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Mental Health Crisis 2020

A recent UK study of 16,000 people during lockdown has revealed that one in five healthy adults over 25 of age with no previous mental health issues are now suffering with psychological condition. Young people aged 13-24 are also reporting worse mental health according to charity Mind.

The NHS announced in August 2020 they are tackling this issue by recruiting army of social prescribing link workers to combat loneliness and isolation. That’s 1,200 workers so far encouraging people to get more exercise by taking part in gardening to ballroom dancing. Well, not everyone has a garden and ballroom dancing may be close to impossible due to the current rule of 6 or lockdowns.

Perhaps we need to consider another possibility and think about our childhood. Most mental health disorders actually originate during childhood experiences. It is the coping mechanism that the child develops in order to cope in the world where he/she may be afraid. So when are we afraid? When we have a negative experience or when we feel under threat. If you experience too much stress and anxiety as a child, the coping mechanism turns into an embedded fear.

Society that makes people isolated, where human social contact is replaced by the world of internet, where there is no meaningful sense of belonging, no real purpose this is when we will feel most under threat. Anxiety will emerge. Those individuals that were nurtured by their parents, if at least one parent was able to spend enough time with them in a calm happy environment will cope better in 2020 and beyond. However if both parents were too stressed all the time, always working and the child was brought up by strangers, they will suffer the most. It is important to understand this can be helped, but not by escaping temporarily or by tranquilizers, but by discovering what happened at the source.

Our mental health can also be influenced by chemical messengers called neurotransmitters that carry messages between brain cells. The brain's main inhibitory neurotransmitter is GABA and a lack of GABA is associated with anxiety. Dopamine is associated with drive and motivation. Phenylalanine and tyrosine are precursors of Dopamine. The precursors need adequate amounts of iron, niacin, folate and vitamin B6 to be available in the body in order to produce dopamine. Serotonin is associated with mood and its deficit is linked to depression. What does it all mean? Our body is highly sophisticated machine that operates as a single entity. It is made up of number of systems that work interdependently. If one system fails it reduces the body’s ability to function normally.

Medical world is now also shifting from a Germ theory to a Terrain theory. Terrain theory has established that if the body is well balanced then germs that are a natural part of life and the environment will be dealt with by the body without causing sickness.

Our microbiome is the key. Human microbiome is like a community of microbial life living in a human body, predominantly the gastrointestinal tract. Our digestive tract contains over one thousand different types of bacteria and over 100 million nerve cells. It is the same amount like in our spinal cord. 70% of our immunity resides in the gut. 90% of neurotransmitter serotonin is in our intestine. The gut sends signals to our brain and we now know that certain type of bacteria are able to influence our mood, the type of food we want to eat. So the term “second brain” for our gut is well justified.

When we eat, we are not just feeding ourselves, but also our gut bacteria, the good and the bad.

Our health is composed of structural, chemical, electrical (meaning energy) and mental factors, which must be equally balanced. Systematic kinesiology uses the wisdom of the body to establish the source of the problem and find the best solution. An example of this is a person suffering with a long-term intestinal irritation. Nutritional balance in the body will be disrupted due to malabsorption problems, possibly long term use of antibiotics, ileocecal valve will be malfunctioning. Low back pain will be evident due to the dual nerve supply to the low back and intestine and there will be stress-related elements that further exacerbate symptoms. What would be the solution, who would you see for this problem? Most likely your General practitioner or a specialist such as gastroenterologist? What about the low back pain? Chiropractor perhaps? But what about the source of these issues, the actual root cause? Could it be just chronic stress manifesting in physiological symptoms? What do you do then? Time for another trip to a psychologist or a counselor? Will you decide to mask the symptoms or search for the cause?

Certified Kinesiologist or any good Natural medicine doctor has the ability to establish which factor is out of balance, how and when the “dis-ease” started and prescribe the best solution for the body at that current moment.

Frontiers in Physiology, a leading journal in its field recently published the following quote on homeostasis: “Homeostasis, as currently defined, is a self-regulating process by which biological systems maintain stability while adjusting to changing external conditions. This concept explains how an organism can maintain more or less constant internal conditions that allow it to adapt and to survive in the face of a changing and often hostile external environment. The disruption of homeostatic mechanisms is what leads to disease, and effective therapy must be directed toward re-establishing these homeostatic conditions, working with rather than against nature.

We have to dig quite deep to find out what causes our disease. What we know for certain is that emotional stress is a major cause of physical illness. Self - care is a must, such as adequate rest, time spend in nature, exercise, natural seasonal nourishing foods, sun exposure, healthy relationships, understanding of who we are. We also need compassion, freedom, connection and a human touch in order to heal and survive.

We need to feel to heal. Remember that. By nature we are designed to be well and healthy. When we get “dis-ease”, we really just get away from our natural state of health.

Our bodies can heal from anything. You HEAL you.

If you are looking for Long Term Health and Systemic Balance book your session now.

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