Neurobiology of Chronic Conditions | Ep 240
The Funk'tional Nutrition Podcast
Erin Holt
4.9 • 759 Ratings
🗓️ 31 January 2023
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Do you ever feel like you’re in an endless loop when it comes to your health? Have you been diagnosed with Long Haulers or another chronic condition and feel like you’re in a vicious cycle of fear and anxiety? Have you been made to believe that it’s “all in your head”?
What if we told you that is technically true? Well…sort of. Your brain plays a key role in chronic conditions, but that doesn’t mean your symptoms aren’t real.
Today, Erin dives into key concepts of neuroplasticity, understanding how our brain functions from start to finish whenever our body’s health has been compromised, factors that lead to chronic conditions, why certain hormones make us feel certain emotions (hint: it involves the amygdala & insula), and the three main areas of focus when it comes to retraining our brain to veer away from this loop of symptoms.
In this episode, we want you to keep in mind that everyone is coming to this show at different levels of their healing journey, and if you are dealing with a chronic ongoing issue, all of your experiences and emotions are valid.
By the end of this episode, you’ll have a deeper understanding of how your mind can help you overcome the stresses - and symptoms - of chronic conditions at your own pace and strength. Our hope & my intention is that this episode provides healing strategies that may not have been presented to you before.
In this episode:
On having the emotional maturity to self-filter [2:40]
How our brains are never static with the body & are naturally wired for survival [8:01]
Chronic conditions and the certain factors that lead to it [16:47]
How the amygdala and insula may be involved in over-triggering the hyper-defense response [19:31]
The first step to retraining your brain: nervous system downregulation [26:28]
How retraining the brain can change our bodies [38:15]
Learning to engage with elevated emotions as a way to change your brain [39:14]
FOR A FULL LIST OF LINKS + RESOURCES, HEAD TO: https://www.thefunktionalnutritionist.com/podcast/240-neurobiology-chronic-conditions
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Functional Nutrition Podcast. I'm your host, Erin Holt. I'm an integrative |
| 0:06.9 | and functional medicine nutritionist with a feisty attitude in well over a decade of clinical experience. |
| 0:13.1 | I work with women all over the world through my online programs. And I'm also the founder of the |
| 0:18.0 | Functional Nutrition Academy, a school in practitioner mentorship |
| 0:21.7 | where we help other clinicians level up with functional medicine methodologies. I've got a bone |
| 0:27.6 | to pick with diet culture and the conventional health care model that are both systematically failing |
| 0:32.9 | so many of us. Creating a new model is my life's work, and this is what this show's all about. |
| 0:39.3 | Please keep in mind, this podcast is created for educational purposes only and should never |
| 0:44.0 | be used as a replacement for medical diagnosis or treatment. If you like what you hear |
| 0:48.4 | today, I would love for you to subscribe to the show, leave a review in iTunes, share with |
| 0:52.9 | a friend, and keep coming back for more. |
| 0:55.3 | Now give me the mic so I can take it away. |
| 1:00.5 | All right, friends, we are back, and today we're going to talk about the neurobiology |
| 1:04.5 | of chronic conditions. So last episode, I had my lead practitioner, Rachel Mistry on, |
| 1:10.2 | and we talked all about long COVID |
| 1:12.3 | and kind of gave a head nod to this idea that with long COVID or really any long haulers |
| 1:18.8 | or chronic conditions, our immune system may be overreacting to the original infection. |
| 1:26.5 | In other words, our brain is telling our immune system to fight, fight, fight, even to the original infection. In other words, our brain is telling our immune system |
| 1:29.1 | to fight, fight, fight, even though the original infection is perhaps gone. I also mentioned that |
| 1:34.8 | in these scenarios, limbic brain retraining can be an effective tool. And so we're going to unpack |
| 1:40.9 | what all this means and how to do it on today's show. |
| 1:45.2 | And I'm giggling to myself because I know I'm not supposed to break the fourth wall, |
... |
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