Episode3. WHERE TO BEGIN YOUR HEALING?

"The beginning is the most important part of the work." - Plato

Keeping a diary of disease symptoms and daily routines helps identify patterns, triggers, and improvements in health. It aids in effective communication with healthcare providers, supports personalised treatment plans, and enhances self-management strategies for better health outcomes. Journaling aids self-awareness, tracks progress and highlights goal achievement.

Transcript

Hello? Welcome back. It's Claire. This is Inflammation Superhighway, coming to you from Australia. Today, we're going to start a plan and talk about writing a diary, but before we begin, 

‘I would like to pay my respects to the original custodians of this saltwater-encircled country who lived in harmony with the lands and the sea. I honor the elders, past and present, and recognize that this is, and always will be, Aboriginal land.’

Well, let's get started. Today is a lot more practical, and we are going to be talking about the importance of recording what's going on in your body and what's going on in your environment. But to start with, I'm going to use my scientific brain for a while. We're going to talk a tiny bit about epigenetics. The reason I'm bringing it up right at the start is because current research indicates more than ever before that the environment plays a significant role in influencing your gene expression—like what turns it on and how the environment contributes to the development of disease. There are a lot of studies on this, and it is something that I am very passionate about, people knowing more about it. I'm not actually going to dive into too much of the science of it, and I think you can look it up in journals like Environmental Health Perspectives, Scientific America, and Scientific Australia.

The reason that I bring it up is because I think it's a really good starting place to stress the importance of recording your symptoms and to encourage the importance of recording your symptoms. More so, let's say, in a progressive disease. The reason I think it's really important is because it's significant to track the effects on your wellness of some of the protocols that you will introduce as you're going through this journey. So it's not only the symptoms, but also your behaviors and your habits—things like your sleep patterns, your water intake, your diet, your exercise regime.

If you record these, it gives you a better understanding of the journey because, you know, a progressive disease diagnosis is life-altering and it can shake you really heavily right at the foundations. You know, and I know that for me, I've had that rollercoaster that sometimes just left me totally bewildered. I think for some people, it would make them feel very vulnerable. And at the beginning of your journey, it's really good to understand all of the things that you'll know that, well, you may not know what you're going to try at the beginning of the journey, but you will try multiple things. Some people may just stay on the medical path, and there's nothing right or wrong with that.

My path choices were a lot more alternative and maybe a little combination of but firstly, I think recording your symptoms is really a good thing to do. So your symptoms may come and go at the start, if you are Relapsing-Remitting. They may come and stay if you have been diagnosed with secondary progressive. But either way, your symptoms, it's really important to have a record of your symptoms. Be consistent with the frequency and the longevity of any symptom. Because we will push that information up against some of the other wellness protocols that you're going to introduce into your life and see how the disease is affecting its, well, see how the protocols may be supporting the limiting of time that some of these symptoms remain prevalent in your body.

And it also gives healthcare providers a good way to track your wellness and it gives you a good level of information. So, one of the first things I wish I'd known earlier is that it's really vital to clean up, what they say, clean up your house. So that means, have a look at your life and your daily patterns and try to look for the high-stress points in your life.

I think if there's anything to do that doesn't actually cost any money or right at the start, is to spend a bit of time just becoming very aware of the high-stress points in your life and things. Some things are so stressful, but they are so ingrained in your life. You can't change them overnight and nobody's going to expect you to, but I think it's important to set goals to reduce your stress. It's going to be huge. And it might actually be the most important thing that you can do.

Stress raises your cortisol, and you can't afford to have your cortisol consistently raised. It is really important to be aware that any level of high cortisol in the long term has detrimental effects on your body. So reducing your stress is not a quick thing. It's not an easy fix. You know, for some of you, it may be something simple like not engaging in arguments with your neighbor or your work colleague. It may be another simple thing of thinking about going for a walk every day to reduce your stress. Many of us have complicated lives and some of the things that do cause stress could be your boss or it could be your partner.

Again, they're very difficult things to challenge and tackle, but let's hope that there are baby steps we can take to address the situation and make changes. Not easy, not quick, but very, very important for your health. So I think the first step is to honestly assess your life and write down what you feel the largest stresses are in your life and the smallest ones. So if you actually go through the process of writing down your stresses, then if you have them all laid out in front of you, you may very well be able to order them with an achievable goal for some of the simpler ones.

You know, there may be that somebody at the local cafe, maybe the proprietor of the local cafe that you go to every week, whether it be to catch up with a friend or it's just really close to your house, maybe they cause you stress. So a simple solution to that could be just find a new cafe.

