Mahdi Brown N.D. I Ep #15 | Part I – The Female Prevalence to Autoimmune Disease

advice hey guys i’m tasha hey listeners this is ghooni and you’re tuned in to deaf the podcast where we chat and explore all things on integrative medicine today we have dr marty brown with us he is a qualified naturopathic doctor mind body medical expert transformational life coach and an educator he’s also the founder of okan international and okan journey and operates out of belgium so thank you so much for being here today with us dr madi we are super excited to have you on dot tip the podcast welcome to our show it’s truly a pleasure to be here and i’m really honored that you all invited me on your podcast i’m really excited about it thank you i guess like health is really a topic of conversation now right because of coverage just life in general all of us being stuck indoors and something that came up uh was how 80 of women are more predisposed to autoimmune conditions than men and that was such a crazy statistic to read because how is it that it’s you know more women are predisposed to this and so you know what are your thoughts about this yeah so i’m familiar with those statistics and what i’ve seen and just in clinical practice and just working in the healthcare arena for yeah almost 15 years now is that for a lot of women um one thing when it comes to autoimmune conditions a lot of them are there’s a correlation it is not necessarily causative but there’s always a correlation with stress uh with people becoming more predisposed and have more of a predisposition to developing an autoimmune condition and what i’ve seen especially in today’s age we have a lot of women who are pursuing their professional careers but in addition to that they are still taking on a lot of responsibility in the home life with you know taking care of partners children’s and especially right now we call it this this uh sandwich generation where you have individuals who are in their early 30s to late 40s early 50s who are not only taking care of themselves but partners children and aging parents in addition to their careers so all of that responsibility that is now being put upon these women you’re not designed to imagine yeah you know all of this at one time and and and that’s the thing that a lot of times i i see and what i’ve observed professionally with women is that you you almost become the general managers of the universe you take everything on your shoulders all the responsibility for the care of others and making sure they’re taken care of your careers and the last individual that is taken care of is yourself and when you put yourself in that kind of position you’re going to be more susceptible to high levels of stress and creating a predisposition for autoimmune conditions to develop and so that’s my theory and what i’ve observed thus far in my my professional clinical experience that has been a big issue i mean yeah i one of the harvard studies results where they say kind of two of the the reasons the main reasons of uh having this autoimmune disease generated is either genetics or lifestyle and when you talk about all those different stresses be it you know being the general manager of the universe i like that analogy that’s definitely uh right in the idea of lifestyle management uh what are some of the typical kind of autoimmune diseases you’ve seen out there that are prevalent for women yeah of course so you have like the primary ones you’ll see lupus sle for one uh hashimoto’s has been another one multiple sclerosis those are like the big three that i’ve come across that have been uh typically seen uh over and over but another one that has really come on arise is um this heightened sensitivity to gluten and and and and that in and of itself becomes you know autumn condition that you know uh you’ll see a lot of women uh starting to deal with as well and so again you know kind of going back to what you were saying gooney with the genetic piece you know i was just talking to a potential uh client and he has type 1 diabetes and so with type 1 diabetes considered autoimmune conditions where the immune system is attacking the pancreas specifically the beta cells and the individuals no longer able to produce insulin on their own and so they become insulin dependent and that particular autoimmune condition typically happens in early childhood and for him it was around eight to nine years of age that it developed and what we’ve seen the correlation there is that when there’s a lot of stress you may have a genetic predisposition for it but when you’re dealing with acute and chronic levels of stress which he was being exposed to in his childhood with family deaths you know there’s a lot of discord and stuff taking place within the household as far as dysfunction and a lot of adverse childhood experiences that he was going through it triggers the up regulation of those genes and now he ends up with type 1 diabetes and so it’s multi-multi-factorial because a lot of times even in medicine we’ll say it’s genetic or it’s lifestyle but what we now understand with epigenetics lifestyle actually can upgrade and down regulate genes and even our emotions can our emotions can do this so there’s this synergistic interaction between our lifestyles our choices our emotions our thoughts and how the genes up regulating down regulate and carry out various functionality within the body and so you can’t in my opinion even separate it even along those lines because it’s so interconnected yeah um maybe we backtrack for a little bit and what exactly is an autoimmune disease what happens to your body when you have a condition like that very good so we have within us what is called innate immunity and the senate immunity is designed to go around and it’s constantly searching within the body to look for anything that is considered non-self and so on each of our cells we have these little receptors that the immune system will go and check and based on that specific receptor if it is recognized itself it bypasses that cell and continues on searching for anything that’s not itself and so when you have any infection that’s considered non-stop it’s not it’s not supposed to be in the body so the immune system will amount an immune response then the immune system will create antibodies and then they will now target that specific antigen as what we call it something that is not supposed to be in the body and then go after it with