062 An Underlying Cause of Autoimmunity and Inflammation w/ Dr. Don Wood

The Case:

• Maria has been dealing with a lot of inflammation and pain.
• She’s been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, Hashimoto’s and Raynaud’s.
• She’s tried everything suggested from conventional medicine to functional medicine.
• The cleanses, special diets, and supplements only made her feel moderately better.

When inflammation, malaise and autoimmunity persist despite doing everything possible to heal the gut, clean the liver and support the immune system properly, there is something bigger going on. I knew we had to dig deeper into her past to find the root cause of her issues.

The Investigation

I spoke with Maria for over 2 hours. At some point, the conversation moved from her condition to her personal history. When she started talking about when her parent’s divorce during her childhood and then her mother’s unexpected death, I knew there was a link. We just had to connect the dots.

A lot of people think that these experiences can’t possibly be the root cause of physical conditions like autoimmune disease. But, Dr. Don Wood, through his research has proven the link between the traumas we experience and our physical conditions. He’s the founder of the Inspired Performance Institute where he’s developed technology called TIPP as well as programs to ‘reboot’ the mind around past trauma that our body continues to feel.

I’m thrilled to have him join me for this episode.

Understanding Trauma

Dr. Wood separates trauma into two camps. Most of us think of trauma as a clearly defined, often injury-inducing event like a car accident or a mugging. He calls this big ‘T’ trauma. The second type of trauma he calls emotional concussion. These are experiences that affected us psychologically but may be more loosely defined or harder to pinpoint. Dr. Wood says that a very large percentage of the population is dealing with unprocessed trauma when you consider these two types of trauma.

How Trauma May Cause Autoimmune Issues

When we experience a traumatic event, our body has a physical response to that trauma. Trauma triggers that fight or flight (aka active state) response. This creates inflammation in the body as a way of pausing the immune system so that the body can use all resources to respond to the trauma. When we are no longer in danger, the body allows everything to return to normal. What a lot of people don’t realize is that when we have unprocessed trauma, we think about it. And, when we think about it, we relive it which results in the same fight or flight response. We have the physical response to the trauma just by thinking about it! If we are doing this constantly, the immune system can’t function properly, which overtime results in autoimmune issues.

Diagnosing Trauma as a Trigger

Often we dismiss the idea that trauma is the cause of an issue because we may not recognize the experience as trauma. Dr. Wood uses a great analogy in this episode that points to the high-definition memories we have of traumatic times in our past vs the muted memory we have of a non-threatening event (like the dinner we had last night). These high-definition memories can be very powerful and can trigger a physical response. The first step in identifying them as triggers sit to recognize the level of the memory and the physical response it brings. In Dr. Wood’s program, they actually monitor the brainwave state to determine the response to memories.

Treating Trauma Triggers

Recognizing the physical response to memories of past trauma is not enough, the brain needs to be reconditioned as to how it responds to that memory. This is what Dr. Wood does with TIPP. This program gets the mind to reset that high-definition memory into the same format as a day-to-day memory. By doing this, the body no longer sees that memory as a threat and it no longer triggers the fight or flight response. The brain is no longer sending an error message.

Dr. Wood points out that far too often we treat the symptoms caused by these trauma responses. For example, treating anxiety, depression, or inflammation that will never be resolved if the trigger memory is not reset.

Blocked Trauma Memories

Many people block bad experiences or they dismiss them as not being traumatic. This may lead them to believe that these experiences can’t be the cause because they don’t have these vivid memories Dr. Wood is talking about. However, these memories may still be operating on a subconscious level and can still put the body into an active response state.

This happens because our minds receive too much information for us to actively process. So, the mind does something academics refer to as ‘time slicing’. This is when the mind takes in information and slices off some to be stored in the subconscious where it can be processed or accessed later. Then, when we encounter something similar, the mind goes searching for reference and the stored memory, resurrecting the memory in full color. This can trigger an active state response.

Avoiding Trauma Memories

For many people, the idea of unearthing or talking about their traumatic memories feels traumatic in itself. Dr. Wood says that his patients don’t need to actually discuss the experience or share the memory. This type of work can be done without having to revisit the event consciously. This is a relief to many people.

Mystery Solved

In order to get to the root problem with Maria, I ran a comprehensive blood test and an organic acid test. She’d already worked on many areas of her physiology but we still found an issue with oxalates and sulfites. We removed those and supported some of the nutrients she was missing like Vitamin C and Zinc.

I also noticed that she was overdoing it with certain supplements that her test showed she didn’t need. I also noted that she was taking Echinacea which is contraindicated in autoimmunity because it can overstimulate the immune system and create even more of an autoimmune attack (a common misunderstanding)

With all of that sorted, I presented Maria with the possibility of past traumas being at play. She’d never heard of this connection and was willing to try. We worked on connecting her mind and body with many of the mind body code techniques I use and she noticed her pain decreased in just a few weeks.

Happy Ending

Encouraged by the progress we were able to achieve, Maria was excited to sign up for Dr. Wood’s program and finally deal with her health struggles.

Eliminating Health Mysteries

For Maria we were able to find that final missing piece of the health puzzle and help her regain her health. Could this be the missing clue for you or someone in your life?

Right now, Dr. Wood is offering Health Mystery Solved listeners the opportunity to join his online program and save 10%. Just use this link to take advantage of this offer.

Links:

Resources mentioned

Thanks to my guest Dr. Don Wood. You can connect with him and learn more about his TIPP online program HERE.

You can also find Dr. Wood on Facebook, Instagram and his