Calming Inflammation - Soothing Auto-Immunity by Paula Youmell, RN, Wise Woman Nurse®

Paula Youmell, RN Functional Medicine RN, Herbalist, Sacred Circle Wise Women Yoga Mentor (315) 212-3066

www.PaulaYoumellRN.com

Calming Inflammation - Soothing Auto-Immunity the Wise Woman – Functional Medicine Way

Thanks for being present to question, learn, and grow in natural wisdom around your immune system and body’s ability to heal itself. Our bodies are perfect, in every aspect, and know just how to heal and function in every element. When we embrace living in sync with the Cycles of Nature, remembering that We are Nature, our bodies respond with vibrant health and vitality. Thanks for supporting the International Herb Symposium. I appreciate the opportunity to work with you and support your goals to self-heal. If you travel over to my website, I have many free health education pages to support your learning, growing, transforming, and self-healing. Here is the link to my Whole Food Eating Health Ed page. All physical health begins with nourishment of our body cells. Learning to make Herbal Medicinal Infusions supports nourishing cellular health. Once here, you will find many more health ed pages, including information on Gut and Immune Health. I hope to inspire your self-healing journey. I also share Health Education PDF files on ISSUU. https://issuu.com/paula754/docs

Two books I authored to support natural health. Weaving Healing Wisdom was co-authored with Jenny Kenny-Morrill.

In the spirit of keeping things simple, I will share a few books. I encourage you to stand strongly in trusting your immune system’s ability to heal self, self-heal. The books and the learning that you need, on your life’s path, will find you. The below books are but a few I recommend as sources on holistic health and healing. Enlightened Bodies is a book on Yoga and Ayurvedic Medicine’s wisdom around human anatomy and physiology. I encourage practicing a form of *inner conscious connection to soothe the sympathetic nervous system and tone the parasympathetic

(vagal nerve) nervous system. These habits are a gift to you and

your

immunity;

healing

auto

releasing

and

letting go of the hold that stress has on our lives.

Deeply Holistic, Holistic Anatomy, The Male Herbal & Braiding Sweetgrass are beautiful books inspiring holistic lifestyle & living in sync with Nature. We ARE Nature.

This article, written by a Master Herbalist from The School of Natural Healing, makes beautiful correlations between healthy soil & healthy humans/healthy agriculture & healthy humans. I believe animal products, from naturally raised animals, contribute essential cellular nutrition.

Making Change in One’s Personal Lifestyle Medicine I have put a lot of thought into the whole “accountability” thing, staying on tract, etc. I woke up early Tuesday AM and pondered the issue for a while. I have written an inspirational handout around this topic and I will condense it here. Think of what you are doing to change your lifestyle as if it were a college course you paid for. A SUNY Potsdam 3 credit course is just under $2000 and a Clarkson 3 credit course is just over $4000. These are local colleges to my area in Northern NY State. So, the average here is $3000 bucks for 4 months of hard work and learning, changing, and growing. You wouldn't, I am assuming here, pay for a college course and 2 weeks into it "fall off the wagon and say to hell with it." If you paid me $3000 to coach you through the next 4 months, would you stick to the program? Also, as a side note here, Sacred Circle Mentorship is my weekly "coaching" group. Why I started Sacred Circle: to get students into the habit of daily yoga while being educated and coached in how to heal their body. I also gave a buddy of mine a call to get his opinion. I have known him from Kindergarten on. He has had to make many, many lifestyle changes in his lifetime and has trained for things as crazy as running 100-mile marathons. His life and all its challenges have taken perseverance, motivation, will power... whatever label you want to slap onto this making change. Michael's words: • Motivation is a buzzword to create the mental-emotional "camps" of I've been good &

I've been bad. (Years ago, I wrote a handout on will power, etc. with these same sentiments.) • Motivation comes and goes. Motivation is NOT a stable factor in our lives. • You need purpose for what you’re doing. You either want your purpose or you don't. • Purpose keeps you going, keeps you doing what you are doing for your purpose, to get to your purpose / find your purpose. I can tell you this: being healthy is hard work. It is not something that just falls in your lap or is a product of good genetics. Health is a purpose, it is consistent daily habits of real self-care, whole health living, and whole food eating. I wrote in my recent newsletter about how my master's research was on exercise / fitness goal adherence over the long haul. I wish I still had a copy of that 75-page thesis. I have great interest in doing research on Yoga as a lifestyle tool to keep us moving forward, daily, in our purpose of good health. I occasionally teach a very beginner’s Yoga class for the purpose of supporting people’s need to make lasting lifestyle changes.

