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Understanding and managing the fight or flight response is key to tackling chronic diseases like fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. This primal defense mechanism, governed by the brain, is crucial in handling stress. However, when overactive, it can exacerbate chronic conditions. Through tailored solutions focusing on neuron function and individual needs, we can calm this response for improved health.
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Okay, so today we're going to talk about turning
off the fight or flight response. No small task. Having been in this for a long time,
having practiced functional neurology As well as functional medicine, when
I have a patient who has chronic Disease… I call my practice the mystery disease
practice… chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, chronic Irritable bowel syndrome, these types of things,
the stress response is almost always a big player. And if you get into the fight/flight
response where your brain is continually On a low threshold where the slightest little
negative thought is going to set you off, That's a big part of your clinical picture.
And frankly, when I'm evaluating patients It's one of the biggest red flags I look for is
to how severe that fight/flight mechanism is, As to whether to accept that patient or not.
Because if you're trying to fix a person's gut, If you're trying to fix their gallbladder, their
stomach, if you're trying to get rid of SIBO, If you're trying to get chronic fatigue
under control, if you don't get that Fight/flight under control, that fight/flight
mechanism under control at the same time, It's not happening. That person's not getting
better, at least not for any length of time. So how do you do it? So how do you do it? Well,
it varies from person to person. There's so Many things now that what I'm just saying is now
being heavily understood. 20, 10, years ago, not So much, not so much. People would make fun of you
and people would say, "Oh, you've just got to pull Up your bootstraps and go see a psychologist."
And I'm not saying that seeing a psychologist Isn't good or doing counseling isn't good, it's
certainly one of the things you can do. But it Is a fight/flight mechanism. It is hardwired into
your brain. Basically, you have a fear center in Your brain that at some point in time experienced
emotional trauma. This is not to create somebody Who's like weak or something like, "Oh, poor
me," or anything like that. It's not like that. You have a mechanism in your brain that
is designed to go off to protect you from Whatever's going around you because at some point,
you had egregiousness that was so bad that your Amygdala got programmed. So this is an automatic
response, which makes it a lot more difficult. Neurons are not as easy to get under control as
stomach tissue or intestinal tissue or any of Those types of tissue. It's not as easy to get
in control as an autoimmune problem, frankly, At least in the functional medicine world. So
there's so many different ways you can do it. I think the first thing that you have to know
is, is that if your neuron function is not good You're going to be close to threshold
and it's going to make it much easier For you to go off into fight/flight.
So what does that mean? It means that if your Blood sugar is bad, and this goes for high or low
blood sugar, and for all you people who have low Blood sugar and people who aren't paying attention
to it, is a big, big, big, big deal and you need To learn how to control that. Okay? High blood
sugar too, but I mention low blood sugar because
It's ignored and it shouldn't be. Blood sugar,
your brain needs proper blood sugar and it needs Proper oxygen. So if you got COPD it's going to be
a little harder. If you're a big smoker it messes Up the oxygen in your brain, it's going to be a
little bit harder. If you have sleep apnea and You're not doing the CPAP, it's going to be a
little bit harder. If you have anemia, it makes It very difficult, you're not getting oxygen.
So you need proper blood sugar and you need proper Oxygen. You need proper essential fatty acids.
You need to be eating peanuts and fish and stuff Like that instead of fried fish and french fries
and roasted peanuts that have roasted all the oils Out. You need to get fatty acids into your brain.
