Biochemistry & Embodied Autonomy

Biochemistry affects every system in your body – all ten of them – remember the MURDERS INC acronym from Anatomy 101?

Muscular
Urinary
Respiratory
Digestive
Endocrine
Reproductive
Skeletal
Integumentary
Nervous
Circulatory

All these systems add up to the totality of us, and our body is one nation, under blood. Every one of our cells is bathed in it.

LYMPHATIC DRAINAGE

Add Lymphatic to the body’s systems for good measure. While blood delivers vital nutrients, lymph extracts waste from every cell of every tissue. Here’s another way to look at it: blood brings in the cellular groceries, and lymph takes out the cellular trash. If there’s any blockage to cellular grocery delivery or lymphatic trash pick-up, our cells suffer. When cells suffer for too long, they begin to act abnormally. They deform by changing the way they produce and respond to their own DNA.

It all comes down to plumbing – when fluid delivery and drainage are clogged, cells suffer, and health suffers. But there is plenty you can do reverse a sluggish plumbing situation. Castor oil is one of the prime ways to improve lymphatic drainage. To learn more, my upcoming class about Scars,Your Lymph and The Surprising Uses of Castor Oil will inform and inspire you to take care of any lymphatic drainage problems. Learn how to skin brush properly. It’s more complex than simply brushing toward your heart – once you know and follow your lymphatic drainage pathways, you’ll increase your likelihood of clearing away accumulated lymphatic debris.

BLOOD VISCOSITY

When the subject is blood, it’s all about quality. The operative question: how thick is your blood? Thick blood makes for less efficient grocery delivery and w-a-y less efficient waste drainage. The quality of blood nourishing our tissues is determined by everything we eat, drink, smoke, the meds we take, and all the things we’re otherwise exposed to internally and externally: nail polish, hair coloring, or tattoos, anyone?

Optimizing blood viscosity means reducing its thickness. Thick, sticky blood deposits excess connective tissue fibers (fibrin) in and around everything it touches, adding the insult of blocked plumbing to the injury of inflammation and scar tissue accumulation. Improving blood viscosity is a primary goal when pursuing embodied autonomy. Without efficient plumbing, the body is ruled by cellular waste build-up rather than grocery delivery. Think about it – where would you rather live – inside a cellular trash heap or among the cheers of happy cells during meal delivery?

The liver and gall bladder control the viscosity of our blood. If these organs are sluggish, blood is stodgy  and thick. Chinese Medicine calls this condition Blood Stagnation. You can assess information about your blood by pressing into specific acupoints. Try pressing the point on your lower leg at the place where ankle socks hit your inner shinbone. Ouch?

Tender points are easy to notice – they deliver burning pain if pressed when your blood is stagnant, compared to a pleasantly warm, melting sensation sensation when blood viscosity is a healthier consistency. Another way to investigate if your blood’s too thick is to do the mirror test. Find a place where daylight is bright, but you’re not in direct sunlight. Stick out your tongue and curl the tongue-tip up toward your nose. Notice the color of the veins under your tongue. Are they rosy lavender-pink or blue-ish black? The darker the color of your sublingual veins, the thicker your blood.

YOUR MICROBIOME

Next, we must consider bacteria, AKA our microbiome. Over the last ten years, our skulls have been drilled with the statistic that for every human cell, we are outnumbered by bacteria at a rate of ten of them to one of “us.” Now, consider that every single human being (even identical twins) has a distinct microbiome. It means each individual is hosting trillions of bacteria, and potentially hundreds to thousands of species. There are somewhere around seven billion human bacterial hosts walking the planet. All day every day we roam through a bacterial jungle – sounds like science fiction, but it’s acknowledged reality these days.

When it comes to genetic depth, humans are pretty mingy compared to our microbiome. Each of us contributes approximately thirty thousand genes to our pool of personal genetic material. Our microbes contribute thirty million genes to our same gene pool. When you compare the vastness and variety of genes in our microbiome to our rather meager human genome, our microbiome contributes a plethora of genetic material to the 30,000 genes we once considered the backbone of our humanity.

You thought that craving for a donut was yours? Think again. Not only the activity of the bacteria themselves but also the genes from your microbes make a distinct contribution to your health, including your cravings. Over millions of years, we evolved with these microbes in environmental symbiosis, but things are changing.

