From Surviving to Thriving

In this episode I am joined by Meg Crockett, Integrative Health Coach. We will discuss all aspects of physical health and mental health ranging from gut health and systemic inflammation to disconnection from one's true emotional wellness.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello, it's Penny Megan from the Meginson Method, and welcome to another episode of Penny for Your Thoughts, where we discuss how our thoughts and mindset affect our health, our happiness, and our performance. I'm really excited about this episode from surviving to thriving, where I'm joined by Meg Crockett. She's an integrative health coach, and we're going to be talking about all things to do with physical and mental health, from gut health and systemic inflammation to being disconnected from our true emotions and how that can affect our health. So with the sort of rise in cancer and chronic illness that we're seeing and the fact that we're all living longer, we want to live well into those latter years. And so there's so much that can be done straight away, even as of today. And a lot of us feel healthy right now, but there's a lot that we could be doing differently to really extend our lives, to live longer and healthier and happier. And so that's what we're going to be talking about in this episode. So I'm really excited and let's get started. Hello, Meg. Welcome.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Hi, Penny. It's great to see you.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

I'm always curious to know what's your personal story? What was your journey with health that kind of led you to this work that you do now?

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Yeah, um, well, first, thank you for having me. Uh so yeah, my personal story. I went through a really difficult health journey that went into a full-blown crisis in the first half of 2018. So I had actually developed stage four endometriosis. Um, and it's been there for a little while, but I had actually developed a dangerous complication, and I had to have two surgeries in the first half of 2018, I had to be hospitalized, it was really serious. Um and you know, up until that point I had thought that I was healthy. I didn't know. I knew about the endometriosis, but I didn't really, I wasn't having too much pain, so I hadn't done that much about it. Um, and I didn't realize that some things were kind of bubbling below the surface. So after I went through that experience, I um decided to go back to school and actually get my certification in integrative health because I really wanted to understand what had happened to me. Um, and then even after those surgeries, later in 2018 and into 2019, I continued to have problems. I had debilitating fatigue, I had brain fog, uh aka ADD, anxiety, chronic pain, which really led me to search deeper with my functional medicine team until I was diagnosed with biotoxin illness. Which um, yeah, that's an environmentally acquired illness. So it comes from the one that I was diagnosed with comes from actually indoor mold toxins.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

