Chronic Illness: Why are we sick?
Illness has become part of our lives
In the U.S.
6 in 10 adults have a chronic illness
4 in 10 have two or more chronic illnesses
Our nation spends $3.8 trillion in healthcare costs each year
Leading causes of death and disability:
heart disease, cancer, chronic lung disease, stroke, Alzheimers, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease.
People are getting sicker earlier in life. Children are born with chronic illnesses and adults are having earlier onsets of illnesses, like Alzheimers and dementia.
Either you know someone with an illness or you personally have been impacted by a health issue.
The list of chronic illnesses we are suffering:
hormonal issues
anxiety and depression disorders
fatigue
insomnia
brain function and memory loss
chronic pains, headaches
gut issues
or any other variety of symptoms
cancer
heart related diseases
autoimmunities
obesity
disabilities, autisms
alzheimers and dementia
infertility, pregnancy issues
cysts, tumors
We can’t live this way. These illnesses are robbing us of the joy in our lives.
Living with an illness often feels like we’re living a lie. We feel like we’re not who we’re meant to be. Life shouldn’t be this way. Instead, we’re trapped behind our symptoms, desperately praying for healing. For help. Do you know what it’s like to suffer from such devastating fatigue that you can’t get off the couch? Or to have such anxiety, you can’t go in public or drive yourself to work? Do you live with chronic headaches or gut issues? Do you have trouble getting pregnant? Have you ever gone 3-4 days straight with no more than a few hours of sleep?
Those who’ve suffered chronic illness understand these symptoms. They understand the fear of no longer being the person you want to be.
Our lives shoudn’t be about coping with symptoms.
Yet for most of us, it is.
Why are we getting sick?
It’s not fate. You were not meant to be sick. So why are we?
It’s not just one thing causing us to be sick. It’s a collection of things. It’s a bigger story than we like to believe. To be human means to live in a synergy with the world around us.
To understand why we are sick, we have to understand a little more about how our bodies work:
Your body is designed to keep you alive. It does everything from converting food into energy to fighting off pathogens to helping you cope with traumatic events. When all the systems are in good health, they work together. Your body has a synergy, a rhythm. When the immune system is healthy and balanced, your body thrives. It handles the daily stresses of life and the bacterias we breath in. It handles a cut on the hand or a common cold. We’re exposed to pathogens and germs every single day. But we don’t always feel symptoms. This is because our bodies are doing its job. It’s keeping us safe.
But when your body is out of balance and your immune system struggles, this is when we get sick. This is where symptoms creep in. When one system in our body starts to get sluggish, it throws off the rest of our systems.
Your body is a world. When it’s clean and protected, it thrives. But when it’s attacked, poisoned, stressed and depleted, your body struggles.
The more enemies you have, the more attacks, the harder it is for your body to protect itself. Eventually your defenses struggle and this leaves your body severely wounded and can even lead to death.
This is where our chronic illnesses come in. We are wounded, overwhelmed, hurt. Our bodies are struggling from the constant attack.
Your body is a tree. When the soil is poisoned, the tree struggles. From the outside, we can’t see why the tree is dying. But underneath, at the roots of the tree, there’s a lot of problems. We have to learn and protect ourselves from the problems.
When we start having symptoms, maybe it’s chronic headaches, or gut issues or insomnia or anxiety. We often lean on pharmaceuticals to treat the symptoms. This doesn’t address the root cause of our illness.
When we treat symptoms, it’s like trying to mop up a wet floor when there’s a leaking pipe. If we don’t stop the pipe from leaking first, the floor will never dry.
Our illnesses stem from Root Causes. If we don’t find the root cause, every medicinal and therapeutic practice only acts as a temporary bandaid.
If a tree is poisoned at its roots, then watering its leaves won’t do much to save it. The same goes with our chronic illnesses. We can’t live off of temporary bandaids. We can’t survive by numbing the pains and symptoms. We have to find the root causes and approach the issues where it matters.
What are the root causes?
We have to step back and look at our lives from different perspectives.
Our bodies: What do we eat and absorb daily? Is it good or bad for us?
Our emotions: Where are we mentally and emotionally? Are we stressed, sad, angry? Are we overworked? Do we live in a broken home?
Our souls: Are we finding meaning in our lives? Do we have friends and family that support us?
Food: What we eat, drink and absorb can either hurt us or sustain us.
Food toxic exposures. (Pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, etc.)
Food replacements or food like substances. (Not real food)
Gluten, Dairy, and Sugar are major instigators and inflammatory to the body. (Book Hashimoto’s Protocol, Dr. Wentz did a survey with over 2,000 participants. 88% feel better just by cutting out gluten alone)
High inflammation
Gut Imbalances
Bad Microbiome
Bacteria/Viruses in our food
Nutritional imbalance from poor diet and altered food from mono-cropping and farming
Environmental toxic exposure:
The average person is exposed to 150-300 chemicals a day.
An average baby is born with over 200 chemicals in their umbilical chord blood.
What are these chemicals?
Pesticides, herbicides, fungicides.
Heavy metals (which wedge in our tissue and even rust in our bodies)
Toxic chemicals in our cleaners, soaps, candles, gasoline
Pollution in the air whether from indoors or outdoors (carbon poisoning, air pathogens, pollens, molds, toxic building materials
Plastics.
Clothes, furnitures, paints, our sheets, etc.
Mold, fungus, natural toxins
Makeups, creams, anything we put on our bodies. (Our skin absorbs these things and there’s no filter. These toxins enter our blood stream before they can be filtered).
Trauma/Stress:
Parasympathetic system. Our fight or flight response creates a lot of unrest in the body. Which creates inflammation and stresses the immune system.
Stress hormones are toxic and they don’t allow our bodies to heal. They inhibit our immune systems ability to work properly.
Financial strain.
Death of a family member or friends.
Physical injuries can weaken the immune system by increasing inflammation.
Rest. Insomnia can lead to weakened immune system. When we sleep, our bodies use this time to clean up. Toxins are pushed out of tissue. It’s critical our bodies get rest so it can heal and clean. (This is also why it’s crucial to drink a big glass of water first thing in the morning, to flush out the toxins and rehydrate the organs).
Nutrient Imbalances:
Our bodies need the right nutrients to survive and thrive. When we don’t get these, our bodies and our immune systems can’t do their jobs.
Vitamin B, C, D are often common deficiencies.
Viral loads on the body: neurotoxins.
Hormonal imbalances
Infections
Poor diet which leads to nutrient imbalances.