Emotional Detoxification for the Reversal of Autoimmune Disease

Introduction to Emotional Detox and Autoimmunity 0:00

Welcome back to the reverse Autoimmune Disease Summit series everybody. Of course, you're joining us for the fourth iteration of this summit series. It's the autoimmune detox. And today we're going to talk a little bit about emotional and detoxification for the reversal of autoimmune disease. And my guest is Doctor Eva Cao who is a natural health care practitioner, author and speaker. She studied natural medicine and the human mind for 23 years. She successfully recovered from chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia and reversed Hashimoto's thyroiditis for herself.

She now helps others recover their health in the same way. So I am really excited to have you. Doctor Eva to the seminar series and to talk about this subject. This is something that a lot of people don't really, they hear me talk a lot about it, but they don't hear others talk a great deal about it. So let's set the groundwork as to how autoimmune disease is even affected by your emotions. Yes. It's, a really big topic. It's still very much, the and sort of unappreciated, I would say. And definitely in this community, we need to be speaking about the small, because emotions are emotional health.

It's absolutely critical. Critical, at this critical element to, you know, anything, any health issue that we're talking about, we obviously talking about immunity here. But let's be clear on this. Our emotions connect to everything and therefore affect our health. And at every level and therefore whatever manifestation, we're going to get, whether it's autoimmunity, cancer, whatever else, essentially it's still all the same thing. We still need to be addressing our health, at the neurological level

How Emotions Drive Nervous System Stress 1:56

and emotional level and energetic level and emotions really feed into all of this because, in my sort of model of healing that I talk a lot about this triangle of healing, I just sort of break it down into obviously the biochemical, physical. And then I'm talking about the mind factors and I'm then I'm talking about the cycle energetic factors. And really within that model, everything affects everything else. It's not that we can just remove something and look at it separately. You know, conventional medicine still very much does, just this kind of separatist, crazy approach, of looking at different parts of the body in isolation is just, to me is complete madness, really.

And so and within the mind and within the, the we've got the energy field as well to consider, all of those things, all of those factors affect each other. So and emotions are such a big part of that. But when people, talk about chronic stress, for example, they really just tend to focus, this is what I'm talking, you know, listen to people on on summits and doing webinars and things like that. And a lot of people do admit and do acknowledge that chronic stress affects, health. But when they talk about that, they talk about it from the point of view of, the day to day time stress, financial stress, whatever pressures they may have, people may have on the on the kind of running around, tending to the kids or whatever.

And that obviously is part of this, and it's important to be able to manage those day to day pressures so that they don't overload our nervous system and cause a lot of issues. I do want to mention when I'm talking about nervous system and the neurological aspect is because, we're talking about the fight or flight versus the parasympathetic response. The rest digest, detoxify response, is primarily we're talking about the ventral vagus nerve here. And that links to inflammation via the cholinergic inflammatory pathway.

So, so really that's the link direct linked to autoimmunity right here. And so this is why we cannot overlook that. And obviously a lot of things can affect whether the body is stressed or not. Stressed chemicals can affected all sorts of other things. Mechanical stress you know, when the spine is misaligned that can put pressure on the nervous system. But really, let's face it, the biggest aspect of this pressure that we put on our nervous system and therefore, potentially we, contribute to this chronic inflammation and flares that people have going on with autoimmunity is through what goes on in our heads.

And a lot of it obviously, is to do with how we process emotions and how we digest emotions. So there are many, many of those connections. It's, you know, can appear complicated. But the point is that emotions definitely do connect, whether it's neurologically or even on the energy. The energy field level as well. We've got the connection there. So all of that will affect whether we are able to heal quickly and whether we able to heal at all, because if somebody, is in this either fight or flight or even freeze response all the time, which a lot of people with chronic illness are, that's that's unfortunately what happens,

Trauma, Safety, and Childhood Programming 5:47

that people are chronically activated and they're in fight or flight or a lot of people, in fact, when they really, really sick, a lot of people with chronic fatigue, chronic Lyme, those sort of things tend to actually put people in freeze response. And they could spend a lot of time, many, many years in, in freeze response and that nobody can heal in that state. We cannot heal in that state in order to heal anything at any level. Rest, digest, detoxify and heal response needs to be activated. And emotions and how we process them and what goes on in our heads make it.

