations
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  and they contradict each other and they're overwhelming.
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  And I absolutely understand.
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  In fact, that's one of the reasons why I struggled in the beginning,
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  or even before I got thyroid problems, because everything was so confusing,
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  even just thyroid related.
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  And then you get into Hashimoto's and what to do about it.
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  And there's all these different, you know, experts who are giving you absolutely contradictory advice.
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  And I was so confused and I was so overwhelmed. And actually,
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  that's why I made this course, the Holistic Hashimoto's course, because of all of that.
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  Now, in my 17 years in the emergency department, I have worked with probably hundreds of doctors.
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  I could count them, but I'm not going to because I worked in,
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  I don't know, like four or five different states and a whole bunch of different ERs.
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  I worked with a whole lot of doctors.
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  Nurses are patient educators. The doctor is there to diagnose,
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  and yes, the doctor is going to give you some advice on what to do,
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  but nurses are really there to help you put things into practice,
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  to figure out how this is going to work in real life.
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  We are here to educate you about your disease, about the treatment plan,
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  about lifestyle things that you can do.
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  Nurses are educators. We are also patient advocates.
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  We really want our patients to be able to do what's best for them, them.
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  And in 17 years of ER experience, you know, I worked with some doctors,
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  some doctors, they're human.
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  So you have some really good ones and you have some really bad ones.
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  And some doctors would give really horrible advice. I worked with one doctor
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  and I would not trust her with anybody.
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  She was really bad. And so you had to be really careful to make sure that what
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  she was saying was not going to harm the patient and then make sure that the
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  nurses did a lot of education so that the patients knew exactly what to do and
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  find healing and hope and lifestyle change and do the right things.
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  I also want to say I worked with a ton of fantastic doctors,
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  doctors that I still will talk to and ask things.
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  And a lot of doctors that I consider my friends, you make some good relationships.
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  But you know, not everybody thinks the same way.
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  And so it is our job as patients, as Hashimoto's patients, to look at the data
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  and to figure out what works for us.
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  Because every single person is unique.
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  You are a bio-individual.
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  Your path to where you got where you are now and where you're going forward,
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  it's not the same as anybody else. You are unique.
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  And so your path, what you choose to do is going to differ from somebody.
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  And so that's why when I look at all the experts online, I evaluated them.
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  I did not go through any programs because just by looking at the advice,
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  I knew that I was going to start this podcast and I didn't want to accidentally accidentally and.
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  Give you somebody else's program because I had been there. I read a ton of books.
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  I read a ton of literature and research.
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  I have listened to a lot of interviews and documentaries.
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  I have done so much research into thyroid stuff, into Hashimoto's, into autoimmune.
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  And I can tell you that a lot of the top experts have really good advice.
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  And a lot of the top experts really do contradict each other.
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  And so that is why I created the Holistic Hashimoto's Course,
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  so that you can figure out what you need to do.
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  It's not following somebody else's protocol.
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  It's looking at, okay, here's what's going on. And here are some things that
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  can address that exact issue.
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  What is going to work for you? That's what I do as a nurse. I empower you to
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  make the best decision for you.
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  So yes, in the Holistic Hashimoto's course, I'm going to lead you by the hand
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  so that you can take the right steps.
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  I'm going to give you the right steps, but you get to decide what exactly fits.
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  So that holistic Hashimoto's course is in the app. You're going to be able to
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  find the app on the Apple app store.
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  It is called health with Hashimoto's. It has the logo of the flower with the
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  five different colored petals and the purple butterfly in the middle on an Android device.
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  I'm sorry, that one is not available as the standalone app yet.
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  So head down to the show notes and there's a get this, get the app link.
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  And I will take you through the backdoor routes to get the app on an Android device.
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  I'm so excited to welcome you to the app. All right.
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  So the five petaled flower, that is my logo for a reason.
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  And it pertains to stress because
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  those five petals stand for the five different areas of the whole you.
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  You are a whole person, body, mind, spirit.
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  Those are three of the petals. The other two petals are our diet, and environment.
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  They all come together to make up the whole.
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  When you look at a flower and one of the petals is torn or weak or withered.
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  It affects the whole flower, right? You look at that flower and you're like,
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  whoa, that's something's wrong.
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  Well, it's the same thing with you. You are a whole person and all five areas need to be considered.
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  And so when we talk about stress, we're going to talk about the five areas of
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  stress and what you can do.
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  But number one, I want you to know, don't let stress stress you out.
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  We're going to talk about stress. I'm going to bring up a lot of things,
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  a lot of different stressors.
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  Don't let stress stress you out. I do not want this episode to increase your stress.
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  I want this episode and every episode that I give you to empower you to make small changes.
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  And yes, small changes. So number two, pick one thing to do.
