Stress and immune health– How are these related? What can you do to lessen the impact that stress has on your immune health and your immune system? Learn all about how stress and your immune system are impacted and what you can do about it. Plus some great tips on reading and analyzing your lab results when you have an autoimmune disorder.
As a former certified nursing assistant of six years, Sydney went from working in the ER, ICU, and Med-Surg to starting her own virtual health clinic, Balance Health Now. After dealing with her own health challenges, and hearing countless times, “everything is normal” she realized there was a better way to approach chronic health conditions.
Now as a certified Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner and Certified Bloodwood Specialist she helps people with unresolved chronic health complaints use those so-called “normal” labs as a personal road map to regain health and vitality.
Sydney is the host of the podcast, Balance Health Now
Think of her as a health detective finding the underlying root causes of what’s going on within your body. No longer is she willing to accept there is nothing wrong with you, your fine. She is here to advocate for you and your well-being.
Sydney’s website: http://balancehealthnow.com
Her instagram: https://instagram.com/balancehealthnow
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1274175526859581– Self Care Facebook Group
Free Webinar- Avoid these 10 common autoimmune healing mistakes. https://expertise.tv/webinar/empowering-women-transform-your-health-journey-by-avoiding-these-10-common-autoimmune-mistakes-2024-02-29/landing/19523
Hello, this is Anna Laura Brown, host of the Autoimmune Rehab Podcast, where we talk about how to actually thrive and heal your autoimmune condition rather than just covering up with pills or changing your diet and hoping you’ll feel better one day. We feature solo episodes on helpful topics and interviews with guests who have actually walked in your shoes with autoimmune disorders and or who have years of experience in helping people to thrive and not just survive with autoimmune challenges.
I’m a health coach who started this podcast because I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s in 2018 and wanted to inspire hope and transform health for people with autoimmune challenges. So keep listening and let’s get you the help and hope you need. This is the Autoimmune Rehab Podcast. And for today’s guest, I am happy to welcome Sydney Torres. Sydney and I are going to be talking about the impact of stress on your immune system, as well as some blood lab markers to take a look at.
So if you are looking for some tips in that area, which you really should be, stay tuned, keep listening. And so welcome to Autoimmune Rehab Podcast. Sydney, why don’t you start off by telling us a little bit about you and how you got into working with this.
Sydney Torres (01:12.58)
I just want to say thank you so much for just having me as a guest to just kind of like share my story and to share my knowledge with your audience. I just really appreciate that. So my story goes a little something like this. I worked for six years in a hospital as a certified nursing assistant. And one of the things that I was seeing working there was,
the same patients kept coming back over and over again. So they would get admitted and then they would stay one to two days and then they would get discharged. And that like pose the question in my head, I’m like, why do these patients, the same ones keep coming back? You know, what’s the issue? Why hasn’t their problems been resolved? And you know, I would ask,
the doctors I would ask, you know, other like staff members and nobody had an answer. And then kind of like at the same time, I started to go through my own health journey. It started like with my hair falling out and me going to the doctor and the doctors are just like, yeah, we don’t know why your hair’s falling out. I then, I was sent to like different specialists and like nobody.
knew I took test after test, everything came back normal. So then like from the hair, it just kind of like escalated. I just started to get like literally like a shopping list of different symptoms and conditions. And I finally got to the point where I’m like, you know what? I wasn’t getting the help. I was just kind of getting dismissed by doctors. So I took things into my own hands and I’m like, you know what?
I’m a smart woman. I could figure this out. So, 2020, I decided to leave the hospital. And when I quit, I didn’t know what I was going to do. So I went back to school and I decided to become just a health coach so I could help other people get to the bottom, the bottom root causes of what.
Sydney Torres (03:35.14)
what’s causing all that chaos in their body. So I use like the blood labs and I use different functional tests to help people get to the, like what’s going on. And I’m basically their health detective.