Maybe take fish oils and stuff, because your brain Neurons need proper blood sugar, proper oxygen,
proper essential fatty acids. Proper thyroid Function for those of you who know you have
a thyroid problem and it is or is not being Managed as well as it could be. And a lack
of inflammation, and that's the big one. They're all big, but the lack of inflammation
is like, okay, what's causing the inflammation? Is it blood sugar going up and down? Is it stress
hormones that are in kind of a vicious cycle? Is It food sensitivities? Is it leaky gut? Is it
SIBO? Is it inflammatory, what is it that's Causing the inflammation? If you can get those
down in a biochemical like nutritional… let me Use the term nutritional… let's say nutrition
and diet, lifestyle changes… if you can get Those under control, your fight/flight response
will be better. I'm not saying it'll be gone, But it'll be more available to counseling. It'll
be more available to you using any of the many Things out there that people are trying now. Who's
trying ashwagandha, who's trying Adaptocrine, Who's trying GABA? I literally just talked
to somebody, literally within the hour, that Took some psychedelic mushrooms and it got
rid of his suicide ideation. There's just so Much research going into this right now, and
let me tell you, nothing works for everybody. I've had other people who have come in and told
me me they did that for a couple weeks and it Made them worse. So it's a new frontier. There are
people online who talk about this emotional trauma That are pretty good. I'm not going to get into
their websites at this point in time, but there's A lot of things out there. The point is, neuron
function is hard to change versus gut function, And it's hard to change gut function if your brain
is going a hundred million miles an hour and it's Flooding your system with stress hormones. So
it's a challenge. It's not easy. There are brain Rehab exercises that functional neurologists,
that if you find a board certified diplomate in Functional neurology, they can probably give
you brain rehab exercises. Some of you have Probably heard of NMDR. These are brain rehab
exercises that a lot of counselors are using. There's so many things, obviously there's
medications, right? If all else fails and I Have somebody who's coming in here who's massively
depressed or they have anxiety and panic attacks And it's really, really bad, I might say,
"Listen, maybe you need to go to your medical
Doctor and get some sort of a GABA derivative
or some sort of a benzodiazepine or some sort Of a Xanax or something like that. And they're
always shocked when they come back and their Gut feels a little bit better because the stress
response has helped them. Why would I do that? Because if I try to use herbs and botanicals
on the person whose fight/flight response Is a 10, it's not going to work. Especially when
people are coming into me and they're already sick And they already got these other things. But
the medication's going to work unless it gives You side effects, and if it gives you side
effects you're kind of out of luck on that. But the point is, is to get
everything else under control You have to use whatever's going to work for you.
Preferably not a medication, but for the long run Definitely preferably not a medication for the
long run, but you need to do whatever it takes to Get that under control. It's kind of a tough
subject because it's an evolving subject. The people who are in neurology, people
who do this type of work are heavily now Embracing this mechanism and you just have
to find out what's right for you. For me, People coming to me, usually they have
just a constellation of issues and so I Generally go after the physiology first. I'll go
after the blood sugar, I'll go after the adrenals, I'll go after the food sensitivity, the SIBO,
all the things that are there in that patient That I know is screwing up brain chemistry.
At the same time, usually when I go into the Proper diet for that person, which differs from
person to person, and we start getting rid of Those things, their stress response starts to
go down a little bit. But at the same time, I'm usually using herbs or botanicals
or nutraceuticals or neurotransmitters Based on what they're finding is at the same
time. So while we're getting their chemistry Under control, we are giving them neurotransmitter
support or pre-serotonin support or pre-dopamine Support or whatever it is. These are natural
supplements that cause that person to make the Proper chemicals to decrease their depression
or their anxiety or their panic attacks or Stuff like that. And that works for me most of the
time. But if it's really, really, really, really Significant coming in, and who is that person?
That's the person who has hyperhidrosis, Their hands are clammy, their eyes are constantly
dilated, their eyes are having what's called [inaudible 00:09:56] flutter. These people are in
a massive fight/flight response. Then I may say, "Listen, maybe you want to go to counseling. Maybe
you want to talk to somebody about getting that Medicated first," I'm not a medical doctor,
"Get that Medicaid first then let's do this What I'm talking about, and then let's go back to
maybe using some supplements," and these types of Things. So it's complex. I think it's really
the takeaway. I just want you to know kind of The lay of the land. Who's going to take this
supplement, who's going to take ashwagandha, And their anxiety's going to go away.
Who's going to take it and it gives
Them more anxiety? And there's reasons for that.
So with the herbs and botanicals, if you're not Going to do a whole protocol, it's kind of trial
and error. Magnesium, oh my God, magnesium, I've Had people have magnesium bring down their chronic
anxiety. I've had other people take magnesium And go, "Eh." So there's so many different
mechanisms that create neuro-inflammation that Perpetuate this fight/flight response. It
really is something that you have to take A comprehensive view of it and try to figure out
what's right for that person. That's what I know About bringing the fight/flight
mechanism under control.