Gut Healing in Simple Steps

From your mouth to your anal opening, all organs (all cells) need to be functioning at top notch for proper digestion to occur so the delivery of nutrition to all body cells can happen. This all begins with the selection of **healthy, whole, well raised foods and proceeds like this: •

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Well chewed in mouth, slowly and consciously, paying attention to the sensual side of the food allows the rest of the digestive tract to be able to do its work digesting the well chewed food. Salivary enzymes, in the mouth, begin carbohydrate digestion. Chewing activates saliva as well as all other digestive juices along the length of the digestive tract. Stomach: hydrochloric acid primarily for protein breakdown (and stimulation of other digestive enzymes for proper digestion of all foods) so we can use the amino acids for building blocks of growth and healing, making hormones and other biological chemicals, and so much more… High levels of HCL are required for this. Squelching the natural acid process with medication is not recommended from a holistic or functional medicine perspective. Reflux is very rarely contributed to too much stomach acid; this is a huge myth. Reflux is from too little stomach acid and the food in the stomach cannot be properly digested. Further reducing stomach acid with “the little purple or pink pill” or any other form of acid reducing drugs is a mistake and contributes to amino acid, several minerals, and B12 insufficiencies / deficiencies to name but a few issues. Small intestine works to further “finish” digestion with chemical assistance from the liver – gall bladder and pancreas. Small & large intestinal microbes aid in digestion and assimilation of food’s nutrition as well as produce neurotransmitters (think happy moods & peaceful “rest & digest” existence), nutrients, enzymes, immune factors, manufacture vitamin K, work to keep balance in the gut… their jobs are many and we have not discovered all of their important functions.

Gut Microbes form your digestive tract microbiome and influence the health of your entire human microbiome.

Having a profound appreciation, and deep gratitude, for the work your digestive tract does with each meal makes it easier to consciously care for it, feed it well, chew food very well, and get plenty of rest and sleep to assist whole body healing… Remember your glorious gut when you are passing around the gratitude. “When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.” -Willie Nelson

How to Fix the Gut in 4 Easy Steps (heal your gut lining)

Whole foods 100% of the time. The body was not meant to eat (and have to deal with / process out of the body, basically detox every time you eat something synthetic / refined) manufactured “food” crap with food science chemicals, additives, and the refined substances contained in them. Yes, this means eliminating sugar. And organic is important. Read up on the impacts of agricultural chemicals on gut health. Big Ag’s chemicals seriously disrupt your gut’s microbiome.

Additional gut health info on this link: Gut Health

Eliminate gluten (wheat, rye, barley), corn and oats (and perhaps all grains, remember the concept of grain mimicry). Gluten Free resources to navigate change, eating out, converting recipes, grocery shopping, change recipes, etc. • • •

https://issuu.com/paula754/docs/recipes_pdf https://issuu.com/paula754/docs/making_any_recipe_a_whole_food_meal_1fa4bb0 dd70269 https://issuu.com/paula754/docs/gluten_free_pdf__2016

Most people need to eliminate dairy as well IF it is an auto-immune condition. Some people tolerate dairy IF: -it is from goats or sheep (A2 casein genetics) -organic & pasture raised animals -the milk is not pasteurized or homogenized (raw) -some tolerate cow’s milk if it is raw, organic, pasture raised, and A2 casein genetics (not A1 genetics) -Dairy elimination for months to benefit the body’s healing with a re-introduction of high-quality dairy later may or may not work. Paying attention to how your body reacts is the key to vibrant health. Heal & Seal the gut lining: Give this stage a minimum of 4 weeks and it may take longer depending on how long the gut’s health has been disrupted. Generally speaking, and this will vary from person to person, plan for 1 month of healing for each year of ill health. Relax into it; you are on a journey of growth and discovery. The below list is healing options for the gut lining. You do not need to do them all. Instead, pick ones that make sense to your gut intuition, will work in your lifestyle (and tastes) and add them in. I do recommend the slippery elm or marshmallow root as one choice. It helps to coat, heal & seal the gut lining. Click here for information on zonulin and gluten to better explain leaky gut. • •

Aloe juice to reduce inflammation and heal the gut lining. Slippery elm and/or marshmallow root powder. Take in capsules or buy the powder in bulk and mix into yogurt (see dairy info above), applesauce, smoothies, etc. Marshmallow root is a bit more of a sustainable product. Marshmallow is easier and quicker to grow to harvest the roots than growing elm trees to harvest the inner bark.

