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{Please welcome my good friend Lydia to the site today! Lydia is a Nutritional Therapist and the author of the Divine Health from the Inside Out site. If you’ve followed my site for any amount of time, you know that Lydia is not only a close friend, but she is also my NTP and has been helping me make great progress on my healing journey. She is an INCREDIBLE woman who really knows her stuff when it comes to health, especially the role minerals play in our bodies. Please give her a warm welcome to the site and stop by Divine Health and say hello!.}

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by Lydia Shatney
Divine Health from the Inside Out

Low energy is so prevalent today that it has simply been accepted as just another part of life and aging. It may be common, but it doesn’t make it normal and you shouldn’t settle for low energy. Your body was designed to feel good and have adequate energy.

Maybe you are someone who has lived with low energy so long you are frustrated that nothing you do or try helps to improve your energy.

Perhaps you get upset whenever someone suggests things you can do to help (that don’t work for you), or that it’s all in your head and you’re just lazy. Worst.Feeling.Ever.

Maybe you are someone who keeps pushing yourself too hard and you aren’t even aware of just how exhausted you really are. However, if you slow down long enough you feel the exhaustion set in so you push yourself again to avoid that feeling. You’ve become an adrenaline junkie.

No one seems to recognize just how serious the potential consequences of fatigue really are. Not to mention, long term fatigue that is never addressed. The longer you are lacking in energy the more depleted your body becomes of the energy it needs to maintain its organs and tissues. And that’s when things really start to go downhill.

Diet Alone Will Not Fix Your Low Energy

There a bazillion diets under the sun, so it is clear people are still searching for a diet plan that works to make them feel good. However, while diet alone is key in supporting your overall health, it is not enough to deal with serious underlying imbalances. Improving your diet generally will not give you long lasting increases in energy.

Why?

Diet is too random an approach to truly resolve your bodies mineral imbalances.

For one thing it would take a massive concerted effort to measure and determine what and how many minerals you were getting in every meal you ate. Even if you could, you would not know the exact mineral content of your food without sending it to be tested in a lab. You also do not know what minerals your body needs and doesn’t need to blast out of your own biochemical rut.

What you really need are specific insights from your body to truly determine why YOUR energy is low.

Fixing YOUR unique biochemistry, as opposed to trying broad spectrum strategies, will go a long way into getting you real results, namely increased energy and vitality that enhances your entire health.

The best way I know how to determine what is going on in your body as opposed to anyone else’s, is through a simple non-invasive test called Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis.

In this video, Jessica discusses some of her experiences with HTMA and she is also going to be doing more videos as she gets further into her journey. Also, don’t forget to check out her HTMA blog posts:

But, before I cover that, let me share more about why our energy diminishes to begin with.

Mineral Loss: Why Our Energy Diminishes

When stress dominates our body loses essential minerals such as calcium and magnesium. Stress will cause an increase in adrenal output of mineral corticoids. Stimulation of the adrenal glands tends to increase the secretion of hormones that cause a loss of minerals.

Mineralocorticoids are a class of steroid hormones characterized by their influence on salt and water balances, which also has a relationship with calcium. The primary mineralocorticoid is aldosterone.

When the stress response is ongoing, other minerals can actually build up in the body, such as potassium, sodium and phosphorous. This is due to a change in intestinal absorption (since digestion takes a back seat when we are in fight-or-flight mode) and re-absorption by the kidneys of these elements. This is how some types of high blood pressure can flare up, due to stress and the increase of sodium with a corresponding loss of calcium and magnesium.

Prolonged stress can result in severe mineral deficiencies.

Stress also changes your metabolism and causes the body to retain minerals that are needed to stimulate, while at the same time lose nutrients/minerals needed to help calm the body. Eventually, if the stress continues the body will slowly lose it’s ability to adequately store sedative minerals. One such mineral would be magnesium.

Magnesium is particularly sensitive to stress. Emotional stress and alcohol consumption are the two main ways people in this culture lose magnesium. Sugary diets are another big factor for magnesium loss. Excessive exercise, pregnancy, breast feeding, medication, frequent infections also deplete magnesium. The problem is the more magnesium that is depleted the less able one is to deal with stress since magnesium is a natural sedative. The edgier you are the more likely it is you are depleted in magnesium.

Chromium is another mineral that is affected due to stress, either physiological or emotional. Excess sugar in the diet can increase the need for chromium at the same time as create a greater stress on the body, creating a vicious cycle. It is not uncommon for people to develop blood sugar problems following a stressful or traumatic event.

Why does this happen?

Chromium works with insulin, helping the cells to absorb and use glucose. Chromium deficiency has been known to produce increased insulin requirements. So, it’s a vicious cycle — stress depletes chromium, the cells can’t get the glucose they need so more insulin is required, thereby increasing the blood sugar. In order to store insulin plenty of zinc is required as well.

Stress also depletes zinc status. Under-active adrenal glands (also due to stress) can create a relative deficiency of zinc (as zinc is found in the adrenal glands). So, another vicious cycle ensues. Stress depletes zinc, the adrenals need zinc and are bombarded by stress, making them unable to function in full because they are lacking a key nutrient imperative to their optimal function.

So, as you can see finding your own mineral imbalance is the ticket here – because no one has the same thing going on deep inside their organs, tissues, glands and cells.

