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Ep: 52 - Autoimmune Disease Isn't Random: Understanding the Midlife Connection
31 Plays10 days ago
Why do so many women seem to develop autoimmune conditions during midlife? In this episode, we explore the powerful connection between perimenopause, hormones, stress, the nervous system, gut health, and autoimmunity.
With nearly 80% of autoimmune diseases occurring in women, this isn't just coincidence, it's a pattern worth understanding. We break down why conditions like Hashimoto's, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, and multiple sclerosis often become more noticeable during the hormonal transition years, and how chronic stress, emotional suppression, burnout, and gut dysfunction may contribute to immune system dysregulation.
From nervous system regulation and gut healing to emotional processing and reclaiming your own needs, this conversation is about empowerment, not fear.
If you've ever wondered why your body seems to be changing in midlife, this episode offers insight, validation, and hope.
Where to find us:
IG @whatsmyageagain.podcast / FB - What’s My Age Again Podcast
Email us at: wmaapod@gmail.com
Where to find Tanya:
IG @tlcholistic / FB @tlcholistic
Book with Tanya: https://tlcholistic.janeapp.com/locations/tlc-holistic
Join the TLC Community: https://www.patreon.com/tlcholistic
Where to find Kim:
IG @kimdesmarais.nutrition /FB @KimDesmarais
Book with Kim: Complimentary Connect Call
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Transcript
Introductions and Podcast Mission
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to What's My Age Again, the realest podcast for women who are done chasing trends and ready to feel empowered. Hi, I'm Kim. And I'm Tanya, holistic nutritionists and childhood best friends who've been there, done that, and bought the collagen.
00:00:16
Speaker
more than once. Each week we provide actionable steps that you can start today to help you thrive through every decade to come. We're cutting through the wellness noise to bring you honest conversations about aging, hormones, health, beauty, mindset, and everything in between.
00:00:33
Speaker
You see, we're also on a mission to age gracefully one WTF moment at a time. Backed by research and real life, we're here to share what actually works, what's a waste of time, and how to truly thrive through the messy, magical midlife transition.
00:00:49
Speaker
We're so happy you're here.
Celebrating One Year and Episode Introduction
00:00:51
Speaker
Let's dive in.
00:00:54
Speaker
Welcome back to What's My Age again. Hi, everyone. Today, we're goingnna we're going there. Finally, after Tanya, one full year. This is episode 52. Can I just stop here and celebrate that for a second? Because we have been coming to you week after week. We have not missed one week all year long. And it has been, Tanya, I have loved it.
00:01:18
Speaker
I have also loved it. And we can honestly say too, it has been a labor of love though, right? Like a full year every single week and to everybody who has stuck by and listens to every single episode or dropped by in the ones that made sense for them, new listeners, thank you because this is why we continue to do this. And also it's been so fun, Kim.
00:01:45
Speaker
Totally. And I think, you know, we talked about it, I think maybe in our intro episode, but like the intention behind this was to cut through the noise. We have people coming to us all the time in our daily lives. We have our clients that, you know, there's so much health information out there and so often it's conflicting. So we hope, you know, it's it's just been so fun. Also, the random people who've come up and been like, I listened to this episode and i loved this or whatever. So The community piece has been something that's been surprising to me. And one of the things that I have loved so much about this last year.
00:02:25
Speaker
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. It's been such a beautiful spot to build community. And out of that, we've built additional community with our consistency collective. So just so much positivity has come out of this. And thank you guys for being here. And Kim, thank you for doing this with me because I couldn't imagine doing it with anybody else.
00:02:46
Speaker
Same, same. And congratulations. One year, everybody. Thank you for sticking with us. Okay. But I went off on a tangent there. um i cannot believe it has taken us a year to get to this topic because it is a topic that is so close to my heart.
00:03:02
Speaker
We're going there. We're talking about autoimmune disease. And it's close to my heart because as most of you know, i have an autoimmune disease, Hashimoto's.