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  Number one, don't stress out about your stress. Number two, pick one thing to do.
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  When you make changes that are simple, then you're going to be able to implement them.
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  If they're too complex, then, you know, they're too hard. The roadblocks come up.
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  And you want to make changes that are sustainable.
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  Because if you start a change, and then you just can't sustain it,
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  then sometimes it's almost just a waste of your time, right?
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  All right, so as we go forward, remember those two things. Number one,
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  don't let stress stress you out. And number two, pick one thing to do.
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  Not, you know, I'm going to give you more than five because we're gonna go through
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  five different areas. So don't pick all five, just pick one thing.
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  Let's talk about stressors in your physical body first, because it's easy, right?
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  Now trauma, physical trauma, that's a stressor. That is stress.
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  It is stress how you respond to it. and so that's kind of an emotional piece.
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  But just think, you know, you get into a car accident or you fall on your bike.
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  That's a physical stressor.
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  And there's other kinds of stressors too that are physical.
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  How about, you know, how much sleep do you get? Are you chronically short on sleep?
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  That is a physical stressor and it can lead to a lot of problems. Or how about exercise?
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  Do you go on a gentle walk every day? That is not really a stressor for your body.
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  If you do a HIIT workout where it's high intensity interval training,
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  that's H-I-I-T, that high intensity is a stressor.
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  And for some people, that stressor can be too much.
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  It can be too intense and it can send you into a Hashimoto's flare.
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  For other people, it is a short enough in duration, you know,
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  that interval part that their body needs or loves that stressor and it actually
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  helps them be healthier.
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  You have to know what works for you.
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  For a lot of people who do not have Hashimoto's or autoimmune problems,
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  HIIT workouts are awesome.
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  Get your heart rate up, build the stress, and your body can respond to it.
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  For people who have an autoimmune problem, sometimes that kind of stress is too much.
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  And your body is like, well, I didn't like that.
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  I'm going to have a little flare right now. So sorry.
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  Or does your body say sorry? I don't know. Mine, I feel like Like it doesn't when I have a flare.
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  So there are different kinds of physical stressors. Now, a lot of those same
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  physical stressors bleed over into the mental or the emotional component of the whole you.
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  Think of, you know, that car accident.
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  That is stressful emotionally.
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  Now, every time you go near that spot or into that scenario,
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  then you're going to like, you know, tense up a little PTSD.
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  That is an emotional emotional trauma.
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  Trauma is a trigger for autoimmune problems.
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  I don't know if you have seen the book, it's fairly new, it's called The Autoimmune
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  Cure, and it is all about trauma.
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  One of the statistics she says in the book is that 80% of patients with autoimmune
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  disease have experienced significant emotional stress before the disease onset.
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  Sometimes it is right before the disease onset. It is the exact trigger.
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  And sometimes it's an earlier cause.
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  So it is, there is definitely a link and she goes through it in this book.
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  I don't completely recommend this book.
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  It goes through a lot of things that I'm not comfortable recommending like psychedelics
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  and reliving that trauma.
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  Obviously, if you're going to do that, you're going to want to work with something
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  very, very, very experienced.
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  Do not do that on your own. But one interesting thing I found in this book.
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  She talks about the PINE system, P-I-N-E, which stands for psychoimmune neuroendocrine system.
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  And she links those. She said there is a link between them.
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  So psycho, your brain or your emotions, immune, obviously, you know what your
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  immune system is, your neuro, that is your physical nerves, and then your endocrine,
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  all of your chemical signals.
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  And thyroid stuff and Hashimoto's is directly like all of those things.
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  It is very much related to that pine system.
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  She says the pine system illustrates the way you respond to your environment.
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  It's the scientific area of study that investigates the bi-directional communication
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  between the mind and its functions, the immune system, the nervous system,
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  the endocrine system, and how they all connect to physical, mental, and spiritual health.
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  You can consider the pine to be your stress response system.
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  Some of us have a very sensitive pine system, others less so.
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  And so sometimes when you have that physical trauma response or a physical traumatic
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  event, you have a lot of emotional trauma and sometimes not as much.
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  And there's a lot of different factors that go into that.
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  But know that you are connected.
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  You You cannot take something and just say it was just physical or it was just
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  emotional. Everything is connected.
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  And then also there's spiritual stress. I did an entire episode about spiritual
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  stress. That is episode 40.
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  When you're looking at spiritual stress, things like shame, things like guilt,
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  even loneliness, those are spiritual stressors. They fall into that realm.
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  And again, some of them are going to go into the emotional and some of them
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  might even go into the physical.
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  And then all of those different things they impact
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  how you eat so then you have dietary stress as
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  well your stress in the diet area is
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  number one how like as a response to what's going on in the other areas of course
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  you know we all know stress eating and then there's also the stressors of how
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  you eat so are you eating a lot of processed foods that's a stressor on your
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  body or are you eating a lot of veggies.