After generations of exposure to antibiotics, pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, not to mention antibacterial soaps and wipes, our bacterial portfolio has been whittled down to a narrower variety than our ancestors enjoyed. That means you are more susceptible to insults from invading viruses and the questionable strategies of opportunistic bacterial species. Without sufficient breadth in your personal bacterial portfolio, you are in danger of succumbing to conditions associated with our modern lack of bacterial diversity, including autism, autoimmune diseases, chronic inflammatory conditions, depression, ADD, ADHD, schizophrenia, bipolar, even dyslexia.

Gut permeability (leaky gut) is one typical result of acute bacterial infection, poor diet, and over-exposure to antibiotics. Leaky gut leads to gut dysbiosis. Another way to describe it is gut dysfunction. You know – gas, bloating, stomach cramps, constipation, diarrhea, or all of the above in an intermittent dance of acute discomfort. Probably not the version of embodied autonomy you had in mind.

Dysbiosis is what happens when the finely tuned balance and diversity of your gut microorganisms go awry. Among many other problems, dysbiosis contributes to the symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). An initial insult that catalyzes the development of IBS could be an acute infection of the gut caused by virulent bacteria. Think food poisoning. Gut permeability is associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and IBS and is now proposed as a risk factor for many autoimmune conditions. However, association is not causation, and it is uncertain whether increased gut permeability is the cause or the effect of dysbiosis. Other underlying disorders contribute to IBS & IBD as well. However, if gut permeability remains unchecked, digestive problems, mood disorders, and autoimmune symptoms proliferate.

The vast majority of your bacteria make their living in the gut. Healing and sealing the gut lining is an important aspect of cleansing your blood. Another crucial aspect of cleansing includes getting your liver and gallbladder in order as together they are one of the body’s prime blood filtration systems. It takes time and effort. It is the place to start for most people who seek a more intimate relationship with embodied autonomy. When the environment under your skin is a mess, embodied autonomy ain’t gonna happen.

INFLAMMATION

Inflammation is your body’s response to stress, from physical injuries to allergens, pathogens, pollutants and even emotional conflicts. Biochemical insults that result in inflammation take many forms. Two examples are allergic reactions, and pathogens that circulate in your blood. When your body cannot recognize a new food (allergy), or unfamiliar bacteria (pathogens), an inflammatory chain reaction is catalyzed that produces a specific sequence of chemicals. These chemicals can get stuck and accumulate in your tissues, and irritate pain-sensitive messengers, like your local nerve supply to joints, organs, and muscles.

When your blood does not move properly, lymph gets bogged down. The waste from cellular metabolism piles up in the space between the cells. Thick, stagnant blood, poor lymphatic drainage, and poor diversity in your microbiome add up to cause inflammation, which can spiral out of control. To make things worse, chronic or unchecked inflammation also drives the process of scar formation. When imbalances in your biochemical body cause painful inflammation, and the physical scars this causes, a whole-body assessment and a structured, well-managed cleanse sequence is recommended. Inflammation must be addressed systemically, starting with your gut.

CLEANSING EFFECTS MORE THAN BIOCHEMISTRY

I’ve been leading people through the cleansing and nutritional rebuilding process for twenty years. Over time, I’ve noticed one of the many benefits of a good cleanse is that it provokes the emotional body. When you’re in the middle of a cleanse and you suddenly have an onrush of intense emotion, you might suddenly feel like something is very, very wrong. But actually, the upwelling of strong emotion is a crucial part of the cleansing process. Problem is, that’s when you’re most likely to bail. Instead of bailing, consider the possibility of titration (slowing down your cleanse) with proper guidance. An experienced cleanse supervisor knows the terrain and exactly when to slow things down, and not give up. They also lknow when it’s time to turn up the intensity.

When you’re dealing with delicate interlocking biological systems, learning to feel where you are in your process leads you to reclaim your digestive function, while improving blood viscosity. Until your embodied autonomy is so finely tuned you can feel what your body needs and when it needs it, I’m here to offer support – the right kind, at the right moment during your cleansing and rebuilding process.

With the exception of postpartum care, work with me starts with the assessment process to identify your particular biochemical barriers to health and provide you with a most efficient map to begin your work. When you demonstrate commitment and a genuine desire to make necessary changes, there is the possibility to continue our journey together by coaching with me. During coaching, we partner to develop and improve your health practices, applying the insights gleaned from your assessment. The result is rediscovery of your embodied autonomy, one step at a time.

If you’d like to schedule an assessment, learn more here. To book, you can go to this link. If you’re not sure you’re ready for a full assessment, but would like to explore some basic questions about your personal biochemistry in an introductory session, learn more here. To book, you can go to this link. To read about what others have said about their assessments and coaching experiences with me, see my testimonials page.