the vengeance to destroy it right what happens with autoimmune conditions is that immune system of ours no longer begins to recognize specific cells itself and begins to attack them and now the immune system instead of protecting cell is now attacking itself and we then end up with all these particular conditions that fall within that umbrella of autoimmune where the immune system now is becoming the agent of disease and deterioration in the body instead of protecting the body from outside agents that could cause that that’s really that’s that’s so interesting like i mean i’m just thinking of it in more of a energetic and like spiritual way in in some context like that means your body is i guess harming itself because it can’t deal with the conditions that’s in the body at the same time and like i know some people with autoimmune conditions and it kind of feels like it’s reflective of the state of mind that they carry with them because i don’t know is that is that something you see this is what absolutely tasha i’m gonna say this it may be controversial i have yet to encounter one case of an autoimmune condition where it has not been reflected in that individual’s lack of self-love self-worth and self-value there’s always been that correlation and i remember one time i was actually teaching on that principle in class and one of my students who had an autoimmune condition became very upset and irate you’re telling me that i caused this unto myself and i said well first and foremost it’s your body we have to take responsibility for our body the body temples we occupy and if we were to do an exploration of how you care for yourself specifically the thoughts and feelings you hold towards yourself and how that shows out in your behavior i say i’m pretty much almost 100 certain we’re going to find a correlation i’ve tried to prove myself wrong in this observation that i’ve made thus far and so i would say with 100 certainly now especially at this point in my career that there is a distinct correlation between the individuals lack of self-love lack of self-worth lack of self-value and how that’s showing up in the choices that they’re making or not making in their life based on that lack of value love and worth for themselves that is correlated to now the body having no choice but to reflect that in the physiology wow yeah i think what you’re saying is also reflected that that correlation we we do see it in a more so in a behavioral sense you know when we we say we have like destructive behaviors where you know it’s not good for you but you still go and then when those like relationships that are not good for you or you do that are good for and it’s more tangible and you can observe it and everybody sees it um but it’s because it’s in the epigenetics so it’s something that happens in the body with regards to what you’re doing from a vibration standpoint um it’s a similar kind of relationship that you have it is just not observable from from the outside one thing that we uh one of the principles that we teach which is a universal principle when it comes to healthy and healing the body is designed to adapt its physiology and biochemistry to the environment which it finds we call it adaptive physiology and so not only is it adapting itself the physiology biochemistry to the external environment it’s also adapting itself to the internal environment as well not only from a physiological and biochemical standpoint as far as what’s going on with your cells you know how the cells are behaving how the cells are detoxifying and taking in nutrients or the lack thereof nutrients within the body for the cells to utilize but also you know how you are regulating yourself from a mental emotional spiritual standpoint the vibration of the biology the frequency in and of itself has profound influence and one thing that we’ve now they’ve done a number of studies and then they’ve determined there’s a direct correlation between our emotions our actual our emotions actually impact and shape you know the regulation of our dna and so genes are turning on and turning off just based on the emotional frequency and vibration and so when we look at the emotions we have to understand okay where the what are the emotions where they’re coming from the emotions are the language of the autonomic nervous system so we sense these emotions or energy emotion these sensations in the body that we then perceive within the brain and then we classify them as feelings right but what we don’t ever for the most part become aware of or conscious of underneath there underneath the feelings underneath the perception is this autonomic nervous system that’s constantly sensing and looking for am i safe am i secure is this a dangerous situation this is a life-threatening situation and based on how it’s interpreting and perceiving the environment both internally and externally determines the overall state in which you perceive you feel in essence your personality in and of itself is being regulated and dictated by that state that the autonomic nervous system is in whether it’s in the fight or flight state or you’re in this state of freeze and shutdown where you’re now in this dorsal state where the body is now just in complete life threat so it just conserves all energy shuts down to protect itself or you’re in the state of connection the parasympathetic you know rest and digest connection you’re social you’re engaged you’re aligned with purpose you align with self you align with the world you’re aligned with others and so based on which state we find ourselves in that has a profound influence on the overall perception we have and that perception is dictating you know how our biochemistry physiology our genetics are all behaving in accordance with how we’re interpreting our lives and so if we are experiencing things in our life that are not aligned i love what you need you spoke about relationships how many people do you know stay in relationships that they know innately within themselves it’s not serving them they don’t feel good in it they’re not feeling passionate or nurtured or being reciprocated back to yeah having a sense of love and appreciation and they stay there out of sense of obligation to what other people may say right and so when you’re denying the innate calling of your soul and your spirit to say hey this is not serving us but you consciously still choose to be here the body swell okay i guess who we are at a