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  Veggies help your body to detox. They help you with that stress response.
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  So they are helping instead of hurting. Well, processed foods are going to do more stress to you.
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  And then of course, there's the stress of what do I eat? What do I feed my family?
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  And that, you know, it comes up every single day. So if you're going to want
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  to decrease that, have you tried a meal plan?
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  Yes, Esther, I have tried a meal plan. Talking to myself.
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  When I have a meal plan, man, things go a lot easier. I just don't usually make them.
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  And then every day, like at suppertime, I'm like, oh my goodness,
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  what am I going to make for supper? I should have started two hours ago.
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  It's a thing. Is it a thing for you too? It's a stressor. There are stressors all around us.
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  And then that brings me to the fifth part of the whole you, which is the environment.
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  There are different parts of the environment that are stressful.
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  You can think of indoors, in your house, the air quality.
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  We have a lot more pollutants in our indoors than outdoors.
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  If you look at the statistics and then you look at the clutter,
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  I have an episode about clutter and how that is a stressor. That's episode 33 with Emily McDermott.
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  She has a podcast and she was so helpful on this podcast as she helped us figure
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  out, you know, how clutter can be a stressor. And of course,
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  stressors are triggers for Hashimoto's.
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  So inside your home environment, you know, there's clutter, there's the air
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  quality, there's chemicals also outside, and you get some chemicals outside.
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  There's a lot of stressors in the environment outside side. And nature is a
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  de-stressor. It's like an anti-stress.
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  If you want to be healthier, get out in nature.
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  In fact, going out in nature, preferably nature, but outside in general,
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  or if like bare minimum, go for a walk for 20 minutes, even on a treadmill.
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  But the more green you get in nature, like trees and stuff, they put off chemicals
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  and you're going to have huge benefits if you go out in nature and walk.
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  But a 20-minute walk is more effective for a lot of mental health stuff than
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  the drugs that they give you.
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  And you can look that one up on Google.
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  Scholar.google.com. I think that's Scholar Google.
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  There's so much interesting information
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  about how physical exercise can be better for you than walking.
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  Medications and I'm not telling you to stop your medications but I am telling
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  you be empowered to know the different things that are going to help you in
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  your health journey and taking a walk every day is super powerful.
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  But then back to environment then think about the people you're around or think
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  about your work environment.
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  There's so many different aspects
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  we can think about for environment and different aspects of stress.
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  So I've covered a lot of different stressors a lot of different areas.
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  We talk about body, mind, spirit, diet, environment.
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  And in each one of those, there are stressors. Some of them I helped you identify.
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  Some of them that you probably can think of that I didn't mention.
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  But for each one of those, let's think of how can I lower that or how can I move through it?
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  Sometimes it's taking a deep breath with your belly instead of your shoulders.
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  And that's going to help you to lower your stress.
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  Sometimes it's making a change. Like I said, meals, you know,
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  that stresses me out every evening because I'm like, oh, shoot, I should have done that.
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  Well, what if I took 10, 15, 20 minutes on a weekend and planned my meals for the week?
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  I can still have the flexibility to change them, but at least I'm not starting from scratch.
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  So that would be something that I can do to lower that stressor.
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  What is something simple that you can do to lower the stress?
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  Again, going back to what I said at the beginning, number one,
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  don't let stress stress you out.
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  And number two, pick just one thing to do, just one and implement it.
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  And after you get that under your belt and is like going smoothly,
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  then add another thing to do because we don't want to get more stressed in trying
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  to lower our stress. That would be counterproductive.
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  So what can you do today to lower your stress?
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  In the last episode, if you haven't listened to it, go take a listen and implement
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  that one routine because it lowers your stress.
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  It lowers your cortisol as your stress hormone.
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  It increases your dopamine, which is like your happiness hormone.
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  If you want to do just one thing, head back to that episode and listen to it.
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  One thing I mentioned in that episode is turning off your phone.
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  But if you want to lower stress overall, let's unplug from social media and
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  and from the news for a while, I do not know what this next however many months
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  is going to entail between now and the election and then the inauguration.
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  It's already so divisive on both sides. Everybody seems upset.
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  So I feel like the closer and closer we get to the election,
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  the more and more stress there's going to be in the news and on social media.
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  So if you want to unplug from stress, unplug from social media and the news,
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  because you knowing about it is not going to change what happens.
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  Now, do I want you to be able to make an informed decision about politics? Absolutely.
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  Get some information, figure out what is important to you, and then vote on those issues.
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  But you don't have to be immersed in the stress of hearing the news all the
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  time, whether it's on social media, or whether it's via some other news source.
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  But whatever it is for you, figure out one thing that you can do today to lower your.
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  Music.