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Chronic Stress and the Impact to the Body
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Feb 6, 2025
Welcome to Adaptable | Behavior Explained! "The Ripple Effects of Stress on Our Health: A Comprehensive Exploration," delves into the intricate relationship between stress and overall health. It discusses how stress, when accumulated due to adverse childhood experiences or prolonged exposure, can significantly impact our body systems. The article explores the body's response to stress, including its effects on the cardiovascular, nervous, immune, digestive, and endocrine systems. It emphasizes the importance of addressing stress for holistic well-being, highlighting the interconnectedness of mental and physical health. Collaborative efforts between mental health professionals and medical providers are recommended to address unresolved stress and achieve better overall health and quality of life. I'm Kelly O'Horo, Attachment based EMDR Therapist, EMDRIA Consultant, and Advanced Trainer. I'm a mom of 5, Nonna of 5, wife, and a healer. I have the honor of spending my workdays walking along side people while they brave their healing journeys. I try to live with the generous assumption that we're all doing the best we can with what we know. Therapists are teachers for the "life stuff" and "emotional vocabulary" that may not have been learned due to gaps in our care givers capabilities. In the last 15 years I've learned that people are freaking amazing, resilient, and inspiring. Most importantly, we are hardwired for connection and for healing! I hope to bring an authentic, compassionate, and unpolished approach while we explore a variety of topics such as parenting, marriage, relationships, dating, trauma, attachment, adoption, depression, addiction, anxiety, and love! There's a why for all behaviors and an explanation that makes perfect sense as emotion is at the root of it all. -- Links -- https://linktr.ee/kellyohorolpc
View Video Transcript
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foreign
0:07
I'm Kelly ohoro and this is adaptable
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Behavior explained hi everybody thanks
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for tuning in today we're going to talk
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about stress and the impact that the
0:16
adverse childhood experiences we have
0:19
gone through in our life how that
0:21
accumulation effect of stress
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builds up and negatively can impact our
0:26
body systems and how that our stress
0:30
levels over time are not meant to be
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really heightened and cortisol in our
0:35
adrenal response are meant to be
0:37
temporary and when we have things that
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happen in our story that create
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prolonged levels of stress in our body
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it takes its toll and so part of what I
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wanted to talk about today is how we get
0:49
referrals as therapists from medical
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doctors in different Specialties because
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they understand that the impact of
0:57
stress on the body is contributing to
1:00
unwellness or illness and so they'll
1:03
treat the medical side of things
1:05
oftentimes reducing some of the
1:06
symptomology or they can give
1:08
medications that can help dampen or Tamp
1:12
the experience the person's having But
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ultimately if we want to eliminate the
1:16
source of the illness we have to address
1:19
the levels of stress in the body so that
1:21
we can get back to a cellularly restored
1:23
George State and the body can do what it
1:25
knows how to do in order to heal so like
1:28
we discussed about the adverse childhood
1:29
experience study there are 10 items that
1:32
were asked to participants in this
1:34
medical study and that information
1:36
highly correlated to illness later in
1:38
life and so ultimately we realize these
1:41
experiences contribute to short-term and
1:44
long-term Health consequences and so
1:45
we're going to talk about five important
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points about how stress affects the body
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in our different systems and I'm going
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to bring parallels in from cases that
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I've had over the years of being a
1:55
therapist so that if some of those
1:57
issues are plaguing you you can make the
2:00
correlation yourself and perhaps find
2:02
some support to help move you through
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some of these experiences now this is
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not to say that physical issues are are
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psychosomatic that's not what I'm saying
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what I'm saying is because of increased
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cortisol and adrenal response and the
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hormone changes that happen in our body
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it can affect the way all of our other
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systems operate and so they are not
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separate they are connected and it
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doesn't mean that just because we are in
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a state of anxiety and stress that we
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are making ourselves sick although
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oftentimes they are correlated in that
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if we are in a state of anxiety and
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stress over time it will take its toll
2:41
on our body systems so we're going to
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talk more deeply about that so the body
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takes the brunt of this heightened level
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of arousal as you can see here I've just
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got a short illustration we know that
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there's a huge impact on the body when
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there's stress and so we can't ignore
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that and so again they're not separate
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our physical and our mental health are
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connected one of the systems that people
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are experiencing uh complications would
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be the cardiovascular system so during
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periods of stress our heart pumps more
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blood and oxygen to prepare for that
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Potential Threat or exertion and so the
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workload is increased on the heart and
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this combined with elevated bread blood
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pressure it can put strain on the
3:25
cardiovascular system so chronic stress
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has been linked to higher risk of
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developing heart disease or hypertension
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and other cardiovascular problems
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another thing I want to talk about is
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people will have panic and they'll have
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extreme states of panic and they'll call
3:40
their cardiovascular doctor or they'll
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get referred to a Cardiologist and
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oftentimes people will find out there's
3:46
nothing wrong with my heart so what's
3:48
going on and what they will then be
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pointed to is its anxiety and so that
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anxiety can create so much distress that
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it feels like a heart issue and panic is
3:58
actually part of the grief circuit or
4:00
the or the loss the Lost circuit and so
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what we know is that when we have people
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that have experienced states of great
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Panic so much so that they're going to
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see a cardiologist we know that there's
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something in that's not been resolved in
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their stories related to loss or grief
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they're having moments that they're
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experiencing panic and it's creating so
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much distress in their life lives they
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have to address it and so oftentimes
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we'll we'll see clients that come in not
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with heart issues formerly thought to be
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heart issues from the cardiovascular
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system and that's not the case so we can
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work to help them resolve the issues
4:37
from the past that are contributing to
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those Panic symptoms the other system
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that's probably the most obvious that
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can be negatively impacted by heightened
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levels of stress is the nervous system
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right so when the nervous system is
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activated it leads to that fight or
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flight or freeze or shut down response
