Notes from Dr Libby Weaver's Talk on Health

Auckland New Zealand, 3rd November 2012

A friend lent a book to me after a discussion on Endometriosis. It was called Accidentally Overweight, and I found it a fastinating read and I learnt a lot about how the body operates. I had an opportunity to listen to the Author at a health expo, here are some summary notes on what she talked about that day.

Some quick interesting facts about how amazing your body is:
Every 2 days: we regenerate new eye cells
Every month: new skin
Every 3 months: we completely replace and rebuild our blood supply
Every 10 years: we rebuild and remodel our bones

The Autonomic Nervous System

A little bit on looking after our 'nerves' and therefore our hormones and stress levels.

Automatic Nervous system  -(Every wonderful thing your body does automatically: Heart Beats, healing cuts, digesting food etc)
Somatic Nervous System - (voluntary muscle movements) 

Sympathetic Nervous System:

Is something we want to be very aware of. This is stress response system. It is responsible for the well known 'flight or fight' response which causes adrenaline to be released. To get adrenaline we use our glucose supplies or our fat supplies. In quick urgent situations it is easiest for the body to accesses the glucose levels. This explains why a diet high in sugar can cause problems. Refined sugars (and caffeine) initiate adrenaline responses in the body and therefore kicks in the sympathetic nervous systems. 

This also helps to explain why some people struggle to lose weight if they are under a lot of stress, the glucose gets used up before the fat because quick urgent fuel is needed, and that comes from glucose before fat stores.

Para-synthetic Nervous system:

Takes care of 'rest and digest'. This system we need to nourish as it relaxes us.

This is the system we need to access when we make decisions and to reduce stress. 

Deep diaphragmatic breathing is superb for this. Mindful thinking/being in the 'now', yoga and meditation all nourish this part of our central nervous system.

Did you know:

Running and high energy performance exercise initiates sympathetic nervous system.

Yoga type exercises initiates the parasynthetic nervous system.  

The Liver

This is sych an important organ, and where I plan to focus my energies on healing (as well as digestion).

In my (probable) case with estrogen dominance (aso applies to choloestrol) the liver is responsable for eliminating excess. The estrogen (or cholestrol) can pass through stage one of processing/detoxing but if any of the 5 pathways in stage 2 are 'blocked' then the estogen/cholestrol cannot coninue on it's pathway/excretion out of the body.

Excess estrogen can lead to estrogen dominance. Read more about what this means for our health  here.

Image taken from Accidentally Overweight, by Dr Libby Weaver.

Thyroid

Under active thyroid is another bid culprit to ill health. Some problem areas that can lead to an under-active thyroid are lack of selenium, or iodine, or weakened adrenals, or excess estrogen (possibly my main issue). It is important to know which area led you into an under active thyroid as this will be the area to get you out of this mode again. i.e. I'm probably not going to achieve a hell of a lot eating lots of Brazil nuts for selenium if my issue is estrogen dominance, not a deficiency in selenium. Sorry folks I don't know how to find out which area you may be deficient in, best to find a health practitioner for that. Dr. Libby did report that occasionally estrogen dominance and adrenal fatigue can occur together- so she would treat these together.

Alkalinity

According to Dr Weaver an alkanised diet is best for optimum health. Eat lots of greens to achieve alkalinity, and drink lemon water which is very alkinising in your body.

As humans we 'live, move, eat acid' Everytime we move our muscles produce lacti acid - calcium is realsed from our bones to counter attack this - which if we are not careful can weaken bones.

Emotions

Lastly she talked about emotions. She discussed how as humans we are intelligent and educated beings, but we will still go to the cupboard and inhale CRAP even though we know it is not great for us. We know the ins and outs of eating healthy - but we still don't do it at times. She talked about finding ways to become more aware of emotions and how they can control us, and our eating. How we chose to see the world constantly reinforces our level of health. " You see the world how you are not how it is".

At the end of the day other peoples meanness, rejection etc is NOT ABOUT YOU. Hard to learn, but true and important. I didn't ever think I had emotional eating issse (I have rarely been overweight) but after getting rid of sweets in my house I soon noticed how often I stood at the pantry looking for happiness when I was a bit down or upset!

I highly recommend Dr. Libby Weavers book 'Accidentally Overweight'. It is more a book on optimal health, that will lead to weight loss, and a worthwhile read for anyone concerned about their health.