From Zombie to living again?

Zombie.

That’s what someone described their life like the other day.  Walking through, apparently animated, but on repeat. Too many women are living this way, animated but not alive, constantly accepting less and less from life because they are giving less and less to it.  Wondering sometimes how they got here, wondering how it could ever change, all alternating with numb acceptance.

Once you “exist” for long enough in that limbo of being technically alive but not living, it all starts to blur, becoming less and less weird, less and less painful, as you grow in apathy to the impact and the depth.  

This is how an estimated 60% of women over 40 are living...apathetic, numb, exhausted, and declining.

One would think there would be a movement in medicine to remedy this, an effort to understand it, or at least explain it...but that’s not happening.  

If answers are given at all, it is usually quantified as: 

Depression

Menopause

Age

Or if you happen to have seen a Naturopathic Doctor, Functional Medicine practitioner or other in natural medicine, it may have been quantified as: 

Adrenal Fatigue

Low Thyroid

Hormonal Imbalance

Leaky Gut

Or Autoimmune disease

And yet, we suffer...because the label tells us next to nothing.  Sadly, in both camps, the process is woefully inadequate, propping women up on Adderall, antidepressants or diet pills on one end or volumes of “adaptogens” “Adrenal products” and “Gut protocols” on the other.

But WHY are so many so tired?

I mean, to proclaim life is like “animating a corpse” like one of my clients used to say, it pretty much means all of us is nearly gone.

Sadly, it isn't a mystery, the documentation and studies to explain this level of function have been around since the 1920’s and the means to heal...well forever.  See, the more we push past our exhaustion, while being exposed to ongoing biological stress like low nutrient food, poor food combinations, blue light, poor sleep, constant mental stimulation...our biology adapts, first, thinking this is a limited event, the adaptation works, then in an ongoing manner, without any respite from the constant stimulation, it begins to fail and eventually, the body declines into a half-hibernation, half-aggravated stress response mode.

This is where we start to decline into apathy, acceptance, numbness and isolation.

The mechanism of this involves everything from your brain to your endocrine system, not just Adrenal function, but Thyroid, Parathyroid, Hypothalamus, Ovaries, and even your Thymus and the base cell responses at the root.

Now, this is key, because when many go to help animate a zombified woman, they try to boost energy or encourage more production, but this model has a fatal flaw...if you don’t manage to tell the body it is safe to turn off that biological stress signal before you begin to boost, tone and build, you will always eventually end up right back where you started.  Because, a system which believes it is under attack has no imperative to change the story.

The issue here is, that energy often comes from stress hormones because they are the backup system for the entire body.  The kicker...we love the way these hormones feel. Now, as they get called into action again, our body shifts from using primarily glucose for energy and shifts to fat as our fuel, which might sound desirable, until you realize it is significantly less efficient, impairs liver detoxification, increases insulin resistance, creates pro-cancer substances like lactic acid and ammonia, and alters thyroid and calcium metabolism to operate our body this way.

This results in alterations in Parathyroid function as well as higher levels of serotonin...which actually worsens mood regulation and increases fibrosis and on top of all that, this model spurs an increase in tissue estrogen and an impairment of mineral usage throughout the body.

Sadly, these consequences are ones I see all the time in people who have been taking their adaptogens, B vitamins, probiotics, Fish oil and magnesium, or who are doing yoga, meditation and visualization without any attention to the core issues or the underlying stress response.

What’s worse is, after all this, tangible vitality is even harder to find, because each time we push the envelope of using stress to create a veneer of body functionality, we get deeper into the pit and more and more issues emerge, and in the end, we are once again that apathetic walking corpse.

My clients learn how to rebuild their cell energy while fostering vitality that lasts, they learn how to understand their biology and how to work with their whole self...body, mind, emotion and spirit to bring about dreams, and visions, laughter and joy, to resume living.

Isn’t that what we want...to LIVE? What would happen in your life if you were actually alive again?  What would it be like to wake up excited and engaged with the day? What would it be like to feel WHOLE?

Blessings,

Dr. Julie and Thriving Health

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