Transcription
Hey, what's up, guys? Dr. Kyle Loveless here. Today, I want to dive into what else you can do if you have psoriasis. What else can you do other than just diet and supplements? Everybody wants to talk about diet and supplements. I love those things; they're great, but there's so much more you can do and that you really should be doing. In the course we've created, I'm actually walking through all these different details of other stuff you need to do—not just the eating plans. Although the eating plans and supplements are great, there are other things you can do.
So, I'm going to go through three things today. Stay tuned to the end; that's my favorite one. The reason this is so important is, let's first, before I dive into what to do, talk about what psoriasis is. I don't mean to go in-depth; I have a video on what psoriasis is. Actually, go back and watch that. But ultimately, psoriasis is an immune response in our body where our bodies create an overgrowth of skin. So, it's ultimately this inflammatory immune response.
The first question we want to ask ourselves when we have something like psoriasis—and this goes for any health issue—is why? The medical model's approach is to see psoriasis and say, "Okay, there's inflammation. How do we get rid of inflammation?" That's the question they ask. The questions you ask will lead you to the results you get. So, how do you get rid of inflammation? Well, that's easy: you take a steroid or some sort of immune suppressant to lower the inflammatory response. Many times, that can actually be effective for the symptom, right? The skin issue might go away or might be less inflamed. But is the human being inside healthier? The answer is absolutely not. In fact, they're more unhealthy when they do that because they're not just blocking the immune response or that skin response; they're blocking the immune system, and the immune system is what we need to be healthy. It's a huge part of our adaptability to our environment—not just cancer, but viruses and all these other things.
So, I'm not a big fan of that. What I want to get at is understanding psoriasis as an inflammatory response. Instead of saying, "How do I get rid of inflammation?" what if we said, "Why is our body creating a chronic inflammatory response, causing it to actually go after our own individual cells, leading to this psoriasis plaque?" If you say, "How or why is that happening?" and you figure out that answer, then we can start to address that, and eventually, the skin problem just goes away.
So, we're not focused on the psoriasis; we're focused on why our body is creating this response. The number one reason why this happens for most people is stress. And I'm not just saying emotional stress; it's physical stress—sitting at a desk all day long, car accidents, injuries, falls, over-exercising, believe it or not, can actually be a physical stress. Chronic marathon running, things like that, can be stressful for a lot of people. Then there's emotional or chemical stress—things in our environment, the cleaning products we breathe, the stuff we put on our skin, and the foods we eat. These are all chemical stresses in the body. And then, obviously, there's emotional stress, and we'll talk about that some here too.
The thing is, our body doesn't know the difference. When we're stressed—whether it's physical, chemical, or emotional—our body has the same response. So, remember this: thoughts, toxins, and traumas are the reasons psoriasis exists. Thoughts, toxins, and traumas create stress, which creates this inflammatory response. If the body is not recovering from those stressors, it'll get to a point where it creates either an autoimmune response or some sort of chronic inflammatory response.
Now, does that mean you get rid of all stress in your life? Get rid of all chemicals? Get rid of all emotional problems? Get rid of all physical stress? Not if you want to be alive, because that wouldn't work, right? Gravity is a stress. We need a certain amount of stress in our body to be alive. So, stress is a good thing. However, the inability to handle stress is not a good thing. I say focus on what you can control and let God take care of the rest. Meaning, focus on what you can control. If you can control it, do it. If it's something you can't control, decide to not focus on it.
Now, let's talk about the three things. Now that we understand psoriasis, and now that you understand that it's an immune response happening, and you're asking, "Why is this happening in my body?" it goes back to stress. Now we can say, "Okay, what can we do in our lifestyle to reduce the amount of stress on our body?" Because we can control these things. And then, how do we use our mindset to not focus as much on the stuff we can't control? This is the hardest one, so I'm going to start with that one, actually: the emotional stress.
I'm going to give you some tips here, but I also want to say that emotional stress, at the end of the day, goes back to our body's ability to handle that stress, which is our perception of it. When I say that, I mean: how are you seeing life? How are you seeing these things that we call stressors? Let's go extreme: loss of a child. That's going to be an emotional stress on anybody. It's going to be hard on anybody. They've shown that women who have lost a child or have gone through a really bad divorce have a 1500 times greater chance of having breast cancer. So, we know that emotional stress plays a role.
But you've all seen the scenario where you have two people who seemingly are having this horrible life around them, but one is loving life and happy, and the other is miserable. So, it's really the perception of how we see it. I always use this little skit when I go out in the community and teach at different corporations and do different workshops. I have people close their eyes and think of a puppy. So, do this: go ahead and think of a puppy. Think of this really cute puppy. In the room, I say, "Okay, open your eyes." I ask them which puppy they're thinking about. You have schnauzers, great danes, labs—the most common one, obviously. Most of us are thinking, "Ah, this cute little cuddly puppy. I just want to hang out with it. It's going to be amazing. It's awesome."