Now that seems simplistic, but it can be just sometimes we're addicted to the cortisol. We're kind of addicted to that fun bit you have with your friend or your sporting mate on a team or a girl at work. We just like to have a little bit of a complain about the woman at the local cafe and oh my God, what's she wearing today or you'll never guess what she did today or he did today.

And they actually just build up, they build up slowly over time. And the example I just gave is very simple and probably doesn't keep your cortisol level up high all day, every day, but there will be other things that do. And if you get out of the habit of feeding the smaller stresses, then over time you'll get better at trying to not feed the larger stresses.

I think we might end up doing more in-depth and intimate sort of research into some of these things. But for now, I would advise that it's really important to keep a diary of record of the things that stress you out over a day, a week, a month, then all the order them in easy to resolve and really difficult to resolve.

Because let's face it, if you've got three teenagers in your house, you're not going to be able to tell them to just see you later, get out of here. I can't stand it. You're stressing me out. If you've got a boss, your job's really important to you. It's not going to be easy to just go to him one day and say, Hey mate, you're really stressing me out. I think it's time you disappeared from my life, but we will come up with some solutions or at least baby steps to get this process of de-stressing your life working. So in the fact that de-stressing your life and the things that trigger you may not be easy to resolve in the immediate, like a boss or a work colleague or teenage children or a partner or anything like that, you are able to introduce some things that reduce your stress and they're not all big, but they will require focus and motivation.

So two of the easy solutions I find that come to mind really quickly are meditation and exercise. So meditation might be a bigger thing for us to talk about. So let's start with exercise because exercise, well look, it's everywhere. Exercise is good for you. Everybody knows it. And it's out there in the world.

There are many theories about what type of exercise, how much exercise, and what you have, but there are a lot of really simple exercise routines that we can do that cost no money and really help in reducing stress. And I think we all became a lot more aware of them recently, in recent times, the simple thing of going outside and having a walk.

Again, finding the time isn't always easy, but a one-minute walk as a starting point, a 300-meter walk can then become a 500-meter walk, which might then become a 1-kilometer walk. You may find that you live too far away from some beautiful, serene beach or forest, but you can walk around your neighborhood.

Walking around your neighborhood, there are different times of the day that are going to be less stressful as well. If you're comfortable walking around at dusk, if you're not so comfortable walking around on your own, it can be a really great time to actually spend time with your teenage child that becomes a really positive part of your lifestyle and any of your stresses.

Whether it's a brisk walk or a walk to a meditation class or a walk to the shops instead of driving the car or a walk to your kid's primary school with them. Whatever it is, walking and being outdoors is a really great way of reducing some of the stresses in your life. Exercise isn't just for stress relief. It has an incredible amount of health benefits. Here's the revised text with corrections in spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, and paragraph organization:

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Hello? Welcome back. It's Claire from Inflammation Superhighway, coming to you from Australia. Today, we're going to start a plan and talk about writing a diary. But before we begin, I would like to pay my respects to the original custodians of this saltwater-encircled country, who lived in harmony with the lands and the sea.

I honor the elders, past and present, and recognize that this is, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

Well, let's get started. Today is a lot more practical, and we are going to talk about the importance of recording what's going on in your body and what's going on in your environment. But to start with, I'm going to use my scientific brain for a while. We're going to talk a tiny bit about epigenetics.

So, the reason I'm bringing it up right at the start is because current research indicates more so than ever before that the environment plays a significant role in influencing your gene expression—like what turns it on and how the environment contributes to the development of disease. There are a lot of studies on this, and it is something that I am very passionate about, people knowing more about it. I'm not actually going to dive into too much of the science of it, and I think you can look it up in journals like Environmental Health Perspectives, Scientific American, and Scientific Australia.

But the reason that I bring it up is because I think it's a really good starting place to stress the importance of recording your symptoms and to encourage more so in a progressive disease. The reason I think it's really important is because it's significant to track the effects on your wellness of some of the protocols that you will introduce as you're going through this journey. So, it's not only the symptoms, but also your behaviors and your habits—things like your sleep patterns, water intake, diet, and exercise regime.

If you record these, it gives you a better understanding of the journey because progressive disease diagnosis is life-altering and it can shake you really heavily right at the foundations. I know that for me, I've had that rollercoaster that sometimes just left me totally bewildered. I think for some people, it would make them feel very vulnerable.

At the beginning of your journey, it's really good to understand all of the things that you'll know. Well, you may not know what you're going to try at the beginning of the journey, but you will try multiple things. Some people may just stay on the medical path, and there's nothing right or wrong with that.