So in fact, this was um this is pretty wild to understand now, but one of the main root causes behind why I developed endometriosis years before was that because of the mold toxins, my immune system had kind of become knocked out. I had developed systemic inflammation, which was leading to some of that anxiety and brain fog and other things. And um this had been in my system for probably at least a decade. So toxins also negatively affected my gut, my brain, my immune system. So I went through a whole detoxification and uh really went and studied uh all things functional medicine and environmental toxins. And today my health is really good and I don't have endometriosis anymore, but I really learned a lot from this journey.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Yeah, okay. Um wow, that's that's really interesting. I've been uh doing a lot more with um environmental hazards and environmental toxins with particular clients that I've been working with who just aren't getting better. Um, and so it's just looking at other avenues. So that's really interesting. Um, and I think it's something that we take for granted quite a lot. Um, and even just understanding that our water quality uh might not be what it should be. And I think people would be very surprised if they realize just how bad the air quality, the water quality is um in certain parts where you would assume that it's it's great or just fine, you know. I think people really um disregard how important that can be. Um so let's just get right into talking about gut health and systemic inflammation and toxins and how it all sort of goes together, sort of the science behind it.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Sure, yeah. So overall, the body is this gorgeously intelligently interconnected system. You know, everything is working together. Um, so based on my experience and the experience that I see with my clients, I can see that things like anxiety and depression and ADD, these are all messages from our body asking us to look deeper into what's going on. So you asked about um gut health. So for example, yeah, gut health is such a beautiful and layered topic. Um so to your point regarding the environment, what can happen is over time, our gut can be affected by all kinds of different uh toxins. So when I say toxins, it could be medications, um, it could be, yeah, like heavy metals in the tap water, um things in the air, things in our food, maybe it's um pesticides in our food, various different things that over time can actually have an effect on our gut lining. So this can lead to something like um something that I look for a lot in my practice, which is um intestinal permeability, aka leaky gut, you know, by this point you've all heard about leaky gut, and that means that what's happening in the gut is the gut lining can get you know, it gets weakened over time sometimes. And then little particles, it could be food or um toxins that are coming into our digestive tract, can actually get into the body, into the bloodstream, and then make our immune system react. Um, so this is where we start to see diffuse or systemic inflammation throughout the body. So when we say inflammation, what we're really referring to actually is an immune system reaction. It means that the immune system is on alert and it's starting to look for different things. And then, you know, in the gut, a lot of our neurotransmitters are produced in the gut. So when you know, if we have toxins or pathogens, um, different things that can start to affect the microbiome and the flora in the gut, it can offset and create these imbalances and how our body is producing these neurotransmitters. So one example would be um there are some mold toxins, which are called mycotoxins, that actually knock out serotonin and dopamine. They like completely destroy them. So not that that's always the cause, but it's just one example of how uh these things can lead to these imbalances that then affect the whole cut brain axis, and then they can also create inflammation in the brain, which is where we often see depression and anxiety and so forth. A lot of research is showing that now. And the beautiful thing is there's ways to reverse all of it. So while talking about it can sound kind of scary, um, the good news is there's always hope to restore these systems when we look at it from this whole body perspective.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Yeah, yeah. And it's interesting because I think often when people are going to their doctors with depression and anxiety and these sorts of things, this is really where we should be starting from, looking at the diet, looking at lifestyle factors to taking antidepressants or having blood work done and but not looking at the right, like these sorts of things, going right to the basics, you know. And so I really think that when you do a detox or you know, you look at your environmental factors and um these sorts of things first, um, and really sort of clean the slate of all of those sorts of factors that you can control before moving on to medications. Um often, you know, you solve those uh problems before, um before you actually need anything more serious. So I I work with a lot of um, I work a lot with NLP and EFT, but I'm originally a physical therapist. And so I found that um combining mind and body um uh was so necessary for getting people better, that it wasn't just about the therapy, you know, um giving a massage or working on the muscle tissue. Often it was like stuff that was going on in their mind and negative thought patterns and things like that that would lead to their, you know, having chronic pain or chronic symptoms that just weren't getting better, that sort of thing. And so I think it's really going back to the basics, looking for those core root causes, uh, like we were just saying. And so, how do you think disconnection from say emotions affects health?

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Yes, I love this question. Um, so with emotions, um I can definitely speak to my experience and then what I do see with clients and friends and colleagues. Um when it comes to emotional wellness, um I think that by and large we live in this culture with this emphasis on positivity and productivity, and those things are important, absolutely. Um, but sometimes it can sort of swing the pendulum a little bit the wrong way where we might repress or suppress or kind of numb out certain feelings. Um we might develop coping mechanisms, and these can be, you know, some coping mechanisms are like very productive, right? Like um being busy all the time or working all the time and never taking a break, right? And then maybe there's less healthy coping mechanisms, um, you know, where where alcohol can become a problem or something like that. But what I really find is uh when it comes to emotions, is recognizing that emotions are really uh I call them E-motions. They are energies that are in our whole body. I think we've also kind of been trained to think that they're just in our mind, but actually when you notice, right, like when we experience anxiety or depression, you know, you can stop and you can feel it in the body, you know, and often people can, and I'm sure you came across this a lot. Uh I'm sure in your work where you feel it in your chest, you feel it in your throat, right? Um exactly, yeah, exactly, and it can manifest as pain as well. So um I I really like to encourage people to um begin to yeah, just practice allowing yourself to be with different emotional states without trying to change anything because the more that we allow ourselves to feel, yeah, and like tap into what's going on, um we we can actually allow those to kind of influence our choices more um and really uh learn to honor ourselves and figure out what those emotions are trying to tell us. Um and then of course there's a lot of relationship to the nervous system as well. Um, and so I'm very interested in the there's a field called somatic experiencing, which is really about um how can we better integrate trauma in the body, right? Because there's of course this role of unintegrated trauma, and we all have trauma um of some kind. Um and so that's a big part of it too, right? I think is being able to do that really, you know, very brave and very difficult work sometimes of integrating that trauma and being able to kind of throw off the trauma blanket, as I like to say, um kind of liberate yourself from it. But going through that process requires us to really develop a deep awareness, which can be scary. And that's where like I love emotional wellness, and I think um it can be this like deep uh journey to really acknowledging our feelings, but then we learn to also have more capacity for joy and love and pleasure um finding things that light us up because they start to feel safer. The more we can sit with the dark emotions, the more we can sit with the really bright ones.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Yeah, and and I agree, I think a lot of, and I just to rephrase trauma, I think a lot of people think of trauma as something really traumatic. And it's really more these micro-traumas, like these small events that happen maybe in our childhoods, uh, you know, just the simple things like a parent shouting at you or always having that look on their face as if they're never, you know, um, sort of satisfied with our behavior or something like that, that can really become deep-rooted in how we feel about ourselves and these sorts of things that feel so normal. And uh when we use the word trauma, I think a lot of people say, Oh no, but I don't have trauma, nothing I've never had trauma in my past, sort of thing. Um, but it is these little micro events um that create traumatic experiences for us, and then we uh create all these negative beliefs about ourselves or about the situation that really weren't so, but it was real in that moment, you know.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