But then I say, inevitably, in a room this size—and it's funny enough, it could be five people—there's always someone in here who's thinking, "That stupid dog! He's going to pee on my shoes. He's going to tear up my furniture. The kids aren't taking him out to walk him." So, one person is thinking about this puppy and saying, "Oh man, I love life. This is amazing. I just want to hang out with this puppy," in a good, parasympathetic, relaxed response, while the other person is saying, "This stresses me out. That makes me stressed out to think about the puppy."
When we go into an emotional stress like that, or anything more extreme, our heart rate goes up, our blood pressure goes up, our cholesterol goes up, our immune system is suppressed, our digestion slows down, our thyroid levels actually come down, and our adrenals start pumping more. All those things—high cholesterol—seem like bad things, but they're how we survive life. But when we get stuck in that stress response, which, if you're having an autoimmune disease, you're stuck in that stress response, then those things stay at those levels or still have that negative impact.
The key to getting healthy and handling these stressors is to get your body back into homeostasis, or balance, which is out of the stress response, out of the sympathetic response, and back into a relaxed state where digestion can occur, sleep can happen, and the immune system is strong. I think intuitively we all know that kind of happens, and we know we're stuck there.
So, emotional stress is number one: perception. I'm going to challenge you to start to think about when you're going through an emotional stress in the moment, or maybe it's a chronic emotional stress. Take a step back, look at it, and say, "Okay, is this really as big as I'm making it, or could I do a better job at looking at this differently?" What I like to do is say, "At the end of the day, if this doesn't change, is the world over?" Most of the time, the answer is no. You can kind of shift your perception.
Again, guys, I'm a guy, so emotional stress may not be my strength or my forte, but I have learned some tricks over the years. After owning multiple clinics, after being married, after having three kids, and after dealing with psoriasis for over 30 years, along with other health issues—like having irritable bowel syndrome and horrible acne as a kid, which you know can be painful if you've had that and how hard it is growing up—I can say I've been through a lot of stressors as well. I've learned that if I can just shift how I look at it, it does make a big difference.
If you have acne on your face and you're trying to go on a date, it's uncomfortable. So, I either don't go on the date, or I have to shift my perception. Maybe they can relate to that; I don't know. But that's an emotional thing.
The other thing I want to say is that to help with emotional stress, you need energy. If you're tired, emotional stress is so much harder to handle. Helping with your energy means you're getting enough sleep at night. Make sure you're getting anywhere from seven to eight hours of sleep. For women, you need more like nine hours of sleep because you have cyclical hormones, and it takes more energy. If you're tired, emotional stress is hard to handle.
So, getting enough sleep is number one. If you're not sleeping without medications, connect with us. We'll help you get to where you can sleep without medications. That's a hormone or other health issue there.
Looking at that, you have to get enough sleep; you have to have energy. If you're still fatigued all the time, we need to figure out what's draining your energy. But at the same time, make sure that you're getting to a place where you have energy to handle stress. That's the best way I can put it.
Maybe it's cutting some things out of your life to have better energy. Maybe it's taking 30 minutes a day to just breathe and relax. Deep breathing is one of the techniques that I've always taught. It's called four-seven-eight breathing. You know, taking 30 minutes out of your day and just practicing things like breathing in for four seconds, holding it for seven seconds, and breathing out for eight seconds. That puts your body into a parasympathetic response.
There are a lot of techniques, like going out and grounding to get energy—just walking around barefoot. There are things like naps. Take a 20-minute nap every day if you find you're tired. The funniest thing about naps is that every single person I've ever told to take a nap—well, not every single one, but the majority—say, "I don't have time. I can't. I'm too busy." I talk them into it, and they find the time. A hundred percent of them are happy that they did.
If your job is stressing you out to the point where you're just stressed all the time and it's draining your energy, find another job. I can say that because I've told enough people to find another job for their health, and the people that have are all happy that they did. I've never had anybody come back and say, "This ruined my life."
So, emotional stress is big, guys. I can tell you to eat right, exercise, and do all the right stuff and take the right supplements, but if you're stressed out emotionally, it's going to counteract those things. Remember, the fight-or-flight response is not a digestion response. You could eat healthy food, but it's not digesting very well if you're stressed.
Let's see what else here. Laughter! If you're someone who feels like you have a lot of emotional stress, the best counteraction for emotional stress is smiling and laughing. They actually have studies on this. It's pretty cool that no matter how angry or stressed you are, if you smile—and especially if you laugh—it will release the same biochemical reactions in your body as if you were actually happy, which is pretty cool. That calms your body and puts it into a parasympathetic, relaxed response.