core level is no longer valid so therefore the immune system can attack it that’s so interesting to put it that way to see that if you feel like you’re not valid as a person then your body recognizes that you don’t feel valid so then the body’s going to honor your truth yeah we’re on to something here uh i i wonder in terms of naturopathy how does the most spiritual side or energy kind of reflected in the science of naturopathy yeah very good question so one of the principles of naturopathy is to treat the whole person and so when we define what is a whole person it’s not just who you are physically mentally emotionally but there’s the spiritual aspect of who you are as well as well as relationships in which you find yourself how you’re contributing in the world and how you engage with this environment all that makes up who you are as a whole person so from a naturopathic standpoint that’s how we look at it in addition to that we also understand trusting and the innate healing power that’s within the body from just a medical standpoint let’s just look at it scientifically if you cut your arm i can provide for you some herbs to kind of help heal it or expedite the healing process i could put a bandage on your arm and i could tell you to take some foods to kind of help with the healing process but the healing in and of itself as a doctor i can never do for you it’s the innate wisdom the innate power within the body and so that again is part of that spiritual life force is what we call the vis the life force that animates this physical form that unique expression that you are occupying this physical form that is of spirit and so there has to be a conscious awareness and alignment with the life force that you are and how that is now infiltrating this physical form and expressing itself through this physical form and when that is limited and this is another theory of mine is that the body in and of itself has an electric magnetic field and acts like a magnet and a vibration has a whole particular frequency and magnetism to it and i personally feel through my studies and this learning from my elders over the years that as long as the vibration and frequency of the body is holding a strong magnetic hole it can keep the spirit and soul here in this world to express as the body weakens its vibration and magnetic whole it has no choice but to release the body and that’s what we call death so our goal and our work is to really cultivate the vibration and frequency of this body so they can have a high enough magnetic field to hold that which is of us is spirit in the sole essence of who we are here in order for us to express you know what we’re here to do and so when we look at it you know as far as how we feed ourselves the food we take in how what’s the vibrational frequency of the food are we eating things that are coming from dead sources are we eating foods that are coming from living sources are we living in a way kind of going back to what we were discussing with the autoimmune component are we living in a way that’s aligned with our truth and align with what we’re here spiritually to do on this planet and so as we come into this world as a whole person you come into life integrated as one you’re not a consciousness you’re not an emotional being over here and a physical being over here you come into the world whole and so you have to honor and align yourself with that principle of oneness with that principle of wholeness and so with the naturopathy we look at it from that state we can look at it through northern limbs because that is how we show up here in life and so to compartmentalize ourselves in such a way where we are looking at ourselves as oh who i am consciously or who i am promotion professionally who i am emotionally or physically and negating the other aspects of ourselves is where we find ourselves getting in trouble um before in our call we were talking about the concept of homeostasis and the body having its natural intelligence to know when you’re in a state of homeostasis do you mind just like explaining the link between autoimmune conditions and homeostasis yeah of course and so understand that homeostasis is the body’s ability to always seek a place of harmony so when the body is in a state where the physiology is now adapting itself and the biochemistry is adapting itself to the environment in which it finds itself it has no choice it only can do that that is the law wherever the body finds itself it will adapt to accommodate an environment so if you’ve been living in such a way or you haven’t been taking care of yourself and you haven’t been honoring yourself now the body will seek homeostasis up to which that point you have created the conditions that you now live in right and if you find yourself now in a place where the most your body can do with health is what we call the autoimmune condition that is your state of homeostasis until we can shift the environment both physiologically and biochemically but also spiritually mentally and emotionally so there’s congruence and alignment across the board and then the body by law has no choice but to adapt itself to a new homeostatic level if you will that’s a higher expression and so autoimmune conditions let’s say autoimmune conditions are like here as far as what the body can do to express itself as as far as homeostasis is concerned that’s the cancer is down here and so all the variations of health based on the condition in which the body is finding itself and it will seek homeostasis or harmony at that level to the best of this ability until you consciously change the conditions where it can seek a higher level of homeostasis and and it’s a constant fluctuation of seeking as much harmony and balance as it can based on the conditions which is finding itself i i find our bodies and how they’re designing how we are as human beings extraordinary because we have so much capacity for change and shifting the nature of what we’re experiencing in our life just through our choices and one thing that i always like to say is that we come into life looking like our parents we leave life looking like our choices so many good quotes so when we are living a life that is not in such a way that we’re choosing what’s going to be best and most serving for us our life hasn’t chosen to reflect it like i said our bodies are our best friends they can only tell us our truth definitely um would you say that burnout and stress