AC 001: How are THE BIG SIX health issues connected?
Welcome. Today I’m discussing why women who struggle with one of THE BIG SIX health issues will often struggle with several of the other BIG SIX health issues as well.
What has often been the case for many of my clients is that they started struggling with one of THE BIG SIX when they were much younger, sometimes even below the age of ten. For a large portion of my clients, it was initially anxiety or stress.
As they got older, they started to struggle with several of the other BIG SIX health issues – hormonal imbalances, digestive issues, sleep issues, exhaustion…
If you’re like these women, you’ve probably tried to resolve each of these health issues separately, working with many practitioners, taking medications and supplements, and using many other different approaches to try and work on your anxiety, your digestive issues, your hormonal issues, and the rest of THE BIG SIX.
What becomes very upsetting throughout this journey is one of two things:
You either get poor results – so you’ve been working hard on your health for month or years, and you don’t feel that much better, OR
You go through cycles where one minute you’re getting better, where you feel healthier and that all the good work is finally paying off, you feel excited, you’re seeing progress where one of your health issues is improving, and your levels of hope that things can be different go up… But then the next week one of the other health issues starts to flare up, or the progress you’re getting with your health stops and relapses back to how it was (maybe even a little better or worse).
Maybe you feel that this is just the way it has to be, that you have to learn to live with it, or that this is just as good as it’s ever going to get.
I’m here to tell you that’s not the truth of it at all. You’ve been thinking about it and addressing it all wrong. And it’s not your fault, most health practitioners aren’t even trained to treat issues like this very well.
So, you need to think of the whole thing differently…
Think of it like a patch of grass… on the surface you have all of these blades of grass that seem to be growing separately from one another.
Now, think of each of the blades of grass as though one of them is anxiety, another is hormonal imbalances, and another is digestive issues, and others that are sleep issues, stress, and exhaustion.
What you have most likely been doing up until now is to focus on each of the blades of grass as if they are separate from one another, instead of seeing that they are a part of a system…
…that they are all interconnected and related to one another.
You see, it all starts with too much stress for too long.
Now, when I discuss stress in this context, what I am talking about is all forms of stress…
There is physical stress, mental stress, and emotional stress.
You could be over-training at the gym, you could be eating a poor diet for an extended period of time, you could be going through a divorce, you could be stressed about a deadline, you could be bullied at work, it could be that you’ve not been getting enough sleep… all these are forms of stress.
Our body responds to all these different stresses in a similar way.
Too much stress for too long leads to something called cortisol dysregulation, which is where your body is stuck in a state where it is producing a stress hormone - cortisol - in a suboptimal way that works against your brain and body’s best interest.
This then leads to an excess of things we don’t want too much of in our body – such as toxins or stress hormones; a deficiency of things we don’t have enough of in our body – such as nutrients that your body requires to function well; and the breakdown of certain structures and pathways around your brain and body, that then all come together to manifest as THE BIG SIX health issues.
It is an interconnected system that creates all of these health issues… like the root system of that patch of grass, all connecting, growing simultaneously and sending up shoots of symptoms to the surface – the tangible signs of these underlying health issues.
Trying to take care of THE BIG SIX one blade of grass at a time makes no sense at all now that you understand that these health issues are not separate and can’t be compartmentalised from one another.
Struggling with anxiety for a long period of time will lead to hormonal, digestive, & sleep issues… struggling with poor sleep for a long period of time will lead to exhaustion, hormonal, digestive, and anxiety issues… struggling with poor digestion for a long period of time will lead to anxiety, stress, hormonal, and digestive issues…
…they are all connected and affect one another, and so need to be addressed as a whole system of issues, rather than separately and individually.
What we have found at About Courage, is that there are three things that need to be understood in order to achieve freedom from this family of health issues:
You need to address them together in order to get great results with any one of them. For example, trying to resolve your anxiety, without taking into account your hormonal and digestive systems is never going to help you achieve long-lasting results. And this goes for all of your health issues… they must be addressed together in order to help you achieve your ideal health in any one area.
There is a specific order that you need to address these health issues in so that you get phenomenal results and elevate your health long-term. Most of the clients we have worked with have done all amazing things in order to work on their health, but we have found the order in which things are addressed is vital to achieve the sort of results we have seen with our clients. And…
You need to address your health issues using a holistic approach, focussing on the physical, mental, and emotional aspects of this family of health issues.
You get this right… you’re going to transform your health… and your life.
Okay, that’s it for today.