It's obviously a massive contributing factor to that. And this is why we cannot be just talking about, obviously, the day to day stressors. That's that's important to to resolve. But we need we need to be talking about all the all the background stuff, all the emotional stuff that goes on for people in the back of their minds, what they've desensitized to it. They may have chronic anxieties, chronic fears that may have chronic guilt, chronic shame, all sorts of things like that pull self-worth and essentially a lot of emotional conflict inside.

There is no peace inside their heads. And what that means is that is a form of stress. And again, we back to this fight or flight or freeze response because of that. So I hope that I am making sense of how this all connects together. And really, like I said, it's really critical not to look at this superficially, but really look, more about what's going on in the background. Because if somebody's got money issues, they know they have money issues, but there could be something like they have avoidant attachment style or anxious attachment style.

Well, there is obviously any trauma will be involved and that developmental trauma is connected to that. And because they've been like that for most of their lives, they're not necessarily identifying that as an issue. But we know it's an issue from the point of view of the nervous system and therefore inflammation and therefore how the gut functions. Because the vagus nerve, the nervous system, sort of imbalance that I'm talking about here will obviously affect the gut because of the brain. Gut connection.

So this is that's why we need to backtrack. And we need to be looking like right, okay. What the what's the bigger picture here. What what are the the root causes of some of this emotional stuff that people are experiencing and may not necessarily identify as problematic, but from the point of view of healing, it's problematic. Am I making sense? Oh, yes. So this is of course, the when I talk about the punch of coaches in solving the autoimmune puzzle, you know, I'm talking about the physical, the emotional or the energetic body, the emotional body, the mental body and the spiritual body and that energetic body, the chucker system that has all of the 72,000 chakras and nerves that actually connect this physical self to the emotional layer.

So whatever your story is, is activating those 72,000, you know, channels through your nervous system, which then our enervating every aspect of your physical life. And so these channels and strokes as they're called and your Vedic medicine, you know, are are so important to understand what's going on there, because that's affecting directly your hormonal balance. It's affecting directly what your immune system is doing, what your cellular metabolism is doing, and your ability to detox. All of it is right there.

And that emotional mental layer that's connected through the energy body. So it's important, you know, we have to be able to detox that emotional and mental system if the physical plane is going to work well, and if you want access to that spiritual plane where there's just complete joy and bliss, we don't get access to that all the time. If we're toxic in this other layer that comes between. So it's it's important to make sure that we understand it goes beyond vagal nerve. It goes beyond, you know, 72,000 nerves.

So important. So yeah. And what's interesting is that most people think that when they get a physical symptom that that's the beginning of the right health issue. But of course it's not. It doesn't start at the physical level. That's that's the end game is when the physical body breaks down, is because it's, you know, things happen in our energetic field and it's, it's sort of anchored itself in the emotional and mental emotional body, and then it makes its way to the physical body. And then we've got the breakdown of the physical body.

But it's very interesting that that's not how people perceive it, because they think, okay, well, I've got this physical symptom now, so I need to stop paying attention now and let's, let's treat the physical. However, the root cause often isn't physically right now. And again, 10,000 years ago in your Vedic medicine, they said there are these, these six layers to disease development, and we only find out about a disease in our culture, the industrialized cultures, at about level four, but at levels one, two, three, you know, before that everything's very subtle.

And so there are tiny little subtle imbalances that are occurring over here

Inner Conflict, Parts Work, and Self-Worth 11:30

that if you know the language, you can pick it up like these very subtle pieces, right. Of, of like ping ping we're telling is and things going on here and then at 4 or 5 and six you now have an ICD ten diagnostic code category physical problem. You know. So it's it's absolutely, very interesting to think in terms of disease versus imbalance in any of our layers. Right? Yeah, indeed. And, you know, and that's the issue with, somewhat toxic Western culture is that, there is really no emphasis on tuning in to what your body needs or what you need at the emotional level, the spiritual level that that just we not really the way we are kind of socially engineered and, what goes on and what children, I taught them, they said that none of that is discussed of plot.