Um exactly, and I love I love what you said. Um there's uh a wonderful um psychologist that I follow, her name's Dr. Valerie Rain, and she defines trauma as end time that we felt unsafe to show up as our whole self.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

You look at that even from like a systems perspective, um exactly, and I think it's important to allow ourselves to not dismiss those small experiences, to your point, because that's where those belief systems might get imprinted that maybe we're not worthy or you know, who knows what it is. Um, so it's really important to unpack those, even if they seem small, there can be so much uh freedom found once look back at those. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Yeah. And it really is going into that um sort of fear and just kind of sitting with it, just like you were saying. Um, I remember being at a retreat and having um this Buddhist monk talking about how um this time will this time will pass. Um, this too will pass, I think he said. And so whether it's a good experience or a bad experience, it's just a moment. So even those good moments are just moments. So the bad moment is also going to just be a moment. So it's just sit with it, feel, don't try and you know, pretend it didn't happen because then you haven't sort of gone through the feelings that you needed to feel. And by holding on to it, it's like it's just building and building. And at some point you just need to sit with it, let it be, and it'll pass. And um, and I think when you're actually going through real stress, it's important to just sit with it because there's so many things to learn from it, like you were saying. And if you're constantly just keeping yourself busy to not deal with it, I think I see that a lot with clients that are going through a divorce, for example, or just a really bad part of a relationship or a job that they're not particularly happy with. So they just keep themselves busy in some other aspect of their life so that they don't have to deal with it, but then they're not dealing with it. So it's not getting better, it just gets worse. Where if they just sat and felt really bad for a day, a lot of stuff would come up and it would be like, you know what, I don't want this job, and I actually want to be doing this, or you know what? I'm happy that this relationship's not working out because I don't want to be here. Um, but they don't allow themselves to feel that because it's scary or just ugly, it's just not something they want to do. So you kind of keep yourself busy in something else, and it doesn't really serve the purpose, you know. Uh you're absolutely right. I think um taking that time to listen and be with the emotions is such an important part of learning from the experience and moving on, I guess. So yeah. Do you have an example of um someone that you worked with uh that sort of went from that sort of just surviving to thriving?