AnnaLaura (03:51.781)
Yeah, and that’s amazing because the health detective thing is just, I mean, it’s really a must. But like you said, it’s like people keep going out to the doctor or the hospital over and over again. It’s like the whole broken record or the ground day, hog day symptom of same things over and over again, run more tests and this and that, and still can’t get to the bottom of it. And unfortunately, that’s just what happens with a lot of Western healthcare. It just.
They don’t really know how to adequately address anything related to autoimmune. They just don’t. And so, you know, it definitely requires digging a lot deeper. And so I know one of the things we wanted to talk about is the concept of chronic stress. And if you’ve developed an autoimmune condition, whether you actually want to recognize it or not, I’m here to tell you that chronic stress is something that you are dealing with.
or that you have dealt with in the past anyway, and maybe hopefully you’re actively working on addressing that, but how exactly does chronic stress impact your oral gut digestive health?
Sydney Torres (04:55.556)
Yeah, I think, you know, when we’re talking about stress, that so many people do not realize that stress is really kind of like that finger flick that really causes the body to go into kind of like that chaotic state. And what happens is we get caught in that stress loop. Now, when we’re talking, like when I talk about stress, I just kind of like want to say,
Stress is actually not a bad thing. We want to have a stress response. So like on the lower, if you and I were like walking, like hiking in the mountains and like say like a coyote came after us, like jumped out, we would want a stress response. We would want that adrenaline. We would want our cortisol because that’s going to keep us out of danger. We’re going to like, we’re going to run. We’re going to get out of danger, but here’s the problem.
AnnaLaura (05:39.653)
you
Sydney Torres (05:53.572)
The problem is we’re getting stuck in that chronic stress loop. We, like in today’s world, I think we’re just so stressed. We’ve, we’re just, I think everybody is living such a fast paced lifestyle. We’re working longer hours. We’re moms, we’re parents, we’re doing so many different things. We’ve got like technology. We’re on staring at computers. We’re on phones. We’re having to commute.
you know, we’re getting stuck into traffic and all these different things are just kind of adding into our stress bucket. And stress can be like physical stress, you know, like, like going to the gym or working out, we could have like that emotional mental stress. Say you aren’t happy with your job or your environment at your job is kind of like toxic.
And then we could also have like biochemical stress where somebody could be having like blood sugar dysregulation. Somebody can be eating inflammatory foods. Um, that’s a stress on the body. If you didn’t get enough sleep because you wanted to stay up late and watch Netflix, that is a stress on the body. So whether it’s like I said, whether it’s like a physical stress, emotional stress, biochemical stress,
Stress is stress to the body because it’s all getting processed the same and that’s through our adrenal glands. So our adrenal glands, they secrete cortisol. So when we’re talking about cortisol, that is one of our main stress hormones. So what happens is somebody gets stuck in that chronic stress loop, so that releases cortisol.
to respond to that stressor. So what’s happening is the body was designed just for us to be, have that acute stressor, like, oh, you know, like I said earlier, we were walking, taking a hike and that coyote came after us. That’s kind of like a one -off, but what’s happening is we’re no longer having like that one or two -off situation. We’re having those one -offs.
Sydney Torres (08:17.54)
day after day, week after week, month after month. And then before you look at it, gosh, I’ve been stressed like for years now. And when cortisol is just always, always being released, it gets elevated. So when our cortisol levels get elevated, that starts to suppress different functions in our body. For example, it can suppress our digestion.
We have something in our stomachs called hydrochloric acid. So when we get stressed out, that is one of the things that gets suppressed is our stomach acid. So now when somebody goes to say maybe like eat food, that stomach acid breaks down our food, especially when it comes to protein. So now, you know, you’re having a compromised digestion.
digestive system, and then it also suppresses something called secretory IgA, which is found in our gut. And the thing with secretory IgA, that is like the bouncer guarding, it’s like the bouncer at a club. It’s letting in all the good things and it’s keeping all the bad things out. So if our…
CigA is suppressed, now we’re more susceptible to getting pathogens like parasites, bacterias, yeast. So now these things have more of an opportunity to take over our gut. And what they also do is they start to kind of like break down our gut lining and our gut lining is there to protect our bloodstream.
