Functional Medicine & Natural Healing Podcast
Functional Medicine & Natural Healing Podcast
Stress Relief - Through Exposure - The Secret To Health
In this episode, we challenge the common belief that your body is fragile and explore how it’s actually built to heal and adapt — naturally and powerfully. Dive into the fascinating science of neuroplasticity and learn how stress, when faced the right way, physically rewires your brain to transform fear into strength, weakness into resilience. Discover why stress isn’t the enemy but the secret ingredient to unlocking your body’s full healing potential. If you’re ready to shift your mindset, embrace challenge, and trust your body’s incredible capacity to rebuild, this episode is for you.
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Welcome to the Functional Medicine and Natural Healing Podcast. I am Dr Houston Anderson. I have not done an episode in over 18 months. Honestly, I wasn't sure if I'd ever return to podcasting. It does take a lot of time and I don't get paid for it and my practice is always full, so I don't really have a concern about that and we don't really use our podcast for marketing. But anyway, I realize there aren't enough voices out there speaking the truth and sharing this kind of knowledge. Even more specifically, connecting dots. I feel I hope you're smarter than that, that you can not only just run a lab and see what's on the lab report, but then get a little bit deeper into what your root causes are, and so I do hope to help you guys with that.
Speaker 1:But, that being said, I'm going to make this podcast a little bit more free for all. So who knows what it's going to be today? It'll be a weird episode, but more of a doctor journal, more like diving deep into some thoughts and sometimes pushing the boundaries of what I feel is important and literally fighting against the machine of functional medicine, sometimes because I feel like everything's so overwhelming. This is going to be the source of truth, but it's so overwhelming, even in functional medicine, like these trends that hit us are unbelievable, and our next episode is going to be on parasites. But, to be clear, that parasite craze has gone way too far and there's a lot of these misbeliefs in functional medicine that I'm just going to have to expose, so to say, and everything from, you know, the doctors doing it to just the therapies that we're using that are just outdated and just not what they need to be. So I may even you know, I think one of the hard thing about podcasting is people listen to certain podcasts that they want. You know, I think one of the hard things about podcasting is people listen to certain podcasts that they want, but I may just keep repeating the same podcast over and over until everyone understands the concepts, obviously with new stories and new examples. So if you ever don't like this podcast, that's okay, you can move on.
Speaker 1:Your body is weak. That healing only happens in clinics with pills under someone else's control, and it's all a lie. Your body is the most advanced healing system on the planet Right now, as you listen to my voice, it's repairing cells, fighting infection and rebuilding tissue. It's been doing this since the day when you were born without asking any permission. It doesn't beg for help. It's not just your body that's built this way, it's your brain too. It's wired for change. It's designed to upgrade and adapt, not the other way around.
Speaker 1:When we face stress, whether it's heavy training, cold exposure or life's various challenges for the very first time your brain alarm system called the amygdala lights up. It signals danger. Stress hormones and cortisol flood your entire body. Your thinking brain or your prefrontal cortex steps back and just these survival instincts take over. It's a fight or flight reaction and it's been deeply wired into who you are, into your biology. It's just how we are, and this is where so many people get stuck. But what should happen next is, with repeated exposure to the same stress or more intense stress, your brain starts to learn. Connections form between the rational prefrontal cortex of your brain and the amygdala. They start communicating and this allows you to calm your fight or flight reflex, your fear response, and take control. Your brain builds new pathways that say hey, this is okay, we can handle this. Your memory centers reinforce that this stress isn't actually harmful.
Speaker 1:Lastly, after enough practice experiences high amounts of stress, your brain rewires for resilience. The fear circuits shrink and the pathways for calm, confident responses grow stronger and even faster. Stress hormones don't spike as much. You stay clear-headed even in tough moments.
Speaker 1:This isn't some rah-rah talk I'm giving you guys. You actually physically change. What used to be a regular road for calmness and relaxation turns into a highway. Your brain adapts and makes you stronger, smarter and more powerful. This is what we call neuroplasticity. It's the secret behind building resilience. Stress isn't your enemy, it's the forge where strength is built. It's the refiner's fire. It's what makes you better. But if you believe you're weak and you act in fear, you become fragile. Contrary, when we embrace stress, fear and opposition, your body and brain grow beyond what you thought was possible.
Speaker 1:Somewhere in your life you've been saying I just can't. What if that's all a lie? What if your body and your brain have been ready all along, Just waiting for you to do enough neurologically taxing work so they can feel safe? Making the changes. So what's the key? You must make your life harder for yourself. You have to make conscious choice to go into pain, discomfort, fear or avoidance. And when you do and fight through it, maybe you don't need a functional medicine doctor anymore. Maybe you just need God and a life of constant challenges to achieve optimal health. And that's it for today. Like I said, next episode we're gonna talk about parasites with a special guest doctor and give you guys all the details you know. So, even though it's trendy, you still do have to treat it, and while it's not as prevalent as you think it is, it is still a constant concern for us in the office. And we'll catch you next time.