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and then again this results in the
4:58
release of our stress hormones like
4:59
cortisol and adrenaline again it
5:02
increases the heart rate increases blood
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pressure increases breathing rate and so
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prolonged activation of the sympathetic
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nervous system it can lead to chronic
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stress in the body which contributes
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anxiety to depression to sleep
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disturbances so we look at what is your
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presenting issue let's stay you come in
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and you're struggling with sleep
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and you don't have a sleep disorder you
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don't have apnea but you just noticed
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that I can get to sleep I can stay
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asleep and then it whatever time at
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night I always wake up and then I have a
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really hard time getting back to sleep
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so I had a client that that I've seen
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for a while and she came in and one of
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her main symptoms was sleep disturbance
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and she was so frustrated because it was
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affecting everything in her life she
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wasn't able to focus the way she wanted
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she felt like she needed a nap all the
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time when she had more work to do and
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she was so frustrated because she was
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following all the sleep hygiene things
6:01
that we had discussed in order to
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improve her sleep experience and so what
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we determined was what happened at night
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that creates your body's nervous system
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reaction
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that's that's contributing to your
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sleeplessness in the middle of the night
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when you're tired when you know what you
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need to do you go to sleep and you still
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wake up and your body is like I can't
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relax I can't be in a state of
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relaxation at night while I'm asleep
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so as we're doing the work with EMDR
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therapy with her what we discover is
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that when she is I think let's say nine
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years old her dad was in a really bad
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accident and they were waking up in the
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middle of the night
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he has to go to the hospital and they're
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in the hospital in the middle of the
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night and as a result of an accident he
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was in he ends up being a quadriplegic
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and so at that age in the middle of the
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night this thing happens that completely
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turns her world upside down and so now
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her brain has an association with when I
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sleep the other shoe is going to drop
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and it's going to turn my life upside
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down and even though her head knows that
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that experience is over her body has not
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fully resolved that that experience is
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over so we do the EMDR reprocessing on
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the experience of her childhood self and
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the accident that her dad went through
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and she ends up being able to sleep more
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soundly because her body is in a state
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of relaxed and calm and distress so in
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our nervous system again was in a
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constant state of threat and the
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reminders in her stimulus at night are
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this is the time when the bad thing
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happened and even though there's not any
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current threat her body acts as if so
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again we take the present symptoms and
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we we recognize that these these systems
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are negatively impacted from prolonged
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states of stress in the body another
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system that's that's really often seen
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in our practice is related to the immune
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system so people will come in they'll be
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referred to us by their primary care
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doctors their naturopathic doctors
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because they have an immune system issue
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so stress can suppress the immune system
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which makes the body more susceptible to
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infections and illnesses again cortisol
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the primary stress hormone it decreases
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the production of the immune cells which
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leads to the weakened immune system
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so this is why individuals under chronic
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stress may experience more frequent
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illnesses and longer recovery times the
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thing that we know is that people who
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have had a lot of experiences of
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distress in their stories and in their
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bodies from their history oftentimes
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have more autoimmune issues and so even
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though the issue is medical the state of
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stress in the body contributes to the to
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the frequency of illness so how many of
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you know someone who says yeah you know
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I was doing really good but then my
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husband lost his job and then all of a
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sudden my limes started to kick up or I
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ended up with a reactivity from my
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Hashimoto's and now my thyroid is all
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messed up again and it's not responding
9:04
well and so autoimmune issues are really
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a factor from prolonged state of stress
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and our bodies are just so tired and so
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when we can get the body to a better
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state of homeostasis when we address the
9:17
unresolved stress in the body our immune
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systems can settle down and our ability
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to fight off illness and disease
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improves and we end up sick we end up
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sick less frequently we end up not
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having to work so hard to fight the
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things that are occurring in our bodies
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that are related to stress and we all
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have the other system that we see a lot
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of referrals for is the digestive system
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so gastroenterologists will send their
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clients over to us or their patients
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over to us because they recognize that
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they've got issues with IBS or stomach
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cramps or indigestion or you know other
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gastro-related issues and they recognize