Understanding Autoimmune Diseases
00:03:11
Speaker
So today we're diving in through a different lens though.
00:03:14
Speaker
You know, a lens that we don't really hear enough about. And it's women. And this wonderful season that we are in perimenopause and midlife. So why does it feel like so many women in their 40s suddenly develop, like me, Hashimoto's, or rheumatoid arthritis, or psoriasis, or lupus, or MS?
00:03:36
Speaker
Because the season of life that we're in now can become and be the perfect storm. About 80% of autoimmune disease occur in women.
00:03:46
Speaker
More than 100 autoimmune conditions can be have been identified, and the book keeps getting bigger and bigger, as my acupuncturist always jokes. Autoimmune disease is among the leading cause of chronic illness in women.
00:04:01
Speaker
My autoimmune diagnosis, many autoimmune diagnoses peak or become noticeable during the hormonal transition years. So today we're going to break this down, not in a place of fear, but in a place of empowerment. So this, you know, as a, this is, this is sort of how we always like to speak, but we wanted to address what is autoimmune disease and Take away the fear and empower you to learn more about it and do things that are going to support your body.
00:04:36
Speaker
Absolutely, Kim. And these are not coincidences. These are facts. And it's so important for us to dive into those facts, again, through that lens of why are we seeing so many autoimmune diseases and disorders in this stage of life. And I think the most important place to start thinking always the beginning, even though sometimes I skip to the middle. So let's start right at the
Factors Contributing to Autoimmune Diseases
00:05:07
Speaker
beginning.
00:05:08
Speaker
What do we mean when we say autoimmune? What is an autoimmune disease? So very simply put, Autoimmune diseases happen when our immune system becomes confused and begins attacking the body's own tissues. And the type of autoimmune disease depends on, as you can probably guess, what sort of tissues that your own immune system is attacking within your body. So when we have a heightened, hyperactive immune system, this is what we are talking about in the situations of autoimmune. So instead of your beautiful immune system um protecting you from invaders, it actually starts reacting to you and your own body. And clearly, this is a big issue.
00:06:03
Speaker
Absolutely. So this can affect, for in my case, my thyroid. It can affect your joints, your skin, your digestive tract, your nervous system, connective tissue, your hormones, energy production. So you know likely you've heard of...
00:06:22
Speaker
autoimmune diseases such as Hashimoto's, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, celiac disease, which is an autoimmune disease and multiple sclerosis.
00:06:35
Speaker
Yeah, those are, again, we're not going to go through the book, the big, large book, but these are a lot of the ones we're seeing on a consistent basis because they're tied to, of course, a lot of other things, which we will kind of break down a bit. But really through this lens, the you know, we want to talk about why is it that women are affected more um And there was a stat, Kim, that really stuck out to both of us. I know it's approximated that 75 to 80% of people living with autoimmune diseases are women. 75 to 80%. I am the worst math person in the entire world. And I can know this is a large problem. percentage of the population. It's massive, right? Yeah, it's massive. And and again, so
Gut Health and Autoimmune Management
00:07:28
Speaker
that that leads us to think, so why? Why are women more affected?
00:07:33
Speaker
And the first thing that obviously comes to mind, especially as we're talking to women in perimenopause, is hormones, right? Hormones influence our immune system. Absolutely. And hormones are dynamically shifting.
00:07:50
Speaker
Whether you're new to this podcast, um that's a fact. And if you're not, we talk about this in some way, probably in every single podcast. So estrogen is not just a sex hormone, it has a direct relationship with your immune system. And estrogen has the ability and it does stimulate immune activity. So during perimenopause, when estrogen is the wild card, I think I called it fluctuating like um a roller coaster up and down consistently swinging unpredictably high, like we talked about last week in estrogen dominance, this can intensify not only inflammation in the body,
00:08:33
Speaker
but immune reactivity. And over time, it can make us more susceptible along, of course, with other factors to having our immune system in a state where it is hyperactive and hyperreactive.