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• • •

Cabbage juice Bone broth: Bone Broth: What Is the Hype? Bone broth is an amazing gut lining healing food. It is easy to make at home in the oven on low heat (220F) or in a crock pot on low heat. Cultured foods: sauerkraut, kimchi, true fermented pickles & veggies, etc. L-Glutamine powder (esp. helpful with chronic diarrhea and gut lining healing) 3 grams to 10 grams daily in water or juice between meals. I also mix it into goat’s milk yogurt with nut butter & slip elm or marshmallow root powder. See Brain Permeability information as some people do not tolerate L-Glutamine. Healthy fats: avocados, pasture raised butter (A2 casein), fish oil, flax - black current oil, olive oil (oils should be organic & cold pressed from a high-quality company) Digestive enzymes can be a big help here: Betaine HCL, Bile Salts, Amylase, Protease, Lipase (Renew Life DigestMore) Completely avoid sugars, GMO foods, agricultural chemicals as they contribute to leaky gut syndrome (Intestinal Permeability)

Rebalance Gut Microbial Flora •

After first healing the gut lining, you can then move on to adding in some gut microbial supplementation. When the gut lining is impaired, adding in microbes can contribute to the added microbes leaking into the bloodstream. This can create ill health symptoms of its own. When the gut’s microbial population is out of whack, adding in more can create a turf war. Again, ill health symptoms can occur making you feel weak, tired, foggy brained, anxious, etc.

•

Buy high quality gut microbial products, *probiotics, from reputable companies. You want a product that has many different species of gut microbes in the product, the microbes are live and viable, and there are large quantities of each microbe.

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*When you finish one product, switch to another high-quality brand. Eat kimchi, sauerkraut, yogurt (see dairy product info above), and other fermented foods that are live culture ferments. Most commercial yogurt is poor quality for many reasons and the milk is quick cultured. Remember, we want time honored methods of food prep and yogurt should be cultured for a minimum of 24 hours. Commercial yogurt (think grocery store) is fermented with GMO cultures that reduce the ferment time to 6 hours. Great for the manufacturing world to pump out lots of yogurt quickly… not good for a quality product that contributes to human health. Canned and sealed jar sauerkraut or kimchi, off regular grocery store shelves, are not live culture products.

*Many companies have multiple formulas that each formula has a different blend of gut microbes. You can switch products within the same company. For example, the Toddler probiotic by Flora has bifidobacterium infantis, which is good for skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis, but most adults would not gravitate towards a toddler's formula. • • • • •

Flora Health's Probiotics Nature's Sunshine Probiotic 11 Pharmax HCL products (Amazon.com) Mercola.com Complete Probiotics. I recommend their pet probiotics when you have to give your pet antibiotics for something like Lyme disease. Renew Life is another good manufacturer of probiotic supplements and their kid's formula also has the bifidobacterium infantis for eczema / psoriasis (adult or children)

• •

Wholistic Botanicals Probiotic Formula also contains bifido infantis for eczema / psoriasis Dr. Axe’s website has high quality probiotics.

I have started using this suggestion to clients after finishing a round of antibiotics. This was an intuitive idea I had after I needed a round of antibiotics from a tooth abscess. This was my way to build the gut microbiome from the ground up.

1) Take the Toddler’s Probiotics and finish the bottle. Then move onto 2) Children’s Probiotics, again finish the bottle and move onto 3) Adult multi blends. Take 3-4 bottles, one at a time, move to a different brand with different strains of microbes each time your finish a bottle. I also suggest using 2-3 different multi blends of adult probiotics, meaning different high-quality brands with different blend of gut bugs. The gut microbiome is vastly populated with many varieties of healthy gut bugs. Variety is the spice of life. If you took a long round of antibiotics, think Lyme treatment as one example, it might be a good idea to use 2 bottles of Toddlers, then 2 bottles of Children’s, and then the varieties of Adult blends.

Create Peace in Body, Mind, & Spirit

**Low stress, so your gut (and whole body) can be in rest and digest mode not fight or flight. Create Peace, your body-mind-spirit will thank you. I recommend finding a daily Conscious Connection Practice that works for you: Yoga, Tai Chi, Qi Gong, Tai Kwon Do, Woods Walks, Prayer, Breath Work, & Meditation. Find a practice, or multiple practices, that bring you back to a balanced, whole health space of conscious thought and action as opposed to emotional reactions to every trigger. Daily practice helps to tone the Vagus nerve, keep you in rest & digest mode (parasympathetic nervous system function) as opposed to the stress response of the sympathetic nervous system.

**Often this means redefining your idea of stress: look up eustress vs. distress. The very same situation, say a work deadline, can be positive for one person (motivating) and negative for another person (crippling one’s motivation).

Three websites to research gut health on your own: Dr. Axe, Dr. Hyman, Dr. Mercola

With Gut Healing: • • •

Go slow. Take your time. You did not get “sick” overnight. Give your body time and patience to heal. If you have questions or need any clarification, ask. Keep a journal so you remember what you have done, how you felt when you started & how you feel now after the change, etc. Trust me, remembering is not always easy.