So it's no wonder that people don't really process things in this way, because they hold language that when, when the body starts to break down, go to the doctor and, you know, okay. So it's not necessarily about, you know, blaming or shaming or anything like that. It is that is the feature of the Western culture. But we do need to appreciate that that's not really how, the body works. That's not right. Right. And then that piece about blaming and shaming is very important component to bring up, because sometimes people will say, why are you telling me this is all my fault?

Then, you know, and it's like, well, we're moving outside of a fault paradigm, right? This isn't this isn't anyone's fault. It's just consequences to actions. And so whatever those actions are, right. And with the undeveloped child brain, you don't even have a prefrontal cortex fully on line till you're 26. Right. So all of the events you go through when you're a child, you're making up meanings and beliefs that go with that child brain, which is very much dominated by the primal system. Right. The amygdala, am I safe? Am I doing okay?

Am I good and my bad, you know, and all that hyper vigilant searching? Am I? Am I turning out to be a good human? Are the adults in my life keeping me safe, you know? And are they telling me I'm a good human? All of that is programed inside of us. So we we take that into adulthood like, oh, I'm good on my diet or I'm bad or right, or my body is behaving in a good way versus a bad way or. Yeah, right. Yeah. It's, you know, valid information. It's all this duality, right? Yeah, exactly. And instead of just taking all of it as data and information that the body is trying to provide, you know, and it doesn't give you an emotional kick when it's doing it, we do that for ourselves mentally, you know.

So like if you stand on the scale and you've gained 10 pounds, the scale is not shaming you. It's just giving you data. Right. So it's a blood pressure. An interesting, component of it all. And you mentioned the safety aspect and that I think that's so critical to understand because, some people are talking about trauma. We have to talk about trauma. And people still have this understanding that trauma needs to be this big boom, big bang. You know, this big T kept happening. We need to even take notice that maybe I did have some childhood trauma, but essentially it's all about the safety aspect.

It's all about how safe the child is feeling in their environment. And really it's it's from the child's perspective. It's not from that any objective perspective of anybody else, quite honestly, you're looking at it as an adult thinking, I don't think that was too big a deal does not matter, because if your child self felt that it did matter and it was a big deal, then really, if you didn't feel safe for whatever reason, that doesn't mean parents were narcissistic or psychopaths. No no no no no.

We really need to appreciate that a child can absolutely be traumatized just because their needs are not being consistently met, for instance, by a loving parents. Right? Starting a Disney movie with Ursula the sea witch or something. You know, it's like trauma having a nightmare overnight. If a child is sensitive, right, taking in information and synthesizing it, then what does that become? Right? And so that it's interesting because we as parents can't control that for our child, this isn't a matter of control.

It's it's a matter of giving your child tools to be able to unpack all of this, right, to reorganize, to be able to then come into a 26 year old and beyond adulthood and say, oh, I need to reinvestigate. That belief that I created when I was ten. Is it serving me right now? Am I really not safe right now? Right. Yes, absolutely and absolutely. As a parent, let's just face it all parents will mess up their kids. You know, no matter how hard you try to be the best person that you can be, that's all you can ever do.

You just be your best. Be your best. All right. Being filmed, being filmed and be receptive to the child's needs. Beyond that, you can't really do much else. So just like you're saying, it's not about controlling from the outside, because if you do that, you've got to create more problems. That's for sure. I think that interested should use that environment of control. Then you going to have a lot of the child is most likely going to end up with some form of control issues, which obviously is also not, you know, it's problematic.

And another trauma further down the line. Right. So so it's about doing the best you can with the tools you have, but really staying informed. And particularly if you have a, a child that is more sensitive because that is you know, I'm sure you saying that I'm seeing that most people who will come with chronic health issues that then will when looking at those psycho energetic factors and what do we find? We find that most of the time they're very sensitive individuals, aren't they? Yeah, they're very empathic and they take on a lot of stuff.