My path choices were a lot more alternative and maybe a little combination of both. Firstly, I think recording your symptoms is really a good thing to do. So, your symptoms may come and go at the start. If you are in relapsing-remitting, they may come and stay if you have been diagnosed with secondary progressive. But either way, your symptoms, it's really important to have a record of them. Be consistent with the frequency and the longevity of any symptom because we will put that information up against some of the other wellness protocols that you're going to introduce into your life and see how the disease is affecting its, well, see how the protocols may be supporting the limiting of time that some of these symptoms remain prevalent in your body.

It also gives healthcare providers a good way to track your wellness and gives you a good level of information. So, one of the first things I wish I'd known earlier is that it's really vital to clean up your house. That means have a look at your life and your daily patterns and try to recognize the high-stress points in your life.

If there's anything to do that doesn't actually cost any money right at the start, it's to spend a bit of time just becoming very aware of the high-stress points in your life. Some things are so stressful, but they are so ingrained in your life you can't change them overnight, and nobody's going to expect you to. But I think it's important to set goals to reduce your stress. It's going to be huge, and it might actually be the most important thing that you can do.

Stress raises your cortisol, and you can't afford to have your cortisol consistently raised. It is really important to be aware that any high level of cortisol long-term has detrimental effects on your body. So, reducing your stress is not a quick thing. It's not an easy fix. For some of you, it may be something simple like not engaging in arguments with your neighbor or your work colleague. It may be another simple thing of thinking about going for a walk every day to reduce your stress.

Many of us have complicated lives, and some of the things that cause stress could be your boss or your partner. Again, they're very difficult things to challenge and tackle, but let's hope that there are baby steps we can take to address the situation and make changes. Not easy, not quick, but very, very important for your health.

So, I think the first step is to honestly assess your life and write down what you feel are the largest stresses in your life and the smallest ones. If you actually go through the process of writing down your stresses, then if you have them all laid out in front of you, you may very well be able to order them with an achievable goal for some of the simpler ones.

There may be someone at the local cafe, maybe the proprietor, who causes you stress. So, a simple solution to that could be to find a new cafe. Now, that seems simplistic, but it can be just sometimes we're addicted to cortisol, to that fun bit you have with your friend or your sporting mate on a team or a colleague at work. We just like to have a little bit of a complain about the woman at the local cafe and what she did today.

And they actually just build up slowly over time. The example I just gave is very simple and probably doesn't keep your cortisol level high all day, every day, but there will be other things that do. If you get out of the habit of feeding the smaller stresses, then over time, you'll get better at trying not to feed the larger stresses.

So, we might end up doing more in-depth and intimate research into some of these things. But for now, I would advise that it's really important to keep a diary or record of the things that stress you out over a day, a week, a month, then order them from easy to resolve to really difficult to resolve.

Because let's face it, if you've got three teenagers in your house, you're not going to be able to tell them to just see you later. Get out of here, I can't stand it. If you've got a boss and your job's really important to you, it's not going to be easy to just go to him one day and say, "Hey mate, you're really stressing me out. I think it's time you disappeared out of my life." But we will come up with some solutions or at least baby steps to get this process of de-stressing your life working.

So, in fact, de-stressing your life and the things that trigger you may not be easy to resolve in the immediate—like a boss, a colleague, teenage children, or a partner. You are able to introduce some things that reduce your stress, and they're not all big, but they will require focus and motivation.

Two of the easy solutions that come to mind really quickly are meditation and exercise. So, meditation might be a bigger thing for us to talk about. Let's start with exercise because exercise, well, look, it's everywhere. Exercise is good for you, everybody knows it, and it's out there in the world.

There are many theories about what type of exercise, how much exercise, and what you have to do, but there are a lot of really simple exercise routines that we can do that cost no money and really help in reducing stress. I think we all became a lot more aware of them recently, in recent times—the simple thing of going outside and having a walk.

Again, finding the time isn't always easy, but a one-minute walk as a starting point, a 300-meter walk can then become a 500-meter walk, which might then become a one-kilometer walk. You may find that you live too far away from some beautiful, serene beach or forest, but you can walk around your neighborhood.

Walking around your neighborhood at different times of the day can be less stressful as well. If you're comfortable walking around at dusk or if you're not so comfortable walking around on your own, it can be a really great time to actually spend time with your teenage child. That becomes a really positive part of your lifestyle and any of your stresses.

Whether it's a brisk walk or a walk to a meditation class, or a walk to the shops instead of driving the car, or a walk to your kid's primary school with them—whatever it is, walking and being outdoors is a really great way of reducing some of the stresses in your life. Exercise isn't just for stress relief; it has an incredible amount of health benefits.