00:08:50
Speaker
Absolutely. And as we talked about in previous episodes, the domino effects, right? And what happens you know when Estrogen affects insulin and our blood sugar and the inflammation that can occur. Inflammation is a huge part also of the auto autoimmunity. And so hormones directly influence and as Tanya mentioned, fluctuating, fluctuating constantly. um So it's a huge part of this picture for sure.
00:09:20
Speaker
Absolutely. And then we step into maybe just even genetics themselves. Typically, um women's immune systems are generally stronger, which also means that um as women, we tend to mount stronger immune responses than men do. That's you know typically... What happens here?
00:09:42
Speaker
So, I mean, it's great because it can go both ways, right? It can be protective in some ways. Like when we travel, love you, Wes. I feel like I haven't shouted out to Wes for a moment. Like when we travel and somebody...
00:09:58
Speaker
always seems to get sick on the way home, gets the cold, you know, from the airplane. And somebody does not. So protective, it can be great as well, generally, but it also means that the immune system can be more reactive, right? And more inflammatory. And if you agree, Kim, more prone to even like misfiring.
00:10:19
Speaker
Yeah, and I think another big one on here is the caregiver, the load that women in general, speaking in generalities here.
00:10:32
Speaker
We talked about this in the burnout episode last week, and we've talked about it numerous times, the fact that especially in our perimenopausal years, the load that we carry as women is so much greater. We called it the sandwich years. We hear about this all the time, you know, where we're taking care of children as well as a household, as well as maybe aging parents, um our job.
00:10:59
Speaker
We're caregivers, we're nurturers, you know, and this is where our biology meets our lifestyle, right? and what we carry as women in midlife.
00:11:15
Speaker
This for me, when we, in connection to women, we're not talking about autoimmune now, just to remind everybody in general, we're going to go down a little bit further and say what other, you know, factors are important. This is specific to our little section here of why, you know, are we seeing this in women so much?
00:11:32
Speaker
This part right here, Kim, I feel is like the eye of the storm. when we're looking at it through the lens of, you know, women in middle age, we are carrying so much. I look at my own life and I look at a sampling of my circle of friends, including you, you know, clients that we speak to and we're carrying, you know, everybody else plus ourself. And we're always finding that energy to still give a little bit more. We have careers, We have aging parents. We have teenagers. Some of us still have younger children. um We have the kind of invisible tasks of all of the household organization. Again, generally speaking, caregiving for everybody else. And we always end up being the last person on our list.
00:12:29
Speaker
And I feel like most women, no matter what, never have that true time to just exhale and regroup because they're like, I'll do that later. I'll do that tomorrow. I'll do that in the summer. I'll do that when the kids are in college. And it's, it's funny, not funny. It's not funny anymore when we are seeing it in direct relation to the rise of autoimmune. And I feel really passionate about that. Like it's not funny.
00:12:56
Speaker
Yeah, and you know what, Tanya, if I think back to this, this comes full circle because we talked about it in a very different way, but in our first episode, we talked about just that, that that in this podcast, we are speaking to the women who you know have a vision of who their future self is going to be, know where they want to be, but can't get there because they put keep putting that off. They keep putting off all the things that they know they should be doing.
00:13:23
Speaker
you know So many of you listening have the education. You know what you should be doing. You just need to do it. And so it's so interesting. And maybe this is, you know, the universe brings us things, right? This is maybe autoimmune. This is why we programmed it in at episode number 52.
00:13:39
Speaker
um Because it's just, again, that why in terms of making sure that you are nurturing yourself and and doing all the things that you know are so important. Yeah.
