Everyone is looking for the quick fix
When it comes to health & healing, I get a lot of questions about one muscle group, a supplement, a book, or a nervous system exercise. There is likely no one thing is going to heal you (especially if the issue is chronic). Just like it is not just one part of your body that was injured. You have to heal the whole.
There are acute injuries that are easier to heal. If you fell and broke your ankle, you are immobilized (likely in a cast) and on crutches non-weight bearing for a portion of time. Now your other leg has become dominant and your upper body is taking on a load it is not use to. You loose your reciprocal (alternating arm/ leg) motion as you walk. You are not weight bearing so your glutes and opposite upper back are not functioning the way they should. Your center organs and abdominals are not lengthening & shortening to help pump fluid along and can become less active (stagnant). Besides restoring your ankle motion and strength, all of your movement and activation has to be integrated or another problem will present itself later down the road. Remember, the body is smart, it is just not intelligent. It will find a work around.
One supplement is not going to fix kidney labs that are off. The kidney is the back up for the liver. It is also removes a lot of waste from the lymphatic system and heart. If your kidneys are off, your liver probably needs some tender love and care. When the liver is overwhelmed, it will back up into your skin, lungs or kidneys. This is especially true because the liver will still operate and show normal bloodwork at 60% function. It could just be the the motility (rhythm and flow) of your kidney is off and needs some guidance with visceral manipulation. You have no reason to think about it, but it is worth considering the kidneys have a skeletal connection to the big toe, arch bone, knee, hip, pelvis, opposite shoulder and a neural connection to the femoral nerve plexus and vagus nerve. The kidneys also have a connection to the emotion, fear. Fear of reusing that ankle that you broke, accepting weight through your leg.
Do you see the connections to the body as a whole?
One book is not going to fix your nervous system. If your nervous system is dysregulated, there is a likely some emotion, trauma, infection and/ or toxin your body has not processed and healed from. Your autonomic nervous system knows something is wrong and is alerting you (much like a toddler). We also need to keep in mind that your nervous system cannot handle 20 pills and supplements sending constant mixed messages. Your nervous system will get overwhelmed and over time, dysregulated. When we run on empty in this go, go, go mentality or overtrain it will turn on the adrenaline, but also the sympathetic nervous system (fight, flight or freeze). You can watch your heart rate variability (HRV) drop as a response. You can watch your HRV drop if you are not feeding properly (time wise or enough nutrition to meet the demands of your activity). This also might be why athletes struggle to get their HRV above 80-100 milliseconds. Your body is operating in a constant fight mode and releasing cortisol (stress hormone) if you are running go, go go. When we overload the nervous system with so many mixed messages it will not be able to figure out what you want to accomplish. Much like if you are specifically training for an ultra endurance, then only doing weekly speed training/ racing, you will not have the bandwidth in your cardiovascular system or in type I, slow twitch, endurance muscle fibers. If you want the body to become specialized and resilient, you need to train it properly and in the right sequence. The body is smart. But the body is like a toddler and you may not understand the way it is communicating with you.
If you need assistance and guidance in figuring out where you are stuck, please reach out. I always say, "the body leaves clues”.
But above all else, do not overcomplicate it. Keep it stupid simple. You cannot be on step 20 and leave out steps 2-8 and expect to heal or perform at your best. If you are trying to regulate your nervous system, but you are not sleeping well, you missed the most primitive step first (see hierarchy of healing blog). If you are healing a strained hamstring and you are stretching and lengthening the already over stretched/ strained fibers, you have missed the most primitive step in restoring strength so the nervous system feels safe (see to stretch or not to stretch blog).
This is not medical advice. You should always consult your healthcare practitioner(s) for medical advise and what is best for your care. The purpose of this blog is to centralize and share information while connecting with others.