Er and so yeah, a lot of the work that I do is people's learning how to you know, set good boundaries for yourself, not about the outside world but the inside, like setting good boundaries with you. Oh I don't have to take that on. Right. This has nothing to do with another person. This is actually me and my perception about where I get my worth. I don't need to take that on. So that boundary is not what the other person is with me, you know, and making sure that I'm so engaging in self care in that way.

Because leaky boundaries leads to a leaky immune system, a leaky gut. Yes. Yes, exactly. And the more we build awareness around a perhaps

Healing Through Self-Awareness and Root Causes 18:38

what we need to focus on in terms of ourselves and where, you know, where we need to draw those lines. And there are so many different fantastic tools. I know you're a fan of the Enneagram. I'm a fan of the Enneagram. Then obviously, I do recommend that people look at the attachment adaptations, because that's very revealing. That's really important to do. And there's obviously all sorts of other tools. I like transactional analysis a lot because that, that can really give you a lot of information on what goes on inside your psyche when you have those different parts of your psyche, kind of like everything together and that family emotional conflict, and that obviously is toxic to the system.

Whenever you have that emotional conflict inside your head. And a lot of people, let's face it, they feel like this constant, push and pull inside their heads, and they don't have many moments where they can say they're truly peaceful. That's why we can. They have a problem because that's going to be toxic to the body. And I was told, you know, if you had a toxic mind in that way, it's going to be toxic to the body, right? Let's give people an example of that, because I do this in my work with my patients is, you know, everyone has a judge and has a protector and a manager and several different parts that go that make up your ego, your ego's, not just this one, one aspect of protection of the psyche.

Right. And then you have all these parts inside that, that those parts are actually protecting the ones that you don't want to even look at the weak, vulnerable, not very smart, not very pretty ones that are in behind the heart cavern. Right. And so when we when we're like, one day I'm good on my diet and one day I'm bad, it's because two parts of that ego have come out and they're at war with each other, right? And people don't realize like, how come one day I have really good coping skills for a certain aspect of life, and then the next day I don't.

So because a different part of your ego has just shown up right? And it maybe have it has a different motivation than the other one did. And that conflict is exactly what autoimmune disease is. You're at war with yourself. So I love that you brought that out because this is a really important aspect of healing those emotional styles. You have these different character styles. Yes. Because ultimately, as we we didn't say in those exact words, but it's basically what we were saying at the beginning that if you if you have that battle going on all the time and you you can't, feel peaceful because it's essentially what it's about, you need to feel peaceful.

You need to feel calm in order to heal. And if you have all of that going on, then the know you going to have this, those, you know, this background chatter all the time. And that's that's not not going to be conducive to healing. It's just not conducive to here. And that's why an antidepressant or an anti-anxiety medication doesn't work at that level, because you're not actually dealing with the parts that are in conflict with each other. When you're taking a pill. Yeah. Well, you're it's just it's just covering things up and hoping for the best.

That's exactly, exactly. Which doesn't work very well. You know, you eventually get bitten in the bed again as it comes out in a different way sideways. Right. And then what's interesting about obviously antidepressants too. You remember, I'm sure you remember the, the work of Doctor Kesh, who, did, meta analysis on antidepressants and decided that, you know, whatever it was, 70, 80% of that is no more than the placebo. Zebo I know, which is one part of you feeling like it's getting cared for, right?

It's it's one aspect of your ego inside of there that's like, oh, someone's listening to me. Someone's giving me something that's caring for me, you know? And so it's like this form of self-care that's coming from outside of you. And it's like, oh, it's kind of like Dumbo and the flying elephant with the feather, right? He can fly if he has the feather in his trunk. I don't know if you know that story. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it's really important to encourage people to be their own advocates in that respect.