00:13:52
Speaker
him that's why we waited so long you just I literally just got goosebumps I'm not even lying it's not even maybe this is why actually it's the year episode you're right it's a full circle and if you're still like yeah I know what my future self is she's strong she brings her own groceries she's up and down off the floor with her grandkids her dog she's hiking mountains and 52 weeks Kim yeah see there's the math guys 52 weeks have gone by obviously Tanya one episode a week it's like being in grade school again sweating if you do one episode a week for 52 weeks so
Hormonal Changes and Autoimmune Impact
00:14:26
Speaker
52 weeks have gone by and if you're still like yeah haven't taken that step this is what we're talking about and this is why I'm so passionate about this because what if another 52 weeks passes and then all of a sudden shoot
00:14:39
Speaker
Yeah, i have an autoimmune I have an autoimmune, you know, and I think it's really important just to bring in here. Many of you probably know him, and maybe many of you don't, and that's okay. um Gabor Mate is someone who...
00:14:56
Speaker
Kim, imagine we in our perfect world, he came on our podcast. Anyways, I live in my wildest dreams. I love this man. He is a medical doctor who kind of had an enlightening over the years. And he looks at...
00:15:12
Speaker
the way that stored trauma, chronic stress, emotional suppression has a huge hand in physical illness. um He's the author of most well-known books are um When the Body Says No, as well as The Myth of Normal. um Yeah, and I went to go see him in April speak in Calgary. And I just... hit I can't even, it changes everything when you look at things like this and there's such a body of evidence that he has put in there behind these things. And his work basically explores how unresolved emotional stress often becomes physiological stress when it's stored in the body. So kind of going back to what we're saying, that emotional caregiver role of the woman who takes on everything and never
00:16:05
Speaker
has that moment to exhale and to do what she needs to do for herself. A hundred percent. And, and, oh, I absolutely love his work as well. And we're not saying that this is going to cause an autoimmune disease, but what we are saying is that when you look at the the common patterns seen in women with autoimmune tendencies,
00:16:33
Speaker
or sorry, common patterns that we see in women who have autoimmune disease are things like people-pleasing, chronic overfunctioning,
00:16:45
Speaker
difficulty resting, perfectionism, overgiving, suppressing anger, people who have experienced trauma, unresolved trauma, I should say, suppressing your needs, right? This is so, and you know you could say the same thing about other illnesses and every, you know if we continue to go along this line of not taking care of ourself, chronically over-functioning, you are on a path to something, whether it be autoimmune disease or something else. So this is just, it's not saying causal, but it is saying these are common patterns that we see in women with autoimmune disease.
00:17:25
Speaker
And if I look back at myself, I certainly see them in myself before I was diagnosed. I love that, Kim. That's so honest of you. And you're right. It's the dominoes, right?
00:17:39
Speaker
When the body never feels safe, the nervous system stays activated 24-7. We've talked about this many times. We have shifts in cortisol cortisol. I'm sorry. We have shifts in digestion, shifts in the microbiome, which we're going to talk about right after this. Immune immune tolerance becomes completely dysregulated and absolutely becomes heightened.
00:18:00
Speaker
Boom. There goes the dominoes, right? And one of the biggest... Again, factors, like you said, we're not talking causative. All people pleasers are not going are not destined for an autoimmune, but it's a big piece of the puzzle, these traits. But it's so important when we're talking about autoimmune, and I know, Kim, you are the expert in this. We cannot leave out that gut connection piece, the biology piece.
00:18:29
Speaker
Absolutely. I would say that if you are diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, if you have an autoimmune disease, there is an issue with your gut. And I would normally say likely, but I'm sorry, these go hand in hand. So that is 100%. And, you know, because of all the dominoes that you just stated above, Tanya, things like, you know, when I'm talking about what's going on in your gut, we're talking about things like intestinal intestinal permeability, which is leaky gut. And for those of you who You know, this kind of goes in hand in hand with also things like food sensitivities. So, you know, if you're ingesting something that is you're sensitive to the gut, the gut wall becomes or toxins and all of these things, the gut wall becomes permeable, which means that particles can get out into your blood system, which therefore creates an immune reaction. um It creates inflammation.