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that because 90 of the neurotransmitters
10:00
are located in our gut they can treat
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symptoms but they can't necessarily
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alleviate the problem so they will send
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their clients over to us so that we can
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address the unresolved distress from
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their stories again and help to get the
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digestive system able to settle down so
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when stress disrupts the normal
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functioning about the digestive system
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the body diverts blood away from the
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digestive tract to the muscles and the
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Brain leading a decreased digest
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digestion and absorption of nutrients
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and so again these gastroenterology
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gastroenterological issues such as
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indigestion and cramps and IBS are
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absolutely attributed to prolonged
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stress in the body and so when we work
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together addressing the unresolved
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distress in the body we get a massive
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decrease in the gastro symptoms and so
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there's hope that you can do something
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that empowers you to make changes
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related to some of these issues and it's
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not that we want to we don't want to
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only do mental health work and EMDR
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therapy we want to work together with
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medical providers so that we can
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collaboratively work on the distress in
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the body so the next system that we want
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to talk about is the endocrine system
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because this plays a crucial role in
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regulating the various bodily functions
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through our hormone release so chronic
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address again can disrupt the delicate
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balance of our home our hormones and how
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everything works in our body it leads to
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the imbalances in particular cortisol
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levels are we getting a theme Here
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stress cortisol can negatively impact
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the body right so those cortisol levels
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remaining elevated during prolonged
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stress affects metabolism affects blood
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sugar levels affects weight gain
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difficulty to lose weight again back to
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the thyroid issue because of our
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endocrine system so when we have any of
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those medical issues we really want to
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look to our bodies what state of stress
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have have you been in and what causes or
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what happened to you that caused that
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prolonged state of stress and we can
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work to resolve those in therapy with
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EMDR therapy and we can help to create
12:09
more balance in the system so I had a
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client who had Hashimoto's and it was
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discovered by an allergist and she was
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struggling because she couldn't lose
12:19
weight and her body type was not one
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that would carry a lot of extra weight
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and so when she found out she had this
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Hashimoto's
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it wasn't really the focus of our
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treatment what was the focus of our
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treatment was the distress that she was
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experiencing in her relationships and in
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her life and in her work and through the
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reduction of stress in reprocessing her
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experiences and her childhood
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experiences what ended up happening as a
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side effect a positive one of course was
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that she no longer met criteria for
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Hashimoto's her blood levels changed and
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so although she wasn't coming to me for
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that treatment what she was able to
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benefit from was the change in the way
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her body was reacting to stress and of
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course the reduction in stress over time
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it changed the way the illness was
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showing up in her body so she was able
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to get more a stasis with her thyroid
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issue and no longer met criteria for
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Hashimoto's which is really pretty darn
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cool that that could change in a body so
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it's important to recognize that
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different individuals respond
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differently to stress some people are
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more resilient they have strategies to
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down regulate they haven't had as many
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things have happened to them and so the
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way bodies manage and regulate stress of
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course difference from diff is different
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from person to person however we do know
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that chronic and unmanaged stress over
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time is generally associated with higher
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risks of developing physical and mental
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health problems so managing stress
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through the lifestyle changes that we
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want to talk about relaxation techniques
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exercise seeking support from mental
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health professionals and others it can
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help mitigate the effects and promote
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overall well-being and hopefully with
14:00
this information what you can you can
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digest not literally of course but is
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that the states of stress in your body
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oftentimes related to perhaps current
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issues but oftentimes connected to past
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issues and prolonged stress in the body
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negatively impact our overall physical
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wellness our mental health and we can do
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something about it we can address the
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states of stress and our body thus
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reducing our symptoms thus bringing down
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our cortisol and adrenal response so
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that it's not in chronic States but it's
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only when there's an ecological stress
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happening in our life so that our body
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systems can overall return to a state of
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health and wellness and and better
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function
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I hope that that helps thanks for tuning
14:46
in if you have any questions please ask
14:49
below I'll do my best and don't forget
14:52
to lead with love it'll never steer you
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wrong
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[Music]
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