Healthy, whole, well raised foods eating habits restore the body’s health. Eating natural food: • • •

repairs the gut lining, rebalances gut microbial health, and will basically turn around ill health, *dis-ease in the body.

Learning to eat whole food, prepared in time honored ways is a key to restoring whole body health.

*dis-ease: a body that is no longer at ease.

Elimination Diet: https://draxe.com/nutrition/elimination-diet/ This is Dr. Axe's recommendation for an elimination diet. He is a Functional Medicine Chiropractor. What I would do differently (and every elimination diet you look at will be slightly different in its recommendations, use your inner wisdom-knowledge of self-intuition): • definitely remove the eggs • after 3 weeks of all potentially irritating foods out of the diet: add one food back

every 4-5 days and pay attention to how you feel: digestive tract, body aches, headaches, skin issues, moodiness, sleep, constipation or diarrhea or normal poops, etc. • Keep tract of the foods you are adding back and how it makes you feel, food journal, so you can determine issues.

Heal Your Beautiful Gut! It is the source of your whole body's health. “All disease begins in the gut” – A quote attributed to the Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates Let’s Turn this quote to the positive side of Energy: All Health Begins in the Gut! Heal your gut, heal your health!

Whole Grains, Zonulin, Gluten contributing to leaky gut intestinal permeability and inflammation, food sensitivities, and auto immune conditions: • •

https://issuu.com/paula754/docs/zonulin-ai-disease-and-wheat https://issuu.com/paula754/docs/zonulin_dr._axe_and_tracy_harrison_schoolaf m_info

Think of CBD, herbal healing aids, natural medicine, etc. as tools not crutches. We can so often use herbs or CBD oil (example; for anti-inflammatory purposes) as our crutch to band aid the problem but then not do the actual lifestyle changes to stop the inflammation and heal the problem. This is using natural means just as we use western medicine's prescription drugs: as band aids to our problems but not making lifestyle changes to remove the real root causes of the problems and add in the whole food / whole heath habits that actually build optimal health and self-heal the body. The very same habits that prevent disease also repair disease. So, CBD can be a very helpful healing tool. CBD can aid the body's natural endocannabinoid system while we work towards our purpose of lifestyle changes. Whole Health Lifestyle Medicine changes actually support our body making our own cannabinoids. Does this make sense?

Healing Homework • A YouTube video I made to support people making change for all the health

coaching I do, including my Sacred Circle group, and students I work with. It is about how to calm the nervous system to be able to create change in your life. Change is not always easy for everyone.

• Below is a breath technique that you can use to get your nervous system into a

peaceful calm space, in the moment AND if practiced regularly, you can live in a more peaceful space.

Ideas for Calming Inflammation Soothing Auto-Immunity

Use the idea of scratching your skin until you have welts: that is inflammation. Whole body inflammation is the same kind of irritation but it's systemic and it's caused by your lifestyle habits scratching away at your body cells, tissues, organs, organ systems, and the whole of you as a human being. Inflammation, generalized in the body, has been detected as a common thread in many health problems. Auto-immune diseases happen when our immune system becomes overwrought and confused and attacks our own body tissues. Reducing inflammation by changing lifestyle habits (lifestyle medicine) is a key to fanning the heat and cooling the flames of auto-immune ills.

Cooling Inflammation Naturally Below are links to articles on over-the-counter (OTC) anti-inflammatory medications and their long-term impacts, natural alternatives for pain and inflammation, and the downstream effects of using these medications.

Natural Pain Relief: http://www.motherearthliving.com/ Danger of OTC Pain Relief: http://www.motherearthliving.com/natural-health/over-thecounter-painkillers.aspx Downstream effects of OTC & prescription drugs, School of Applied Functional Medicine

Yoga for Calming, Focusing, & Opening the Mind for Personal Growth

Yoga to Lift Energy, Open Your Heart-Mind, & Get Blood Flowing

PDF handout written information is the intellectual property of Paula Youmell, RN, Wise Woman Nurse® except for the information properly referenced from other health professional website’s, links created to other website articles & blog posts, & Information in PDF files linked on ISSUU are referenced to other health practitioner’s websites & work if it is not my work. NOTE on ISSUU: they no longer support live links on files unless a subscription is a paid subscription. As a one-woman business doing everything I opt to not have a paid subscription. Thanks for your understanding. If I can direct you to something of interest, I will. Most images are stock photos purchased from 123RF.com Images from off the internet: I have attempted to honor the source of all images. Clicking the image will take you to its original source if it is not a 123RF photos. No images have been used for monetary gain. Feel free to share this pdf where it may support an individual’s self-healing.

Much Love on your journey. May you find joy, soothing self-care, & friends who support your desire to self-heal, Paula