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Putting the Brakes on Your Allostatic Load

By |2018-06-07T14:54:59-04:00June 7th, 2018|Categories: Stress|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments

To the uninformed, the term allostatic load probably sounds more like a setting on your washing machine than a symptom of stress, but if your doctor suspects allostasis, he or she is telling you that your body may be picking up the tab for your stress-filled life.

Allostatic load is a culmination of all the overtaxed pressures in your life, whether that be work related, the result of relationships, health fears, and even past traumatic events that keep cropping up despite our best efforts.

These issues are bad enough by themselves, but then you toss in a diet that features too much sugar or salt, a caffeine habit that keeps you jittery all day, 24-hour news reports that feature no good news, and what you end up with is allostatic load.

Allostasis is a process that includes the release of stress hormones and neurotransmitters within the body. Each of these stress responses take a toll on your physical condition, which in turn only adds to your allostatic load. The end result of this stress buildup? You become sick.

In recent years, many doctors and health practitioners have suggested diet and exercise as a holistic means of relieving stress. And on the surface, a strict diet can make perfect sense. Where it goes wrong — especially when your allostatic load is at a high level — is the accompanying increase in Continue reading…

Understanding and Managing Chronic Inflammation

Many patients come to me with a conventional medical diagnosis but aren’t satisfied with the resulting treatment. In the case of an autoimmune condition (such as hypothyroid, diabetes, pre-diabetes, obesity, or even skin issues), it’s almost a 100 percent certainty that inflammation in present in the body. And when that happens, it’s my job is to dig deeper to identify and treat the underlying cause.

Inflammation is natural and often even healthy; it is part of the body’s response to injury or infection. Chronic inflammation is not!

Chronic Inflammation

You twist your ankle, get stung by a bee, or contract an infection, and you are likely to experience some swelling as the body pumps blood, fluid, and other supplies to the damaged area to rid the body of any harmful agents and repair damaged tissue. The swelling — inflammation — causes pain, which is also normal, though unwelcomed. This acute pain and swelling typically subsides over the course of a few days, but it can linger for weeks. The good news is that it eventually goes away.

Chronic inflammation develops over a much longer period of time, it is less clearly connected to any physical injury or infection, and it lingers for months or years. It can contribute to a wide variety of health issues, including Continue reading…