And I know that when you have a lot of chronic fears, chronic anxieties, chronic guilt, chronic shame, poor self-worth, blah, blah, blah, all of those things I know that it may not feel to you like you ever could be sovereign in that respect. And you could be like, well, my best, you know, my best sort of advocate, and I'm the best judge of what I need, but we need to be going in that direction. I really that's what I want for humanity is for everybody to just be standing in their own sovereign field and saying, I'm the expert on what I need.

Hello? I'm the expert here. Right? Beautifully said. All right. Is there anything that we haven't talked about as we're signing off here that you would like to talk about when it comes to emotional detoxification? Doctor UVA, it I would like to say that, look beyond the symptoms of emotional toxicity. So if you suffer from chronic anxiety, that's not a thing in itself. It's a symptom. Okay. And there will be a root cause. There's always a root cause of what you're feeling. You are not crazy. You are not weird. You are not any of these things.

If you experiencing something, just know that there is a very good, valid reason whether it's going to go back to, childhood trauma or whether it's going to go back to social engineering or whatever other thing that obviously usually it's childhood related. There will be a good reason why you having a behavioral pattern or an emotional response that you may be experiencing at the moment. So just bear in mind that when you strip those things off and you really get to the bottom of that, you go like, oh yeah, okay, that's what it is.

And then there are perfectly good tools that can bring you out of it and can help you heal. And they, you know, neurological energetic level, emotional level. And then that's it. You don't have to be stuck in it. You don't have to be experiencing it. But do know that no matter what you are going to do at the physical, biochemical level for healing of your autoimmune situation, you may find that you will get to a certain point and you will get stuck because obviously, yes, normally people just head towards nutrition.

Got all of that right. It's not you to do that. It's fine. But if you ignore all these factors that we are talking about here,

Vagus Nerve Tools and Closing Remarks 25:38

you will not really reach your full potential in terms of healing. This. This just cannot be ignored. And it cannot be biohacking. I, I can't stand it when people say, you can biohacking. No, you can't, but you had this. You know, you have to do this work properly, right? You do need to consider this. You need to build self-awareness. You need to heal your traumas. You need to, do with your limiting beliefs. Like you said, you need to say, well, okay, is this still serving me? You know, this is a belief that I inherited from my mom or dad when I was three years old.

Is this still serving me? It's not serving you. You change it. You. You replace it with something that is serving you. Those things can be done. We can heal at this level. It's absolutely possible. And it's so we don't have to be stuck in that. You don't feel you don't have to be imprisoned by it and you definitely don't have it holding your health hostage because that's what's going to happen if you completely ignore it and just try and chase around after the gods symptoms and whatever, you know, like people just go round and round in circles possible.

And this and that and the other a lot of the time is because those are really important root causes. And this, fundamental critical elements that we're talking about here that haven't been addressed. So then unless you address them, you find that suddenly, wow, you can tolerate more foods. Suddenly you're not that sensitive to things. Suddenly, you know, supplements that you've been taking and spending a lot of money on. Suddenly they're working. So much better for you. So coping strategy. Oh, right.

The coping strategy and the resilience of your emotional and energetic being as it grows, so does your physical. They go together. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. As we like that. That's beautifully kind of like circle back to the beginning when we said you cannot separate those things. You just come. Right. Yeah. All right. Thank you so much for spending this time sharing even a fraction of your wisdom with us. And I know we have a, Vegas 110 guide. That is your, free gift for our viewers that will have attached to this talk.

Yes, yes. Yeah, I'm happy to share that. Like I said, there's a lot more to it, but I find that this just kind of focuses people's attention. And at least they can the feel like they've got some tools and they can start somewhere. So it's a good starting point. It's obviously not the ultimate, you know, point of sale or anything like that, but it's a good, really, really good starting point. And if you make yourself a little bit more neurologically resilient for doing vagus nerve work, then that really builds a good place on for maybe doing and expanding, for more trauma healing, more emotional work of work, whatever else you may decide to do.

So I do recommend, trying some of the strategies that I'm sharing in there. And yeah, it's been a pleasure to to share. Thank you. Beautiful. All right, everybody, until next time. Be well.