And I think exercise can be seen as, you know, some big undertaking, but I think movement is something that I want to put under the exercise banner. Just for us to talk about how important movement is for your body, which ultimately reduces your stress. So, movement/exercise becomes something that improves your health, not just your mental well-being but your physical health as well.

There are so many pathways in your body—areas of hormonal or chemical release or mechanical pathways in your body—that require movement as a trigger point. We all know that scenario where you’re sitting still and stagnating absolutely is not great, not just for your mental health but for your physical health as well.

Shifting your

 mindset towards exercise not as a huge undertaking but as a way of improving your stress, your physical health, and your mental health. There are a lot of things that come from movement. So, if we don't like the concept of exercise, how about we just call it movement? Let's move. Let's get into a routine of moving.

If our life is so busy that we can't imagine fitting in exercise—going to the gym, doing laps at the pool, going to yoga, riding your bike—just movement. Absolutely, find any chance you can to walk instead of getting into the car and changing that thing in your body that says, "Hey, it's time for me to focus on my wellness," and record it in your diary.

Now, I've started this conversation; I've gone straight into it. But I'm guessing that really, we've all got different ways of recording things. These days, I'm not going to suggest a specific app. I'm old school, and I've still got most of my stuff recorded in a spreadsheet-style program on my computer.

Wherever it is, whether it's on the back of a napkin or probably better to do it in something a little bit more solid than that, you are going to find a huge amount of benefit, reflective knowledge to be achieved over the next many, many years of your life by recording some of these routines that you should instill in your life. So, we did exercise, movement, and I think maybe the opposite of movement is sleep.

Sleep's an interesting one because actually, I'm going to call it rest because we all say to ourselves, "Oh my God, I'm so tired. I need more sleep," but sometimes it's not more sleep. Sometimes it's more rest. By that, I mean not just resting your body but resting your mind, resting your spirit.

So, there's a wonderful book by Dr. Sandra Dalton Smith called "Sacred Rest." It's a wonderful book that describes that there are seven types of rest. I will put a reference in the show notes. But when I read this book and listened to Dr. Dalton Smith speak, my eyes were opened to the fact that rest is so much more than sleep and that there are many types of rest.

So, sleep and exercise are intertwined in their own way. They do ultimately create a healthier lifestyle and also lessen that feeling of chaos in your life, especially in this modern world where we just move at such fast paces. But when I say rest and sleep being different, I still believe that we should record in our diary for a period of time so that we are very aware of how much actual sleep we get, not just how much sleep you get, but what are the things that you'll push sleep for?

For me, I find that I can look at the clock at 8 o'clock, think, "Great, I'm going to get an early night," then just check my emails. Haha! So funny, just check my emails. It could be 10 o'clock before I look up again and think, "Right, I'm going to finish this now. I'm just going to re-read that script from the podcast that I did," and then go to bed. 12 o'clock reading, editing.

So, I think when it comes to sleep, the hardest thing is to not find some reason to push it out and to kind of diarize your life a little better so that when the 8 o'clock bell rings as it were, you do put your pen down or close your laptop or whatever it is that you need to do to keep that routine going.

Personally, I have lived most of my life on six hours' sleep. My health and wellness may very well have been better off with an eight-hour sleep. I find that, the opposite of that, when I am run down and I'm not in my peak wellness, yes, I need more sleep and I need to honor that.

But I've become aware of that over time, that when I'm in my peak, I can do just six hours. My best friend can't do anything under nine. So, you know, we've all got different things and we have to honor our bodies and the ways that we, what we need. And again, it becomes much more aware when we record these things.

I'm not asking you to sit down for hours recording details of this, that, and the other. I'm fairly sure you can very quickly open a book and write "five hours sleep, two minutes of walking," anyway. So recording sleep and rest separately and rest can be meditation, but it can be many other things as well.

Diets are a really big undertaking to talk about, and I'm actually going to do probably a whole podcast on diet and the different diets that I have undertaken. But I will summarise diet here, with that age-old expression: "You are what you eat." And it's true. It is so true. Your food, what goes in your mouth, is your petrol for your machine.

So, what you put into your mouth is the fuel to allow your body to perform at its maximum. And if your eating habits are terrible or if you have very bad nutritional choices, you're going to reduce your productivity in your machine. Your body is your machine. There is no replacement. We don't get to check it in and get a new one at - however many kilometers.

