Welcome to the

Peak Revival Podcast.

My name is Vesna.

Today I'm gonna talk

about when the nervous

system can't switch off

and what you can do.

If you feel like your system

is reacting to everything,

like you change your breakfast

and suddenly you feel off,

you try a new supplement

that doesn't agree with your

body, you change your routine

and it sends you spiraling.

It's like your body can't

handle things at the moment.

I am gonna explain why this

happens and how constant

stress can rewire your brain

and your immune system to

see everything as a threat

and how to undo all of this.

I was at a seminar the other

day, and we're talking about

this very topic about threats,

because I've seen this in

myself and in my clients.

When little things set people

off, when they're so reactive,

when they're so sensitive to

different things, like what is

going on, and it's basically.

the seminar that I went to was

about psycho neuroimmunology,

so p and i, so it's a study

of you know, our psychology

as it's linked to our nervous

system and our immune system.

So that whole system from

what's going on up here can

influence our immune system.

And when someone has a lot

of sensitivity to their

environment or to food or

to stresses, it can mean

that their threat detection

system is in overdrive.

And I wanna talk

more about that.

So it used to be called

multiple chemical sensitivity,

but that's not really

an accurate term, which

has changed now because

it's more than just.

Chemicals in our food and

external environment, we can

become so reactive to little

stresses that you wonder

what the hell is going on.

Okay, so I'm gonna

talk more about it.

So what is this?

So it's when your

nervous system.

Get stuck in this overdrive

or get stuck in high.

And so your brain and your

immune system start treating

everyday things as a threat,

as something to, trigger

a stress response about.

So it could be food, it could

be supplement, it could be

a schedule change, where

the system detects that as

a threat and begins all of

this change in the body.

so if you look at it this

way, like you've got a

smoke alarm in your house,

multiple ones, right?

But the one right near the

kitchen, I think this one,

the main one, 'cause it always

goes off, but just say you've

got smoke alarms in the house

and they are designed to go

off when there is a fire.

so your nervous system is

designed to be triggered for

a real threat, but just like

a smoke alarm can go off just

when you're cooking toast, not

burning it, but cooking toast.

It's the same way that

your nervous system reacts

to very little changes

in your environment.

Okay?

It starts a full

blown response.

So as I said, back in

my burnout days, I.

Experience this myself.

So I had a lot

of gut problems.

I had multiple food

intolerances and it

didn't matter what I did.

I did the gut repair.

I cut out so many different

foods I couldn't eat

anymore, but I was still

reacting to everything.

And I learned back then

that until we switch

off the stress response,

our body cannot heal.

But you know, I see it in

my clients who have multiple

sensitivities to food and it's

also linked with very high

stress if someone's running

a bigger business or has has

a lot of responsibilities, if

it's a female breadwinner or

someone who just has a lot.

On their shoulders if their

stressor levels are already

high and then a couple of bad

turn of events in life and

there's some grief and other

things are happening, that

person can experience this

very thing going on where

their system can't adapt

anymore to the stresses,

and it starts detecting

everything as a threat.

And it produces a full

blown stress response and

an inflammatory response

in the body leaving you

feeling very sensitive,

very tired, and very just

not even like yourself.

So one, you've got the immune

system dialed up, so your

threat signals are amplified

and your responses, like I

said, you can react to food,

you can react to smells, you

can react to environmental

changes, change in temperature

to emotional stresses

that is all dialed up.

So you are overreacting

to those things.

But then you also have

your immune system, which

is also overreacting.

So it's remembering

threats and it's

responding faster, and it's

responding more intensely.

So you get a lot of

inflammation being

driven in the body, and

then we don't have that

ability to adapt anymore.

So our allostatic load, as

it's called, so our body's

ability to adapt via the

stress response system

or via the HPA axis that.

Adaption is not there anymore

because of the constant

threats to the system, and

so it dramatically drops

and so then we start to

feel stressed all the time.

So we have a threat

detection center.

We have multiple

points to kind of.

Call a threat

detection center.

Right, and it's monitoring

24 7 even while you're

sleeping, right?

And so we're looking at,

the brain is constantly

monitoring, sensory,

psychological and

environmental input and it's

trying to determine what is

a danger, what is dangerous

for us and what is not.

But chronic stress changes

those settings, and so it

goes into overprotection mode.

And then the fallout

is that we get

inflammation in the body.

you know, I just, I had a

woman the other day come

up to me on the beach.

Um, she recognized me and

she was, she's doing the

program and she was saying

like before she started for

years, she wasn't able to

wear her wedding rings, right.

Her body was so.

So bloated, so much fluid

and through this process, and

again, reducing the stress

hormones, like switching

off the stress response from

this state of high and back

into normal, you know, she

had her wedding rings on.

She was like, they're loose.

And so she had really, a

lot of that inflammation

had fallen away, which

was creating a lot of

the fluid and a lot of

the bloating, which is.