00:19:31
Speaker
um And how does your gut become leaking? Well, a dysbiosis can occur. Are we eating processed foods all the time, alcohol, stress, as Tanya mentioned above?
00:19:43
Speaker
um Are we in that people-pleasing state that's causing our body to constantly be in the fight and flight response? um Are we eating foods that we are sensitive, gluten, those sort of things?
00:19:55
Speaker
Do we have low stomach acid? That is a huge one that so many people don't even realize. um And then taking a look, one of the first things that Tanya and I both will talk to whoever you are that comes to our to us in our practice is we talk about poop.
00:20:14
Speaker
How often you're going to the bathroom? Are you in a state of chronic constipation? um Again, with with that with gut um with gut dysbiosis, you can become nutrient depleted because you're not absorbing. It's not just what we're eating. It's also what we're absorbing. absorbing I love it, Kim. And I agree with you.
00:20:36
Speaker
ah hundred percent. If you, you know, have an autoimmune, you know, condition, your gut a hundred percent needs work. And I like to say, we don't want what's on the inside. So inside, we refer to as inside our GI tract, anything that we have consumed, that is the inside. We don't want what's on the inside to get outside. Outside means anywhere,
00:21:00
Speaker
except our GI tract, right? So when we have particles, like you said, Kim, that are getting through our intestinal wall there, it means that our, it's like a brick wall and the mortar's crumbled and there's gaps in there and they're escaping out and getting into the bloodstream. So making sure and focusing on that is almost like one of the most important things. So Absolutely. And and just before we go before we go on, if you do, I would absolutely speak to a practitioner and take a look and investigate
Emotional and Stress Factors in Autoimmune Health
00:21:37
Speaker
into your gut. Because if if there is a dysbiosis, there could be things like um viruses, back embedded bacteria, viruses.
00:21:48
Speaker
You could have chronic yeast, fungus, that sort of thing, a dysbiosis. So finding that out is so important to help rebalance. And then also, as we've discussed, targeting the intestinal wall um is so important.
00:22:05
Speaker
For sure. because Also, what I wanted to mention too, is you can look at the list above that we're talking that we kind of, you know, ah how women are factors with our immune systems and our caregiving load and all of that make us more susceptible. And you could say, no, I'm ironclad. My boundaries are great. I'm working on my trauma. I've processed all this. And then boom, you have a major issue with your gut that you're not addressing.
00:22:28
Speaker
It doesn't mean because you don't have the other factors that you're not down the line, you know, setting yourself up for autoimmune. The inside getting outside, that's a big problem. So a thousand percent. And then let's add on the layer. Can you girls guess what the layer is going to be? The perimenopause slash menopause layer, because it's going to amplify all of the digestive things we've just talked about because hormonal shifts affect things like gut motility, how fast or slow things are moving through your GI tract. They affect inflammation. They reflect affect your microbiome diversity. So is there too many bad guys growing in there and the good guys are leaving the party and dying of boredom? Who knows? Yeah. It affects, like you just said, Kim, insulin sensitivity, sleep, detoxification. It's it's all connected. So it's going to exuberate these gut symptoms as well. And again, becoming it becomes that perfect storm for us in midlife.
00:23:35
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, as we said, you know, this isn't this isn't a podcast full of fear, right? What we want to talk about is there is always hope. You know, there's always work that we can do to support our body. Our body wants to be in balance and we need to help it get into balance. So what can we do?
00:23:58
Speaker
What can we do? Because there's always things we can do, right? And I think what I'd love to say is first, this, you know, just from my own personal experience in being diagnosed with Hashimoto's, and this was actually before... the the reason you know This is actually the reason I changed careers. This is the reason I am now a holistic nutritionist because of my experience in going through this, being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, feeling the absolute symptoms that came with it before, and you know helping support my body to be back in balance. so
00:24:32
Speaker
Number one thing is we need to address the autoimmunity piece. And you need to work with a practitioner on this. For me, every every autoimmune disease is different and you know you'll be sent to a different specialist according to which body system it is affecting.