SPEAKER_01 18:09

Yes, um there are many, but a really uh one story I love in particular. I have a client who a beautiful client who came to see me because she was yeah, she was really spending a lot of time in survival mode, and she had come to really recognize that. So um the ways that this manifested, she was having really high anxiety, which she hadn't really experienced much in her life. She had periods of anxiety here and there. Um, she was having panic attacks, she was having insomnia, um, experiencing a lot of physical pain, and she had also become uh diagnosed with um hormonal imbalances and um actually endometriosis as well and painful periods, and just she she has this, she has this beautiful life, she's engaged to the love of her life, she loves the work she does, and she couldn't figure out why was this going on, right? Because she really didn't feel, you know, sometimes we go through those things and we can kind of like you were saying, we can kind of pinpoint like I really hate my job, or this relationship is toxic, you know what I need to get out of it. So we can kind of see maybe where some of these um emotions are coming from, but she was really like, I'm I'm actually like I'm I'm happy, like I have a lot of joy. We're planning a wedding. I don't I don't get why I feel this way. I love where I live. So um we so in my practice, uh we we do functional medicine testing, which looks at different metrics than are looked at in the allopathic medical system. So the allopathic system is the main functional system. Functional medicine is based on looking very deeply for really biological root causes. So we test for um toxins like heavy metals, mold toxins, we look at a lot of immune system markers, we do a different kind of GI map test to really understand that um what might be going on in the microbiome. So we did a little bit of testing with her and we found out in her case that she had uh a high accumulation of um mycotoxins, so mold toxins, um, and turns out she was living in a water damaged home. Um, and so it was quite easy to quickly connect the dots. And it was interesting because she had gone through a lot of different specialists already, um, and a lot of her lab work was normal. And so um, you know, with these things, it's like it's always kind of this double bind where on the one hand you're happy because you get answers, and then you're like, oh shoot, now I have to take care of this. So what I did with her was um a combination of things. So I always like to look at the um the diet and nutrition as a foundation. So the first thing we did was remove all pro-inflammatory foods. So for me, the top ones are gluten, dairy, sugar, um, and then you know, sometimes things like soy and there's some other areas. Um, so we we took that out. I I moved her more towards a um, you know, a lot of organic vegetables, grass fed meats, or you know, organic meats, um locally sourced when possible, things like that. So the first step was kind of okay, let's make sure the diet foundation is in place. Uh we added in some immune support. Because I saw that some of her immune markers were down and so indicated she was having a lot of inflammation. So again, I kept saying to her, like, it makes sense that you've been feeling this way, you know, because your immune system has been fighting these toxins and it's tired. It's caused all this inflammation throughout your body. So now you have pain, you have anxiety, you're having panic attacks at night. Like, I just want to validate that your physiology has really been talking to you. This is where I just I'm so I love the body. The body is just so intelligent. This is why I always tell people, you know, there's this narrative sometimes that I know is well-intentioned, but that you know, that you need to like fix yourself or something like that. But really, I always tell people, you're not woken. Your body is responding so intelligently to something in your life, whether it's a bad relationship or a good job or toxins, it could be multiple influences. Your body is letting you know it's not worth it. That's what these signals mean. And I know that can be like a disruptive thing to say. Um, and there's nothing wrong with taking medication to help. Um it's just knowing that you're not broken. Your body's letting you know there's a problem, and it's my job with my clients to help figure out what's the problem, and then we try to remove the problem. So I also have her on a detox protocol now, and she and her partner are moving actually, so they're gonna find a really clean, yeah, whole new space, uh new apartment to live in. And you know, I had that experience too when I went through my illness. I moved from a home that had mold toxins, and by the way, it was new, it was modern, it was beautiful, there was nothing visible, which um makes it tricky. But honestly, as soon as I moved into a clean space, and I had been having a lot of anxiety, it went away almost overnight. That was pretty striking. Um, and so she's feeling a lot better now. She's sleeping, she's not having panic attacks anymore, her energy is coming back, um, her focus is coming back, and um, we're just so grateful that we found this root cause and just always hopeful situations because you can clean them out.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

So yeah, no, I think that's so important because often I think when people have a sort of chronic illness or a symptom that uh they've had for quite a while, they've actually been to so many different doctors, they've had so many tests, and everything comes back that they're kind of okay. And they're like, but I know that I'm not okay. I don't feel the way I want to feel, you know, I have these headaches or I'm not sleeping, or you know, there's something. And and it usually is just one thing, and they just haven't been tested for that one thing. So I often say, you know, go and see something else. Go to a functional medicine doctor, integrative medicine, go see a nutritionist or a homeopath, um, an acupuncturist, just you know, see what else is out there because it will be just one thing that um is affecting the body and it just hasn't been tested yet, you know. Um and and yeah, that's a perfect example. So, what um advice could you give to some of our listeners who maybe are battling with something right now and they're not sure what, just as you were describing in the very beginning, um, just kind of feeling like they they don't feel as well as they want to feel, but they can't really pinpoint it. What would your advice be? What are some tips?