This is it. You are born with it, and you will die with it, and it needs to carry you through potentially 100 years. Whoever has had a car run for a hundred years without a grease and oil change, but without new tires or a new engine, I mean, it's near impossible to think of an engine that would run that long and this is it. This is what we've got. We have to be very, very mindful that this is the one and only machine we have.

And it will carry you through your life. It will do its best for you if you give it a sporting chance. So recording your daily dietary intake is super important. I'll go into the types of diets in greater detail in another episode because I've tried so many variables. But nutritional choices have got to come in as a really major focus.

Look, let's face it. We all have times where we binge out, and we, you know, we don't put fast foods in our body or what have you, but also know that there can be improvements. No matter how good your diet is, I'm sure you can probably find some improvements, which would equate to increasing your fruits and vegetables and balancing your—I'm going to say this—macronutrition, nutrients, macronutrients, which means that you may need to take some supplements or you may need to have your blood tested to know what you are absorbing or what you're not absorbing in your body.

You may need to consult a nutritionist or a dietitian or a naturopath. You may need to think about buying organics. All of these things are all going to come down to cost and money. But at the end of the day, eating the best you can with the, what limits you've got and record how your body reacts to the nourishment that you give it.

And I'm going to give you some pointers and some easy—not cheats because that's not a very positive word—but ways to support, not trick your body, but to support your body with nutrient-rich foods that are simple and easy to attain. But what we're doing here today is to get into when we we really are going to have to spend at least a month recording what we're eating.

Because you'll be surprised. You will be so surprised. And if you are eating the same food every day, that's not great for you either. But if you are able to do this process for, I'm going to say a month, but even a week, if you can look at what you eat in a standard week, you might be really surprised. And the hardest thing about what I'm saying is that you've just received an overwhelming diagnosis and to look at your lifestyle can also be overwhelming.

So, when we start this project, don't think it's advisable to make too many conclusions. Just record. And, you know, don't think about, "Oh my God, I've got to do all of this overnight." And don't think, "Oh my God, my diet's terrible. I'm my own worst enemy. This is the reason I'm sick, blah, blah." What we will do is over time, we'll pick baby steps that we can do to make the movement forward a little easier, a little more comfortable.

Okay, so we've looked at diet a little bit. We're recording our sleep patterns and our rest patterns. I really want to mention water intake. I've got a regime that I will share with you, but I'm going to do another statement, which is ‘water is the elixir of life’ and the knowledge that our bodies are composed predominantly of water.

Sure, here's the revised text with corrections in spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, and paragraph organization:

The importance of that can't be overstated, you know. A lot of times, we fail to consume adequate amounts of water, and we know that makes us dehydrated, posing risks to our health. But recording your water intake is a powerful way to realize how much or how little you're consuming. I don't think there's a single function in your body that doesn't require water on a cellular level—not digestion, temperature control, cellular function, cellular division, and so many more. But again, I'll go into water in greater depth in another episode because I have a protocol I've just started, and I'm noticing significant changes in my water intake with hydrogen water, which I'm currently consuming in large amounts.

Again, just have a look, do yourself a favor, and track your wellness. Track what you put into your body. Track your diet regime. Track your exercise and movement routines. Track your restfulness, mindfulness, and meditation potential. Monitor the feedback your body gives you. I've got to say, I had to do a lot of work with gut health, and our understanding of our microbiome is something we hear about all the time now. But when I was diagnosed, no one said that diet would affect my health.

I had developed a stage where everything was showing on my face. So if I ate the wrong thing, I'd get a rash. Over time, I noticed different foods were causing rashes on different parts of my body. Some of these were foods I thought were health-beneficial, like garlic. Garlic gave me a rash on my chin. Sugar was giving me a rash around my mouth. And tomatoes were giving me a rash on my eyebrow. Sometimes, you need to remove foods. In fact, removing certain foods is probably more likely.

As we go forward, I'll be talking about the diets I looked into and the foods we removed to reduce inflammation. But in summary, I think it's really important for you to decide the easiest and most productive way to record your lifestyle. Set yourself a timeframe that works for you. I'd say anywhere from two to four weeks will give you a good insight into your habits.

We looked at stress, exercise or movement, sleep or rest, and diet or food intake as the four major pillars and immediate lifestyle patterns for us to observe and record. This helps us get a good picture of the environment we live in and move through, creating a baseline to start with so we can instigate positive changes to support the body's systems, all done in baby steps.

Not too much, too fast when it comes to change. Each person's capacity is different, and this diary will give us that baseline to start with. Alright, guys, I'm going to finish here. Good luck, have fun with your diaries, and until next time on the Inflammation Superhighway, enjoy the ride