Dr. Will Cole

But how do you say, like, don't have that stress, don't have that trauma?

You can't just drop that trauma.

Don't have it anymore today.

It doesn't work like that, obviously.

So these are the complex things that need to be talked about, but have to be part of the conversation as far as I'm concerned in functional medicine.

of the research is clear.

Things like shame and stress, they raise inflammation just as much as a food that doesn't love the human body back.

But bringing things in that are acts of stillness, they're supportive of the parasympathetic, like this through line of the things we're talking about is how does serotonin and dopamine, how do these neurotransmitters that are made and stored, like 95% of serotonin is made and stored in the gut.

It works upon not passing through the blood brain barrier as we understand it,

It's working on GI motility.

It's working on connection of that vagus nerve, the largest cranial nerve in the body that's responsible for that resting, digesting, that parasympathetic aspect of it.

So all the physical stuff we have to look at, but then we have to look at these more nebulous mental, emotional, spiritual things.

So things like breath work,

And meditation, for the initiated here, they understand it, but a lot of the world will say that's woo-woo, that's weird, it's why would I give it any attention?

I'm fine, I'm not that stressed.

we know that we're this hyper-scheduled culture, right?

And just because something's our everyday doesn't mean we should settle for it.

Just because something's common doesn't necessarily make it normal.

And a lot of people, they're in this hypervigilant state all the time that they're not even used to a different state.

They're not even used to something that's supportive of the parasympathetic, that resting, digesting state.