A Flying Kickstart to Healing.

 The thing about healing a compromised metabolism is that it is rarely just a case of learning the rules, figuring out what you’re doing wrong, making the necessary changes and then sitting back, reaping the rewards. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Even though one good way I have found to deal with illness – or metabolic dysfunction – is to approach it under a banner of “general stress reduction”, there isn’t – unfortunately (or maybe, fortunately) – only one way to attend to stress.

There also is more than one way to understand stress, which can confuse matters. On one level, you want to avoid stress, yet from another perspective, it is a necessary part of life – unavoidable per se – perhaps even beneficial.

Hence the word stress can take on new significance depending on circumstances, context and intended meaning. And several areas of metabolism can be involved in preventing improvement. And they can seem to contradict each other.

For starters, it’s essential to realize that fixing a damaged – or underperforming – system is more than simply following a set of scientific instructions. Even though it’s true that a logical and rational physiological approach can be efficient, there is a certain kind of experimental artistic element to healing.

One must distinguish between a scenario that allows for the normal functioning of metabolism in the face of stress and other situations where the body is failing to meet demands placed upon it – and is moving in the direction towards surviving in a kind of “emergency stress state” – leading to sub-optimal results.

With these ideas in mind, it’s easy to see why there is so much potential for uncertainty and ambiguity when one attempts to interpret symptoms (or biochemical indicators) during a period of illness or reduced metabolic performance.

It is why it’s best to avoid the mindset that because “some things are good for you – and other things bad for you – all you need to do, is do more of the good things (and less of the bad things), and everything will be peachy”.

It is not to say that it never happens this way, but it’s just that there is no guarantee that things will be so straightforward. In many cases, this kind of black-and-white protocol-like strategy can be more damaging than helpful.

Things supporting thyroid function and energy metabolism can (under some circumstances) become part of the problem, causing more stress rather than reducing it.

After years of exposure to stress, metabolic systems can be unstable and highly sensitive. So there can be chronic inflammation and large amounts of polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) stored in tissue. And reduced glycogen storage capability, an overstimulated nervous system and blood sugar dysregulation. And various hormonal issues can co-occur.

Under high stress, it can be counterproductive to move too quickly. It isn’t uncommon for the excitement which comes with improvement to lead to a “one step forward, two steps back” scenario, which can be very disheartening.

That’s why it can be dangerous to promote a belief system based on the premise that weight loss is necessary for health improvement and weight gain must get avoided at all costs.

When toxic metabolism damaging substances stored in the tissue get released into the bloodstream too quickly – sometimes as a result of things used to stimulate metabolism for protection against stress – the result can be more injury to the system.

Weight gain can come from increased muscle size or changes in fat composition away from PUFAs towards less inflammatory pro-metabolic saturated fats. It can also be the result of settling down nervous system excitation and stress, and therefore the start of improvement in overall health.

The issues responsible for excessive weight gain are roughly the same as those which drive a chronic inability to gain weight, and in both cases, metabolism is running on stress.

A safer approach to healing involves trial and error experimentation with a combination of stress reduction techniques. The big-picture method often includes a gradual increase in fuel/nutrient consumption to suppress stress, improve glycogen storage capacity, and ramp up thyroid performance and regenerative capacity.

Learning how to use pulse and temperature as an indicator is very helpful because – when done consistently over a while – it provides insight into whether or not thyroid energy metabolism is improving. It can also enhance confidence in an innate ability to know how good metabolic function feels. That can help quiet “nervous system hyper-vigilance”.

It’s crucial to take digestion seriously. The ability to heal problems throughout the whole system – often appearing to arise in unrelated ways – is influenced by factors exacerbated (and initiated) due to interference with digestion.

Diseases arising from liver issues, inflammation, suppressed thyroid and blood sugar dysregulation interlink with digestion issues. It includes bacterial overgrowth and excessive endotoxin exposure.

It can take a long time to figure out what can then appear to resolve itself overnight. And what looks like a significant setback can be a sign you are heading in the right direction, maybe just a little too quickly or forcefully.

It would help if you pulled back a little or mixed it up. “The art” takes time and experimentation to master, but it helps to understand the principles. There are no guarantees, and results that seem not to go your way do not mean you have failed to improve.

Here are some questions I have found to be helpful:

• Do you track pulse and temperature throughout the day? It is an effective way to gauge thyroid energy metabolism.
• Are you aware of the quantity of PUFAs included in your diet?
• Do you know that PUFAs are stored in tissue over time and released under stress or when fuel is low, causing inflammatory issues? 
• Do you eat regularly enough to maintain energy levels and blood sugar stability throughout the day? 
• Do you know how different sources of sugar can affect digestion and blood sugar regulation differently?
• Are you conscious of gums and other potentially toxic and allergenic things used in foods, such as binders, fillers, or preservatives? 
• Do you consume enough calcium every day? Do you know the relationship between calcium and excessive phosphorus intake concerning inflammation? 
• Have you experimented with replacing grains and starches with simple sugar sources?
• Do you know which cuts of meat are high in gelatin? 
• Have you considered that you might be reacting to foods that you ate a few days ago?
• Have you played with your carb-to-protein ratio? 
• How much salt do you consume daily? 
• Do you eat liver and oysters and some low-fat seafood? Or use a raw carrot for digestive cleansing? How about cooked mushrooms?
• Do you get exposure to daylight, and do you know what kind of lights you are exposed to indoors, especially in the evenings? Have you experimented with incandescent lighting and red light?
• Have you tried bag breathing? 
• Lowering stress before working on up-regulating energy systems is a good idea. Salt, magnesium, red light, sugar, and bag breathing are some things known to help lower stress.

I am not a medical or health practitioner of any kind, and none of the above is advice or instructions to follow—just ideas to consider.

It is vital to get the right kind of help, and it is essential to find out what is truthful and valuable information. It is also important to experiment and to base your decisions on the evidence you discover.

There is vast information available online in physiology and other scientific texts for those who wish to delve deeper.

Hard work is required to master any art form. Of course, you can gain a lot by practising one kick 10,000 times, but there is also something to be said for practising 10,000 kicks once.

#belikewater
#sugarsalvation
#metabolismmeanderings
#raypeat

Copyright 2021, by Dan M @ CowsEatGrass. All rights reserved (except for quotations and images having their own protected copyrights). This copyright protects author-publisher Dan M’s right to future publication of his work in any manner, in any and all media — utilizing technology now known or hereafter devised — throughout the world in perpetuity. Everything described in this publication is for information purposes only. The author-publisher, Dan M, is not directly or indirectly presenting or recommending any part of this publication’s data as a diagnosis or prescription for any ailment of any reader. If anyone uses this information without the advice of their professional health adviser, they are prescribing for themselves, and the author- publisher assumes no responsibility or liability. Persons using any of this data do so at their own risk and must take personal responsibility for what they don’t know as well as for what they do know.