So now if these bad things can get into our bloodstream, then that starts like the chain of just chaos. You may feel like bloated or you may get constipated. It could possibly develop into some sort of like autoimmune disease. It could just basically develop into anything. It just depends on where that person’s individual weak link is.
Sydney Torres (10:44.324)
within their body.
AnnaLaura (10:46.661)
Yeah, that’s amazing. Yeah, and I think it’s definitely important for us to recognize the difference between stress, like you said, from like a coyote chasing you or stress from, you know, like some kind of an accident or one off situation as opposed to, you know, like that chronic stress that develops over time that, you know, is caused by unfortunately a lot of people who either are in jobs they don’t love or, you know, things like constantly worrying about money, worrying about situations in the world that you may or may not be able to control.
that kind of thing. And yeah, if you’re not careful, that can definitely overtake, you know, your life and like you said, cause a lot of gut issues and eventually autoimmune issues and that kind of thing. So what would be a tip that you would give somebody if somebody starts to realize, oh dear, I’m having chronic stress and it’s impacting my gut. What would be something that somebody could do to recognize it, but then also try to not necessarily totally stop it, but at least gain control of it.
before it really spins out of control and causes so many problems that they can’t deal with their life.
Sydney Torres (11:51.876)
Yeah, I think just mainly having body awareness, paying attention to every little subtle sign, because like our bodies are always giving us signs and symptoms and just not brushing it off, you know, because I can just remember, you know, like when my whole health journey started, you know, I would get like headaches occasionally, or I would get bloated after eating, or
Um, it could just be anything. I would just kind of like blow it off. Like, Oh, maybe I just ate too much or, uh, maybe I stayed up too late. I would just kind of like find different excuses, um, for whatever was happening. But I would say number one, just paying attention to our body and just always, um, having some sort of stress plan in place because.
For myself, I always have like a go -to thought. I always have a go -to plan. If I find myself in a stressful situation and I just kind of feel myself spiraling out of control, I’ll go to my like my go -to thought, which is everything is always working out for me. I am safe. And I’ll just keep repeating that over and over in my head. And once I start repeating that, it kind of like,
breaks that momentum of stress and it just gives my body enough time to reset itself and calm me down. And then I’ll also, I’m really into tapping. So I will just like start tapping like the side of right here on my hand. And I’ll just say that my little mantra again and again. So.
AnnaLaura (13:47.589)
That’s good. So that’s like the whole EFT, the emotional freedom technique, which if you’re listening to this and you’re not familiar with it, you can research it, look it up. It’s a tactic and a strategy that a lot of people use to help, you know, with different aspects of well -being. It’s kind of somewhat of a form of an energy healing type modality as well. But yeah, I’ve used that before too and found it can definitely help as well.
So what would you say can happen to immune function when it’s not working correctly? Obviously, we know that that’s one of the reasons that people end up with an autoimmune disorder, but what else would you have to say about that?
Sydney Torres (14:24.772)
I would say that when the immune system is just constantly being activated, it’s trying to take care of all these different sorts of infections. It’s trying to keep us safe. So it’s working really, really hard. And a way I like to explain it is, I like to say, think of a bouncer at a club.
And you know, like you and I were at the club and there’s like a really long line of people and we all want to get into this club. And everybody starts to get like really, really, really impatient. And the bouncer is trying to check, you know, like everybody’s ID. Okay. Yeah. You’re good. You’re good. Yeah. No, you’re not. You can’t come into the club because you’re not good. So with everybody being impatient now, everybody’s like, you know what? We’re not going to wait.