00:24:50
Speaker
But at the end of the day, we always need to address the immune system. And unfortunately, sometimes, and this is just my own experience here, but for for example, in my case with Hashimoto's, when I went to an endocrinologist, they focused on my thyroid,
Actionable Steps for Autoimmune Health
00:25:05
Speaker
right? Because ah Hashimoto's um is an autoimmune disease that attacks your thyroid. So what happened to me is as it attacked my thyroid, I went into a hyper state.
00:25:15
Speaker
because, you know, thyroid hormone was coming out as um as the attack was happening and then crashed out and I went into a hypothyroid state. So when I went to that endocrinologist, I was given hormone to support my hypothyroid, right? I was given thyroid hormone and that was it.
00:25:36
Speaker
Right. That was the extent of that. What we didn't address at all was the autoimmune part. We didn't address the immune system. We were so focused on the organ that it wasn't addressing that I had an autoimmune disease and the immune system needs to be taken into consideration.
00:25:54
Speaker
that's number one. Yep. That is absolutely so important. And definitely working with an expert in, you know, in wherever your body lies with autoimmunity. um Number two is is really directly related to that. And it's going to be no surprise to anybody is taking a look at the nervous system.
00:26:12
Speaker
Remember, this falls back into where we are in general as women. Go, go, go. Never stop. Career, parents, school drop-offs, house cleaning, make the meals.
00:26:24
Speaker
we It's not a trend to love your nervous system and take a peek on what is going on in there. This is absolute medicine. If the body is not safe and and doesn't feel safe. And I love your analogy last week, Kim, is like a zebra that just got chased by a lion and isn't able to give it a little shake off and start eating its grass again, like nothing happens.
00:26:49
Speaker
You will never be able to progress in the healing that you're looking to do, whether again, it's dealing with autoimmune, whether again, it's working on your gut, your digestion, it doesn't matter. Without safety in the body, we cannot heal.
00:27:08
Speaker
Absolutely. I love that Tanya. nat And that one was actually the last one that I worked on. And it was it's so interesting because I'm sure a lot of you women can understand like, okay, got to fix the diet, got to do the gut, got lower inflammation with the autoimmunity, all of the things.
00:27:26
Speaker
And then the nervous system was the last on my list. But let me tell you, And really just the past, I would say three years, I've been working on this. But let me tell you the healing that has come out of supporting my nervous system. it like it's It's why Tanya and I call it the base of the pyramid. Okay. So as you said, it is medicine. We need to teach the body that it is safe. And as you all know, we talked about it a million times.
00:27:54
Speaker
We got to put the body into the from the sympathetic to the parasympathetic state because that is that healing rest and digest state, which is going to also support your gut, which is our next most important thing.
00:28:08
Speaker
um Like we said, if there's autoimmunity, likely there is gut issues. So what can we do to support our gut? First, work with a practitioner. I always love gut testing just because it's I personally think there needs to really, you kind of dive deep into what is actually happening in there. Is there embedded infections?
00:28:28
Speaker
Is there candida? is So what is going on? What is the, you know, obviously there's a dysbiosis as Tanya was saying, the bad guys and the good guys, and it can really target the interventions that your practitioner will give you to help rebalance But also things you can do to support your gut would be eat enough protein.
00:28:52
Speaker
Prioritize getting your vitamins and minerals in there. Support your bowel movements with hydration and fiber, right? Make sure that half your plate is vegetables.
00:29:03
Speaker
um Have wonderful, you know, insoluble and soluble rich. And we've talked about this a lot. You can go back into our podcast and listen to when we talk about fiber. the insoluble, insoluble fiber, like chia seeds, hemp hearts, those things, add those ingredients to your to your daily diet.
