Consider Your Environment And Its Affects On Your Health…
Over the years I have shifted from just dealing with a broken down body I see in front of me and shifted more to the 30,000 ft view of WHY this is occurring.
There is no escaping the role that environment plays in our day to day health but I am not sure that people really FULLY understand the importance of environment in health and life.
So lets dig in.
Without getting into deep physiological research it has been proven over and over that what we are exposed to emotionally and physically IS affecting our physical body on a moment to moment basis.
The simplest way to understand this through your experience of hot and cold.
When we are exposed to a temperature either greater or less than our body temperature it sets off a chain reaction in the human body.
The Hypothalamus registers this change and it then responds. It will send a message to the pituitary which in turn sends pre hormones (TSH) to the thyroid to ask it to re-regulate the bodies metabolic temperature.
The above is VERY basic and there is A LOT more to it however to understand regulation I feel this helps.
So you now know that the hypothalamus helps us to regulate different processes in the body. It receives signals from the outside ‘environment’ and it receives feedback from the inside of the body too.
Mainly in the form of hormones, neurotransmitters and inflammatory cytokines. These are critical for the body to keep balance day to day and the body is incredible at doing it too.
However if we are exposed to a very acute environment that then turns chronic we put a lot more stress on the body.
Take training as an example.
The body is great at recovering, adapting and regenerating tissue when it is in the right environment however when something significant shifts then the body starts to struggle to maintain homeostasis (Balance).
For example if you train 4 times a week and that feels good, you wake up refreshed, energized and energy is good through the day, they are all good markers the body is doing well.
Enter a change in environment like MORE work to do and longer hours.
Rather than adjusting our training type / frequency we continue to PUSH and this WILL and does affect the ability for you to recover and ultimately your health.
The body will down regulate certain processes in order to give attention to the extra mental energy required for instance.
Now in the short term this really isn’t going to cause many issues at all, its when we start getting LOTS of different stimulus into our environment that the body gets overwhelmed and choices become harder for the body to make.
In the western world we are more time poor, stressed out than ever before and yet we are PUSHING harder than ever before with late nights, drugs, alcohol, lack of sleep etc.
The results of this I see is that people are much more exposed to things like the common cold for example.
A cold is a sure fire sign that the immune system is overwhelmed and imbalanced.
And FYI a cold or two a year ISNT normal, its common, I last had a cold nearly 8 years ago.
And no I’m not special.
And when the body starts to get more and more pressure on it it starts to open you up to issues.
A very simple example is this.
When you face a stressor whether physical or emotional the body triggers the fight or flight response. This response is required and life saving in its mechanism.
It will draw blood away from places in the body it is not immediately required and send it to working muscles, limbs, heart etc.
Here’s the issue.
The more stress we put on the body and LESS time we spend recovering we start to down regulate important processes.
One being the digestive system and that’s not cool if you desire to build muscle and get lean.
When you trigger the stress response you re-direct blood away from the gut, this stops you breaking down and absorbing food as well. Thus you recovery and gains suffer.
This is a VERY real issue I SEE in people I consult with.
They think because they are simply eating the calorific value of food required that that is what is being used.
Nope. Its just too cut and dry.
So that might not seem that extreme and it really isn’t but this progresses over time until the system starts to get overwhelmed in other places like the liver and its ability to clear reactive fat soluble toxins for instance.
Its certainly a build up over time and the more we are exposed to more and more stress the LESS AND LESS balance the body finds itself.
Thus the discussion around environment is a very important one.
The more YOU set about controlling your environment the better choices you make and ultimately the more you will benefit.
Remember your environment covers all areas.
Home (mould, damp, feeling settled etc)
Relationships (with self and others)
Health (symptoms, stress, sleep, hydration, food etc)
Work (enjoyment, boss, time off, money earnings)
Money (bills to pay, financial freedom etc)
Body (positive or negative image etc)
The above is a tiny picture of areas to consider an how they are playing a role in your day to day environment.
There is no 1 thing to do to change any of this other than start making choices that serve you FIRST.
As I always say “no amount of self sacrifice will make you happy”
I wrote this article purely to give you different insight into how factors are affecting us on a daily basis and although in this moment it doesn’t FEEL too much, in the long term if it carries on you KNOW its not going to end well.
One thing I see is the more that our clients consciously choose to control their internal and external environment.
The better life gets.
Enjoy this?
What did you take away?
Cliff
The Unlimited Life
