The Terrible T’s
No, the “Terrible T’s” aren’t a gang of villains picking on our favourite cartoon superheroes, but they are a gang! They are a gang of stressors that our body (notably our immune system) must navigate and adapt to. Just like we talked about with the circuit breakers, when our body is under constant attack things can go wrong as our internal environment must compensate and become a battle ground rather than an optimal environment for healing and thriving. Let’s take a peek at these “Terrible T’s” and how they impact us.
Toxins: Our body must be working constantly to eliminate and neutralize toxins that enter our body. We often think of toxins as “poisonous” things - you know, the ones in bottles with the fancy symbols on them, and we know to avoid those. Perhaps the more obvious toxins that we encounter are chemicals in topical products that we absorb in our skin, pollution, smoking and drugs. All require our immune system to work hard to keep us in top notch form. We can forget though, that toxins can also be unhealthy foods and beverages that we ingest - on purpose! Continuing to eat these foods, or foods that we have sensitivities too, is a chemical stressor for the body and can result in increased inflammation. In addition to not providing our body with the fuel it needs to perform all of its functions optimally, eating these foods can result in irritation of our digestive tract which can lead to a phenomenon called “leaky gut”. That’s a huge topic, but to describe it generally, with chronic irritation of the digestive tract, small food particles and molecules “leak” out of the walls of the intestines into the body before being processed properly. This can cause our immune system to work overtime and lead to a variety of health concerns.
Tribes: Terrible tribes refer to the” bugs” (viruses, bacteria etc) that our immune system must work against to keep us healthy. These bugs can include the viruses and bacteria that we encounter out in the world, the balance of “good” and “bad” bacteria in our guts, and even the first bacteria we were exposed to as a baby. When our body is fighting off a cold or the flu, we experience “symptoms” as our body mounts its battle against these tribes. Each time we encounter foreign “tribes” of bugs, our immune system learns to respond and mount an appropriate attack. When it hasn’t learned this properly, when it’s overloaded, or when our nervous system is stuck in high gear, our immune system can sometimes under-react or overreact when it encounters these tribes.
Traumas: Traumas that we have experienced in the past - be they physical or emotional can take a toll on our body, especially if we don’t process them completely. Injury obviously triggers inflammation - that is an important part of the healing response, but it takes a lot of focus for the body and the tissue repair work itself can take up a lot of our energy reserves. Chronic inflammation is irritating to the body and, as we have learned, doesn’t tend to move us down a nice path of healing. Pain from injury can also trigger the sympathetic nervous system to kick up as our focus is drawn to the injury and the consequences it may have for us. Previous (or current) emotional traumas can also keep us stuck in sympathetic overdrive as our mind struggles to cope with emotions and processing traumatic experiences. PTSD is an example of this. Our body is stuck in - or returns often - to reliving the traumatic experience and the memory doesn’t get moved into the past. It is as if the event is occurring again and again and our nervous system recreates the same large sympathetic nervous system “fight or flight” response as it did during the original event. The sympathetic system, you’ll recall was meant for survival, not for thriving, and not meant to be turned up to max all the time.
Thoughts: This one is a bit new to the list and one we aren’t always comfortable admitting to ;) but the truth is that we are realizing more and more that our mindset and thoughts are very important in our ability to heal and thrive. “Terrible Thoughts” such as negative thinking, anxiety, depression, excessive worry and unhappiness - regardless of the reason, can cause havoc for our body. There is a very strong link between our thoughts and our nervous system, and our nervous system communicates with the nervous system all the time. Just think about how hard it is to succeed at a task when someone is harping at you about how you aren’t good enough and you’ll never be able to pull it off. Your body hears everything your mind says after all (regardless of whether it’s actually true or just a story you’re telling yourself) - so be careful with where you let your thoughts linger if you expect your body to get busy healing itself! Strive to avoid negative thinking patterns and shift your focus onto positive, optimistic views whenever you can.
Well, there you have it, a quick overview of those pesky villains the Terrible T’s and their potential impact on our immune and nervous systems - and therefore our body’s ability to thrive! Like goldilocks, we need our immune system to be working juussst right for optimal health. Under-react, we can get sick a lot, over-react and we start to see auto-immune-type symptoms and conditions. If you can kick any of the Terrible T’s to the curb - you’ll be doing your immune system a huge favour - and you bet your body will thank you for it it!