If what happens that was gone.

Right.

And for other people, they

get pain, they get fatigue,

they get poor digestion, they

get food intolerances, and

they get hormonal issues like

perimenopausal challenges or

PMS challenges or anything

to do with the hormones.

The other one, the other

fallout is the, impacts

our mental wellbeing.

So we get anxiety spikes,

we get brain fog, we get low

tolerance to change, and so we

get stressed out by anything

changing in our schedule.

But then we have the

emotional fallout, so we feel

irritable, we feel on edge.

So I'll have clients say

to me, it's like, I just

feel like I'm, I could

just tip over at any point.

Like I just, I feel

like I just can't handle

anything more on my plate.

And it's really those words,

it's that feeling on edge or

feeling like you're constantly

under attack, like things

are just coming at you.

Now with that said, there

is a lot that you can do

because we can dial down

that stress response system.

We can turn down the volume

in our brain to those threats,

so it's not overreacting

and therefore having.

The fallout, like the

downstream effects.

And the way that we do

this is that we send safety

signals to the brain,

I think it's important.

I wanna say now to preface

that this won't be your

life going forward.

This is just a period

in time where because

you're in overdrive, you

really need to reset.

And so you're really putting

yourself into a very safe,

dull environment for a very

short period of time in order

to switch off the nervous

system response, to switch

you outta that high mode.

So I had a client recently

and I said to her, look, I

could see what was going on.

I said, look what you

need right now, and it's

really important that you

do this, is that you take

yourself away somewhere

that you've been before.

I said, go to a hotel wherever

it was the last time you were,

and you felt really good.

You felt.

you are relaxer.

You are comfortable

there, right?

And best you can.

Don't do too much work.

She had to take a laptop

with her, but I said, you're

gonna sleep a lot, you're

gonna get a lot of, a lot of

sunlight, and you're going

to do a lot of walking,

but you're going to rest.

And so for her being in

a place that she had been

previously, she was very

safe in that environment.

Her nervous system switched

off and she felt, felt

dramatically different

when she got back.

Right.

She was there for a week,

um, less than, and she felt

dramatically different with

what she could handle because

the nervous system was able

to adapt to stresses again.

Okay.

It was out of the high mode

and back into normal mode.

The threat detection

center had.

Tone down, and therefore

she wasn't producing all

that inflammation, right?

It wasn't spiking her anxiety

in her cortisol anymore, and

her system could do what it

does best, which is regulate

itself back to homeostasis.

But there are other

things that you can do is

do predictable routines

that keep you safe.

And so this is only for a

period, short period of time.

You're not gonna be

very social, you're not

gonna be ticking your

big goals right now.

Okay?

But again, it's a period of

time to reset and it's really,

really important because

the longer we stay in this.

The more amplified this

overprotection mode becomes

and the more downstream

effects that you will have.

Okay, so this period of

reset, which I don't think

anyone's gonna argue, if

you're in this place, you're

not gonna argue on it.

You want to feel

better, right?

You know that you are at

a point where this could

go either way, right?

So predictable routines,

safe routines, boring

routines, right?

Don't make big changes to

your diet and lifestyle

when it comes to dietary.

Work with what you know,

you can have, stick to

the same foods, repeat the

menu for a couple of weeks.

It's totally okay, but stick

to what works and repeat that.

Okay?

So you want to make sure

that there's, there's none

of those things that you

already know as a threat,

but then you wanna make

sure that you take yourself,

if you need, be into a new

environment where you can

just completely decompress.

that's really important.

The other thing is to

release expectations, okay?

Because if you've got a

lot on your plate, it feels

very hard for you to be

able to take this time.

But it's so important

because you cannot

continue going on this way.

Okay?

So, like I said, you're not

gonna achieve big goals.

You're not gonna keep up with

your responsibilities either.

You're gonna have to

take that time in order

to reset and recover.

You could also incorporate

stress regulating practices

like deep breathing,

walking along the beach,

barefoot, grounding,

those types of things.

Meditation are

really important.

Everything that you can

do, but what I would

really recommend is taking

yourself out of your

current environment to

a place that feels safe.

And it doesn't have to be

long term, but even a short

term, because the switch

in the environment, which

I did a podcast on this

just before the switch in

your environment can have.

Tremendous effects on your

brain and your nervous

system, but you want to make

sure that the environment

feels safe for you.

So I would recommend

somewhere that you've been

before that you know feels

good for you, that you can

relax there, and that your

system can really decompress.

I'd love to hear comments.

I mean, this isn't something,

like I said, we are not

going to avoid life if

we're going through this.

What we wanna do is reset

the system so we can go live

a bigger life, tick those

big goals and do big things.

But right now, your

body's unable to cope

with any of those things.

And if this is you,

I'd love to hear your

comments below and let

me know what resonated.