is a key factor in people developing disease and even you know particularly autoimmune disease as well 90 of all human disease is associated with stress ninety percent over ninety percent actually and so there’s only a few and we again we go back to genetics but then i could talk to some epigeneticists and even quantum physicists who would even challenge me on saying it’s not even nine percent a hundred you know but there’s a profound influence because everything that we do is based on this nervous system how we experience this life’s journey and when there’s this regulation where the nervous system is not able to regulate itself and establish the conditions for a higher expression for it now puts the body in a position to begin to express imbalances in which we call disease so just before we go into seeing how stress can influence that i think that it is valid for us to go over what stress is because a body can feel under stress by things that you’re consciously not aware of and because stress is such a generic word now because the word stress can be taken into a very broad context context so when it comes to the body there’s four key areas of stress and there’s one of the things actually assessed i i we assess on our website there’s a free assessment where you can actually go in and see what’s your key area of stress and so the first one you know what you spoke of perceive stress and perceived stress is spiritual mental and emotional most people just think about mental and emotional spiritual is when you’re no longer aligned with your purpose and you’re not doing what you’re doing here and you feel the sense of emptiness this lack of meaning and a sense of purpose in your life that is that creates a stress on the body physically biochemically then you have sleep disturbance which is another key uh stressor on the body where the body is not able to regulate itself and establish a higher expression of homeostasis due to sleep disturbance and sleep dysregulation you know be it if you’re constantly from your computer at night you’re eating late at night you know all these things that you’re not getting enough sleep cycles which typically should be between four to five sleep cycles at 90 minutes per cycle every night if you’re not doing that that’s going to create stress in the body right then you have inflammatory chronic inflammatory stressors that can come from cardiovascular disease any of your itis like sinusitis is an inflammatory state of the sinuses uh you know when you have these like they’re talking about right now myocarditis that is the inflammation of the heart muscle or pericarditis is the inflammation of the sac that the heart holds itself in so any of these inflammatory states can create uh stress on the body metal block syndrome folks who are dealing with type 2 and type 1 diabetes those are inflammatory states rheumatic conditions like arthritis you know rheumatoid arthritis these are all considered chronic inflammatory conditions when you have irritable bowel syndrome ibs ibd all of these are again chronic inflammation conditions that create stress in the body so that’s the third one the fourth one that we look at is our blood sugar imbalances of course we can go back again to metal box syndrome but also when you’re skipping meals that creates a stress on the body when you’re missing meals in a day when you’re eating highly carbohydrate meals especially processed carbohydrates when you’re getting an influx of a massive amount of sugar sugar in it of itself creates more acidity in the body so the body is designed to get that sugar out of the bloodstream as quickly as possible to maintain the homeostasis of blood ph between 7.35 and 7.45 if you go out of that range you go into acidosis or alkalosis so sugar and a lot of glucose coming into the bloodstream will take the body into a acidosis state that which can cause death so when there’s any kind of blood sugar imbalances be it to dietary consumption of foods that are causing that or the lack of movement because the body has one purpose and one purpose only is to keep us moving that’s his only job every cell every organ every system works to the end and only end of keeping you moving to navigate this planet to carry out your purpose and so when you’re not moving you’re not exercising the body’s not honoring this purpose so that creates blood sugar dysregulation blood sugar imbalance which is another stressor so you look at those four key stressors that can impact the body yeah it becomes very comprehensive then as far as how the body is mitigating stress and and not only that again kind of going back to what i was sharing with you all earlier about the autonomic nervous system its ability through what has been called as neuralception where it’s looking and scanning internally and externally looking for danger and safety right or connection creates stress and and one thing that a lot of people don’t realize if we don’t if we’re not able to connect like for example if i was looking at you know you all on my screen here and you all had just cold faces and just angry nervous system is going to interpret that as threatening that creates this threat that creates that automatic stress within me even though it’s unconscious to me because i’m looking in your faces for cues for connection to see if there’s you know engagement there so all of this is a part of that stress response something so basic but so crucial in the human experience right that we take for granted yeah we’re not having most times we’re not being conscious of it and this goes all the way back to when we even came into the world as babies we were looking into mom’s face or dad’s face or whatever our caregiver’s face was for connection for some sense of belonging sense of safety and reinforcement of self-identity and self-expression and if we weren’t getting that we weren’t getting that core regulation we begin to self-regulate in a very unhealthy way and all that creates more stress in the body this is part one of our two-part episode with dr maddy where we unpack why autoimmune conditions are more prevalent amongst women and how stress is almost always the root cause of these conditions check out our next episode where we learn the tools of managing these stresses and how to bring your body back to a state of balance if you enjoyed this episode go ahead and select that follow or subscribe button for now stay safe and we’ll see you next week