00:29:20
Speaker
Chew slowly. This one is huge. And so many people don't realize digestion begins in our mouth. We should be chewing 30 times before, so that so that our, you know, our, it should feel like you're ingesting a smoothie, like that consistency before we swallow.
00:29:44
Speaker
Eat slowly and mindfully, that rest and digest. Put yourself into the parasympathetic system because as you know, when we're in that fight or flight, we're not digesting our food properly.
00:29:57
Speaker
You know, reduce the inflammatory triggers, get a food sensitivity test. If you're in a state of autoimmunity, that's another one that I would absolutely look at. And again, work with your practitioner, identify those root causes of those imbalances, because, you know, finding out exactly what's going on in there can sort of shorten the time it takes to really rebalance and support your gut.
Empowerment and Taking Control of Health
00:30:22
Speaker
A couple things. I love all of this. Yes, I love how number one is look into testing because guess what? Then when you come back to your practitioner, Kim or myself, and you have these results in hand.
00:30:38
Speaker
Yes, all of the things generalized that we talk about need to happen, but we can take that general approach. eating more protein, getting the bowel movements moving, all of these things, and make it so highly customized because we know exactly what is going on in there. We have a perfect map of everything that's happening, right? And second, as you're talking about chewing Kim, so simple. We always say the simple things.
00:31:06
Speaker
Even myself, I have to remind myself of that and how good I feel when I do that. I know so many people are sitting here being like, I don't have time for that. I have 20 minutes on my lunch and then I'm and running to the bank to do this. And then I have to get gas in this and that.
00:31:17
Speaker
I'm going to be me on week 52. What else would I be again? Not that I don't care. I think that it's a whole bunch of excuses. Guess what? We have a podcast about that as well. If you have 20 minutes on your lunch, then you're gonna use those 20 minutes on your lunch to do those things, to sit down, get in a state where you rest and digest, eat your food, chew it well, and you wanted to run to the bank, well, you're going to have to do that after work. or you know it's That's just an example. We have the time.
00:31:49
Speaker
We need to be doing these things. The simple things matter, and the simple things are the ones where life don't have time for that, right? and it's Totally. Totally. And it's getting into a practice. If you are used to rushing through life, ticking off a to-do list, go, go, go, go go It's a practice to be mindful and be where your feet are. So you're eating lunch, you're not going to be standing at your counter packing lunches for your kids or sorry or breakfast for your kids while you're eating breakfast. You're not going to be standing and and eating. You're going to sit down because you deserve to sit down.
00:32:26
Speaker
And you're going to be mindful and eat your lunch and appreciate it. Smell your food, enjoy your food. That is all part of the digestive process. If you're inhaling it as you're running to the next meeting, you are not absorbing those beautiful mini um those beautiful nutrients that you are ingesting, right? So this is a huge practice that encompasses everything from nervous system to digestion. But being mindful, if you are rushing through life,
00:32:55
Speaker
Stop. Take a moment. round Slow down. Be where you are. Appreciate what is around you. Enjoy your food. All those things are going to support your nervous system and your digestion.
00:33:10
Speaker
And a reminder, we realize it's not perfect. It is a practice, like you said, Kim, consistency over perfection. We're all going to have those mornings where we are taking our smoothie out the door, running, dropping our keys and getting to where we need to be. Don't make that your norm.
00:33:26
Speaker
okay Make that your exception because sometimes that's going to happen. um So another really important one that we connect to the nervous system is processing emotions instead of storing them um and actually doing it. So it's one thing for us to say that we're going to process the emotions and it's another thing to do it. And I can attest to this. I said I was going to look back and process emotions for decades and it's only about...
00:33:56
Speaker
It was only, I say only about, my God, time does, see, time flies, ladies. And in the blink of an eye, all of a sudden, seven years has gone by. But it's actually when my father passed, I started to do therapy the first time and it just changed everything for me. And I actually found...