So, those are some of the tips I have for emotional health. There's a lot of them, obviously. If you have something that just can't get out of your mind, finding the right people to talk to in terms of counseling can be very effective. I'm not a big fan of counseling where all you do is talk about your problems. Maybe having action steps with those problems is better. But going in and saying, "Okay, these are things I do need to talk about. I do need to bring them out into the world," because these emotional things can play a big issue.
If you have relationship stuff, maybe get coaching for marriage. Maybe get coaching with your kids if they're the ones stressing you out. Try to find active things you can do so at least you feel like you have a little bit more control. I think emotional stress actually comes from our expectations not being met and us being tired of that same scenario. So, if our kids are stressing us out, let's find an action plan that can get us moving in the right direction so we at least have a little hope in that direction.
Yeah, so that's some emotional stuff. I could go on all day about different emotional techniques. These are the ones that I think are best. Finally, I guess this is the final one—sorry, with emotional stress—is having a rock or a source that you can go to, that you're always anchored at. For me, it's God. You go to a place where, no matter what happens, you at least have this, and this isn't going anywhere. It's a grounding point.
When you have a grounding point, it's really easy to get emotionally stressed out and depressed. If you feel yourself moving into that place, go back to your source and your rock. That's going to hold you there, and I think that's a very valuable thing. Any addiction ultimately leads you to a place to try to help with addiction. They always help you find that source, that rock that you have, and it's such an effective process.
The second thing here is chemical stress. Now, this is a big one: removing chemicals in your environment. You know, that sounds like a pretty hard thing. If I walk out the door, I'm going to breathe aluminum because there's aluminum in the air. To remove chemicals from my environment, I pretty much have to live in a bubble, and then I'll die because of CO2 from my breath.
But the point is, you don't have to live in a bubble. You don't have to be really stressed out about chemicals. Knowing that there are things you can control and focusing on those is what I'm going to recommend when I talk about detoxing your environment.
So, getting rid of chemicals in your environment means looking at your cleaning products. Go natural. Look at your dishwashing soap, look at your laundry detergents—look at those things. You can go natural. When you talk about products we put on our skin, I think the latest studies have shown that women put over 500 different chemicals on their skin by nine o'clock. That's from makeup to lotions to hair products to all these different things that have so many different chemicals.
These are estrogen—what they call xenoestrogens—where they actually act like estrogen in the body. They bind to estrogen receptors and cause a lot of health issues, cancer being one of them—breast and cervical cancer. And it's not just women; it's men too. All these products have actually led to men having the fastest-growing cancer in men, which is breast cancer.
So, yeah, removing chemicals from the products you put on your skin. Also, think about the products in your food. I'm not going to go into nutrition right now, but go back to the nutrition videos I've shot on a non-inflammatory diet and eat the foods that I talk about. These are going to be your less chemical-filled foods.
Medications are probably the biggest chemical—actually, not probably; it is the biggest chemical in America right now that people have issues with. Watch this: we're five percent of the world's population in America, and we take 75 to 80 percent of the world's medications. Let me just say that again: we're five percent of the world's population, and we take 75 to 80 percent of the world's medications. If those were the answer to our health— I know I'm probably speaking to the choir if you're watching this video—but if those were the answer to our health, we'd be the healthiest country in the world. But we're not; we're the sickest country in the industrialized world.
We've been that way since 2004. Among industrialized countries, we're dead last. We're the sickest country. We have the dead last infant mortality rate. I mean, just in terms of longevity, people say, "Yeah, we're living longer." No, we're actually not living longer; that's going backwards too now.
What I'm getting at is that these chemicals, like medications—any unnecessary medications—right? Ibuprofen, which the FDA came out not too long ago and said that within a month of taking ibuprofen, you have a 40 percent increased chance of having a heart attack. Within the month that you take it, Tylenol is the number one cause of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. These are things we're giving our kids.
Omeprazole—now, I'm not saying that's unnecessary. If you have acid reflux, you have to do something. But let's go natural. There are plenty of things you can do naturally. Go back again to the videos on acid reflux I've shot; they'll teach you how to do it naturally. But omeprazole—people are taking this for years. This stuff is destroying the gut, leading to diabetes. Statin medications? A hundred percent unnecessary. Do the research on cholesterol and how important it is for your body. Many of the patients I have with psoriasis who come in get off their statin medications, and their skin problems go away.
Because it has such a negative impact on our health, reducing the amount of chemicals in terms of medications and only going to them when it's an absolute emergency—that's what health care—I'm sorry, that should be what health care is. It should be one percent of health care; it should be the emergency care, not health care, because it's not getting you healthy. It's blocking your body's ability to adapt.
The way a medication works—and I'll leave this subject—is that it either blocks, inhibits, or excites a pathway in your body, leading to an altered physiology. Medications alter your physiology to get an outcome on blood work or a symptom. Sometimes that saves your life. If you're having a heart attack and it finds a way to stop the heart attack, great. But if you're living on it, it's going to make you sick.
