053 - How To Rewire Your Nervous System from PTSD after Long COVID, POTS, Neurotoxins, Limbic System Dysfunction, and More!

So many people in the functional medicine world, whether it be from their past adverse  events, the pandemic, from Lyme disease, mold toxicity, from being gaslighted by doctors, or trying failed therapies, etc - - SO MANY PEOPLE HAVE SOME DEGREE OF PTSD, LIMBIC SYSTEM DYSFUNCTION, and now experience an IMBALANCED STRESS RESPONSE, DYSAUTONOMIA, and other debilitating symptoms.

So, we all know about stress. There is the mental stress that we all know about, but also physical stress (too much water is a stressor, too little water is a stressor, leaky gut, injuries, etc) as well as toxic stress (mold, mercury, pesticides, etc) - - and your body responds to stress as potential DANGER - you prepare to "fight-or-flight".

So, STRESS is your body's response to potential danger.....

DANGER is either real or perceived - you can tell someone they should be scared and they will be, or tell them they should NOT be scared and they will NOT be......but abuse is a danger, toxins are a danger, viruses are a danger.....

Your limbic system of your brain connects memories with experiences, and will "remember" these instances of danger and the stress response, and the limbic system includes regions like the amygdala (fear sensing), the hippocampus (memory), and the hypothalamus/pituitary (stress response).

Repeated exposure to (or perception of) DANGER leads to limbic system dysfunction, PTSD, and an imbalanced stress response.....your body begins to treat EVERYTHING as a danger.

All of this stress, true danger, and the perception of danger/stress triggers something called The Cell Danger Response, which is fascinating, I have a Youtube Video about it linked below, but your cells, your nervous system, your stress response system begins to respond to EVERYTHING AS A DANGER.

HOW CAN YOU REWIRE THIS RESPONSE???

This is gaining popularity in the healthcare world as an important piece to healing. It's increasingly being talked about at seminars and in practitioner circles as well as with patient stories, but there are a lot of different options, recommendations, programs, etc to choose from. In this podcast I go through 4 major "categories" you can work on for rewiring your nervous system, and within each of these categories I talk about many potential strategies, including:

1. Stimulate Your Vagus Nerve to decrease sympathetic dominance
   1. TENS Device
   2. Gargling/Gagging/Humming
   3. Coffee Enema
2. Challenge Your AUTONOMIC INPUTS
   1. Breath work
   2. Temperature - cold plunges, contrast showers
   3. HR - HeartMath or other HRV training
3. Challenge Your Visual and Sensory Inputs
   1. Vestibular exercises like VizStim (next podcast episode!)
   2. Chiropractic
4. Challenge Your Psychological Inputs
   1. Limbic System Retraining Programs
   2. Neurolinguistic programming - Gratitude/Affirmations

All that, and more, are discussed in detail in the episode. Give it a listen, give a 5-star review, and subscribe for more content, including my next podcast interview with Dr. Ashley Contreras talking about dizziness and rewiring the vestibular system.

Here are some of things worth linking to.....
VizStim
Gupta Program
How to Stimulate Your Vagus Nerve with a TENS Device
How to Use Binaural Beats to Shift Gears in your Brain
Why You Become Hypersensitive - Cell Danger Response and Limbic System Dysfunction