00:34:14
Speaker
It's not really about the grief that I was needing for my father to process. So anyways, it became this beautiful thing. And I learned for the first time in my life, what processing emotions really is. And it's not just about for me personally, my experience, just kind of blindly journaling. Journaling is great and trying to do these things and not understanding. Getting help was amazing. There's grief work, there's somatic work. There's anger work. There's so many things you can do with a therapist. There are simple, simple things where I could have a TED talk on this, but I'll leave it for the moment. Boundaries are amazing. Allowing your emotions to happen, allowing yourself to be sad. How many times I've heard women say,
00:35:00
Speaker
I'm not going to cry about it. And they stifle their tears and they don't let them drop. her I'm going to give myself just 10 minutes to be mad about it. That's not necessarily bad. And then that's it.
00:35:11
Speaker
What's bad is you can feel your emotion and get on with your day. But if you don't process it, you've just stored that. You need to find a way to really process and stop pushing them down. Emotions like to move. We always say we have big emotions. They don't like to be put in a box. So if we're not allowing our emotions to move, they need somewhere to move. Stagnant emotions will never leave ourselves then.
00:35:41
Speaker
And they will stay there forever. And that just links back to the whole conversation. Gabor Mati work and all of these things, right? So it's so important. Absolutely. and if you're a city And I just want to recognize too, like it is scary if you have gone to a doctor's office and been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. It feels really overwhelming and really scary. um And so I just want to recognize that too. And there is a lot of work to be done. it can be really debilitating um And I want to recognize that in all of you who have been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. And so today we just really wanted to talk about the autoimmunity part of it um and how there are things that you can do and um to really support your symptoms decreasing the autoimmunity that you're experiencing, hopefully for me in my case, decreasing those antibodies and working with practitioners and understanding that there are things that you can do was really, really helpful to me. So we wanted to offer that to you today.
00:36:45
Speaker
And Kim, I think that you are the perfect example um of somebody who has gone through the diagnosis and who has an autoimmune disease, but who has completely done these things. Maybe not in the order that we suggest, right? As you said, nervous system came after, but you've done these things and you are somebody who feels good who is thriving, who doesn't have this diagnosis as a label on them, who probably most days you don't even think about it because you know what your body needs and you know as you give it to your body, you're thriving. And I think you're an amazing example of that. And thank you for being that example of that for all of us.
00:37:31
Speaker
Oh, thanks, Tanya. Yeah. And yeah, and it's something that I'll continue to, you know, it'll fluctuate through the rest of my life. But exactly, as you said, Tanya, there's tools that I know work for my body. And I have amazing practitioners that I continue to work with to this day. um That's helped support me. And so you're not alone, guys, reach out to those people, start building your team of practitioners that you can trust and that are going to support you with whatever your personal journey is.
00:38:01
Speaker
And if you need a friend, support, whatever, you know, you can always reach out to Tanya or I. Amazing. So I hope that this was educational. I hope you're not leaving feeling worried in any way. I hope you're leaving feeling empowered saying, hey, there's a couple things I can work on because I don't i don't want to be have a future, you know, where I might be susceptible to an autoimmune disease. Or maybe you're living with an autoimmune disease and you're like, wow, let me go back to the list and really support myself from the bottom up.
00:38:32
Speaker
So thank you, everybody. Happy year. Happy 52 weeks. um And we will talk to you all next week. Bye, everyone.
00:38:44
Speaker
Bye. hey guys, thanks so much for hanging out with us today. If this episode resonated with you, we would love it if you would hit like, subscribe to the podcast and share it with a friend.
00:38:55
Speaker
We love to hear from you because let's be honest, this show is for you. If you have a topic you'd love us to tackle or want to learn more about something we talked about today, send us a message. We got you.
00:39:08
Speaker
Stay connected with us on social media at what'smyageagain.podcast for even more knowledge and inspiration between episodes. Kim and I aren't doctors or your healthcare practitioners.
00:39:21
Speaker
Everyone's body is unique, so always consult your own healthcare care provider before starting something new.