SPEAKER_01 25:44

Yeah, I love this question. Hmm, yeah. Um the first the first thing I just would say to people in that uh who are experiencing that is again to just know you're not broken, your body is smart, you will get to the bottom of this, and there's nothing to be ashamed of. And we all need support to figure out these things. We're not meant to do it alone. So I just encourage people to first of all um, you know, have have a team. Make sure that you know your your nearest and dearest who are very safe, um, that they know what's going on, that uh, and then reach out for help. So some of the kind of simple things, uh, some sort of low-hanging fruit, I would say, is if we assume that there's generally some level of inflammation in the body that's going on, um, if you haven't already, one easy change uh that can help maybe not fix the whole problem, but help is to yeah, take a look at your um your food intake and see where maybe you can remove some things that might just be contributing. So again, thinking about pro-inflammatory foods that you can take out. Um, I have I have never, let's see, I have never not heard someone say they feel better when they take gluten out. So sorry everybody, but most people feel a little bit of a positive change when they do that. Um, so that's kind of a low-hanging fruit thing to try. Then um, I love what you said. I mean, certainly reach out to a functional medicine practitioner, a certified health coach, somebody who is trained in looking for root causes who could test you and see if there's, yeah, maybe like there's a toxin overload at play, or if you suspect something. Um you know, you can think about adding some simple kind of detox steps to your life. So, for example, like infrared sauna is a beautiful way to um encourage getting toxins out of your body. Um but that I the the role of environmental toxins really I think can can be big here. So that's something to investigate. Um also some beautiful medicinal herbs. If you're just looking for something kind of in the day-to-day to help, gosh, ashwagandha can be incredible. Um right? That's like wow. Research actually shows that it has as as strong of a of an effect as um psychiatric anti-anxiety.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

Um, for the audience, um, ashwagandha is an Ayurvedic um.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

Yeah, yeah, it's an herb, and you can get it either in a capsule or there's liquid forms. It tastes really funky, but I kind of like the flavor. Um and yeah, it's it's been used for thousands of years to um, it's uh it does a lot. It's a nervous system regulator, so it kind of stabilizes the hormones as well. It does, yes. It's good for the immune system, it just can help increase your overall kind of feeling of well-being. Um, so that's something I think would be really potent. Um, rhodiola is another uh that helps manage our cortisol levels. So, you know, you mentioned hormones like cortisol, of course, is our stress hormone that gets really activated. So some of these beautiful Ayurvedic and medicinal herbs, um, I don't know if there's a reason they've been used for such a long time because they work. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Those are some easy ones too, and then yeah, I think those are my kind of and then I guess the other thing I would say is um investigate or maybe learn about other techniques to help uh regulate the nervous system.

SPEAKER_00 29:48

I do a lot with breathing, um breath work, and that is so fantastic because it's something you can do anywhere at any time. And so once my clients learn to use it when they're angry or when they're feeling stressed or overwhelmed, they can just use it in that moment when they need it. And and it really works to get the parasympathetic nervous system to kick in, and so it just stops all the anxiety and stress and overwhelm that can happen. Um, and you really just feel more balanced, and it's just so easy to do. And so, yeah, absolutely. I think breath work, meditation, mindfulness, all of these things, uh it's really the way forward. I think more and more of us are starting to learn that um it's these little daily things that you can do that really just keep us feeling balanced, you know, and they're so simple to learn, and and you can use them whenever you need them throughout the day. And so, yeah, um, that is great. Thank you so much, Mike. Um, and again, that was Meg Crockett. And Meg, how can our listeners get in touch with you if they've got questions or want to work with you?

SPEAKER_01 30:56

Sure, yes. Um, check out my website, which is MegCrockettHealth.com. You can send me an email from there. Um, or check me out on Instagram. I interact a lot with the community on there. It's just fun. I try to just post fun, like health, you know, tips and show some of what I do in my lifestyle that works for me, um, and try to speak to things that I kind of see happening across my clients. So uh that's also Meg Crockett Health. And um yeah, I would love to hear from your listeners, and it's just been so nice chatting with you here.