No one loses the same balance of minerals or starts with the same mineral balance in life, nor do they even consume the same minerals or get exposed to toxic metals in the same quantity.

How To Fix Low Energy

Your body relies on two glands to produce its energy: the adrenal glands and the thyroid gland.

The body needs the right balance of certain minerals to produce the maximum amount of energy. When these minerals are out of balance (and let me tell you, everyone alive has some level of mineral imbalance) these two glands will not function at peak efficiency.

For example, there are four main macro-minerals in the body that regulate the thyroid and adrenals: calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium.

These are the main regulatory minerals in the body — if they are all at the normal levels they should be at you will enjoy maximum amounts of energy. Unfortunately, every hair analysis I’ve seen these macro-minerals are way out of balance.

A hair tissue sample is so helpful to give direction as to what minerals you need and what minerals you don’t need. The minerals present in your hair reflect the mineral pattern in your body tissues. This test can be used to determine the different levels of the major minerals in your body. The very minerals that regulate your energy glands as well as the chemical processes that RELEASE the energy from the foods you eat.

Hair testing also can determine how your adrenal glands are functioning and what state of fatigue your body may be in. You can also determine how under-active or over-active each gland is and determine how that plays into your current energy level as well.

Without this test you will just be guessing at what supplements you really need to take and even what dietary template is right for you.

A hair test helps to create a more organized approach for an individual to correct their fatigue.

Take this example: You could assume that you need zinc because of a certain symptom based on something you read online, but the problem is that zinc has a direct impact on other minerals in the body. Zinc lowers sodium, cadmium, and copper, and raises potassium. When taken by itself, without knowing what other minerals are doing in the body, you can cause serious health problems.

Blind supplementation of any mineral long term can really mess up your biochemistry. It’s best to get clear direction on what your body needs and save long term frustration, money and making your health worse by simply getting tested. If you are ready for that step, click the image below to get started!

But, before you go…..Are you a mom that has struggled with low energy/fatigue and have been trying to recover? Perhaps you also have young kids with health issues that you are trying to work on as well? If that is you, consider joining my newsletter below.

Supporting the Thyroid & Adrenals Through Herbs

When it comes to supporting the adrenals and thyroid (because they are very closely linked), caffeine may not be your best friend. While those with sluggish adrenal glands tend to feel run down and in need of a regular pick-me-up (like coffee and other caffeinated beverages), in the long run, caffeine can do more harm than good while you are healing. I go into the “whys” around caffeine and your adrenals in this detailed post here. In addition to the caffeine, there are other constituents, molds, and mycotoxins that can show up in coffee that some people find they react to.

When I was diagnosed with autoimmune disease and adrenal fatigue, one of the first things that had to go was coffee. To be honest, I never drank coffee because of the caffeine. I drank coffee for the taste and aroma, as well as the emotional experience I felt to my morning cup of joe. For me, it was a ritual that I looked forward to every day (and sometimes multiple times a day). Whether I was brewing it at home or going to my local coffee shops, the experience was one that I clung to tightly.

But, when I was faced with new health struggles, I knew I had to do whatever I could to support my body and give it the tools it needed to heal. Giving up coffee and caffeine was one step in this direction.

And it sucked.

I turned to the coffee substitutes on the market in a desperate attempt to recreate the ritual I had grown so fond of, but nothing ever tasted the way I wanted it to. Nothing ever gave me that same experience that my cup of “real” coffee did. I knew there had to be something better, but I simply could not find it on my health food store’s shelves.

Necessity is the mother of invention so that is why I created my own coffee substitutes. They were made with organic, sustainably harvested herbs with zero grains, zero gluten, and zero caffeine. Just herbs. Herbs that not only tasted delicious but supported my body’s function, like liver detox, bile production, digestion, etc. In my mind, if I can get something to not only taste amazing but do amazing things for my body, then it’s a no brainer!

I sold these pre-made blends on Etsy for awhile and the demand was more than I could keep up with. People literally LOVED these blends and were stunned at how much like coffee they actually tasted. Customers who had been dealing with a variety of chronic illnesses had given up coffee to heal their bodies, but like me were deeply missing their morning cup of joe ritual.

After careful consideration and work with some highly experienced advisors, I decided to stop selling the pre-made blends and instead share my proprietary recipes in the form of an eBook. That way I could arm people with the knowledge and recipes they needed to make their own caffeine-free, gluten-free, grain-free blends in the comfort of their own home. 

That is why I created the best-selling DIY Herbal Coffees eBook: A Complete Guide To Making Delicious Herbal Coffees to Support Healing & Stress Relief. Now in its second edition, this ebook features all of my proprietary herbal blend recipes to you can craft a homemade herbal cup of “coffee” at home.

In addition, you get a ton of researched information about coffee’s impact on the health of those dealing with issues like adrenal fatigue, blood sugar dysregulation, autoimmune disease, thyroid disease, and any other chronic illness.

Lastly, you get access to your own personal coffee shop. I show you how to recreate your favorite coffee shop drinks and pastries with wholesome, nourishing real food ingredients. No junk here.

This book truly is a comprehensive guide to supporting your health, reducing your stress, and bringing a little something special back into your healing journey. You can learn more and download your own copy of this revolutionary wellness guide here, or simply click on the image below.

Ultimate Healthy Living Bundle 2015 // deliciousobsessions.com

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