So, that's removing chemicals. There are a lot of chemicals, guys. In the course, I talk about water filtration systems, air filtration systems, mold, biotoxins, heavy metals—all that stuff. It's a little too much for just this video today, but if you want to really dive into all that stuff and all the other things I'm going to be teaching, make sure you get the online course. It's going to be awesome; it's incredible. Watch the video on the landing page; it walks you through everything you're going to get there.
Then, the next one—the final one I'm going to give you today—is to move all day long. I said this is my favorite one because I do believe it's one of the most effective things you can do for your health. They've done studies on this in terms of stress and adaptogens. Have you ever heard of adaptogens? These are things that help your body handle stress; they help you adapt to your environment. They have herbs like ashwagandha, rhodiola, and cordyceps. Those are adaptogenic herbs, and there's various research showing they can be very effective.
But you also have something called proprioceptive movement. What does that mean? It means this: 90 percent of the stimulation to your brain comes from your spine moving. So, when your joints are moving proprioceptively through a full range of motion, it actually stimulates and calms our nervous system into a more relaxed state. It feeds nutrients and minerals to the brain and gives your nervous system a place to balance.
You might think, "Well, that's easy; I move all day long." But think about it: most of us sit all day long. We wake up in the morning, we sit at the breakfast table, we drink a cup of coffee to dehydrate us and get us going, then we get in our car. We maybe have another cup of coffee to dehydrate us more, and then we're sitting in our car all the way to work. We get to work and sit at a computer all day long. Maybe we grab a cup of water and get up for lunch or something, but we're sitting for 30, 40, 45 minutes to an hour at a time all day long. Then we come home, sit at the dinner table, eat our dinner, sit on the couch, and then go to sleep. We're really moving very, very little, and we're meant to be moving.
So, one of the best things you can do—and I really do think this is the best thing you can do—is find a way to move all day long. We've all done this: you sit at a computer, you get up 30 minutes to an hour later, and you're exhausted. We've all done the thing where you walk around the block, and you're like, "Man, why don't I do this more often? I have so much more energy!"
I use these as a very good tool. Just saw them here when I shot this video—these air cushions; they call them wobble cushions. You can get them for like $14 or $15 on Amazon. These are something that you actually sit on while you work. So, if you have to sit for your job, it's very simple: if you sit for your job, sit on the wobble cushion and move while you type. Get the movement going. If your job requires computer work, get a desk that goes up and down so you can move throughout that time.
Take time to stretch, go through a full range of motion with your body, do muscle stretches, and get blood flow going into your system. Movement really is the key to life. I think, guys, if you add in these emotional tactics—and when I say add in the emotional tactics, they're not like, "Okay, tomorrow I'm going to do emotional tactics." They're more of a lifelong journey that you continue to learn from.
Perception is something you build in life; it's not something you just do. But it starts with awareness, and then you start implementing and trying to change your perception. Give yourself grace as you go through that process, and eventually, your perception just starts to shift. It's not something you have to think about all the time.
Then you add that in with emotional techniques, you add in removing chemicals from your environment as much as you can, and you take in movement. You start moving all day long. Guys, most people do those things, and you're going to see incredible health changes. For many of you, psoriasis is going to disappear because your stress is going to come way down.
You do all that, then you take in eating—you start eating healthy, you add in good sleep, you add in good supplements and herbs to help your body handle stress, and you add in things like chiropractic care, acupuncture, and infrared saunas. I know the next comment I'm going to get is, "I can't afford all those things."
Do what you can afford. The worst comment ever is, "Only the rich people can do that." That's not true at all. I was in college, and I ate healthy. I ate organic; I ate clean. You just change what you eat. You eat burger meat and some vegetables, and you find the cheapest stuff to do. I can move; you don't need money to do that. You don't need money to get rid of chemicals; they're not that much more expensive, or many times not more expensive.
I used to clean my house with vinegar and lemon essential oils most of the time—mostly vinegar because I didn't like buying essential oils all the time. So, it's not just a financial thing. Chiropractic care? Yeah, there's a cost to that, so maybe you don't get to do it if it's not something that meets your budget. But there are a lot of things you can do no matter what your budget is.
I recommend just start. Just start with the emotional techniques if you have to. Don't put off that "Oh, I can't afford this" kind of jargon because that's the wrong perception I've had to have in life.
Cool! I hope you guys got a lot out of this video. If you haven't gotten the online course yet, get that. We're still in that pre-sale mode, I think, until July 6th, and then we're going to launch it at full force. It's going to be amazing. I'm excited to see the testimonials that come from it. So, jump on that, and yeah, thanks for watching. We'll talk to you guys soon!