So now everybody just kind of bum rushes the bouncer. So now the bouncer’s got like all these people that just, you know, like bum rushed him and there’s no way that he can check everybody. He gets stressed, he gets overwhelmed. And that’s just kind of like with our immune system. So many things are going on at once. It can’t handle it.
And it gets overwhelmed. And when it gets overwhelmed, it starts to tag our friends as enemies. And now, like I said, when our body starts tagging things incorrectly and making mistakes, then that can develop into things that we don’t want. Our body is not able to fight off these different infections, these different pathogens.
viruses, and now you end up in a space where your immunity starts to become low because our body will do its best to adjust and it will fight these invaders as long as it can. It will do its best to protect us. But if we don’t intervene, if we don’t like repair like, you know, a leaky gut and give it the things that it needs, it
Sydney Torres (16:49.804)
Eventually it just won’t be able to keep up. And now you get into that space where you may get the common cold and your body just can’t recover as quickly. So instead of maybe having a cold for a week, now you may have it for two weeks and you may often find yourself sick all the time. Like, why do you, do you know that person that’s always sick all the time?
AnnaLaura (17:13.099)
In fact, that actually used to be me back in the day. You know, I think even before I had my autoimmune diagnosis and then in the beginning of my autoimmune healing journey, I would, I was sick all the time. Like I always had to worry that if I was around somebody that was sick, that I was going to catch it. And now I feel like it’s almost the opposite, knock on wood, you know, that my immune system can be.
significantly stronger, probably more almost like strong like steel, where I can be around people who have actual contagious illnesses and not catch it. So, you know, it’s, but yeah, that, like I said, that used to be me. Yeah. So I totally get it.
Sydney Torres (17:50.296)
Yeah, yeah. And I just kind of like wanted to talk a little bit about like the blood markers. Because when it comes to like blood work, I just kind of like really like to geek out about that. And I just wanted to share maybe like, just like a couple of markers with your audience. So when like we like you and I were talking about like we’re talking about the immune system, we’re talking about gut health.
And what really affects our gut health is infections. You know, like we do not want, you know, infections taking over our gut. So kind of like a helpful way is just kind of like looking at your blood work, how to see if your body is fighting off an infection. But before I get into the blood lab work and talk about it, I just want to say that,
This conversation between, um, and Elora and I, this is meant for educational purposes and it’s not used to diagnose, treat, cure any medical condition. Um, and with that being said, the reference ranges that I’m going to be using, I’m going to be using, um, the functional optimal ranges. And I just want to let your audience know.
There’s two types of reference ranges. You have your standard reference range, which is used by like conventional medicine. And with their ranges, they’re super, super wide. And I always like to say it’s literally like the space between California and New York. There’s just like a lot of space. And within that space, there’s a lot of potential for things to go wrong. So what we do on the functional side of the fence is we take those normal ranges,
and we make them smaller. So when I’m looking at blood labs, if somebody falls outside of that reference range, that is a really good indication to me that the body is not functioning. It’s starting to become what we say dysfunctional. So I just wanted to share those are the ranges. So.
Sydney Torres (20:10.98)
I want to talk about, I’m going to be talking about the CBC with differential and that’s the complete blood count. So when you are looking at your labs, you always want to have your doctor run the CBC with differential. The differential part, it gives us the five types of white blood cells and um,
I will kind of like, once we get down to that part, you’ll be able to kind of like understand that a little bit more. But the first marker underneath the CBC, it’s going to be called the white blood cell count. So it’s going to say WBC. Now, when we’re talking about the WBC, this like is a marker that lets us know is the body fighting an infection.
So the optimal range for this is gonna be between five and eight. So if you’re looking at this marker and if it’s above eight or below five, this is a really good indication that your body is dealing with something, some sort of infection. So then the next question is, well, we wanna know, like,
what type of infection is my body trying to deal with right now? So what I want you to do, the next marker is going to be called neutrophils. So you’re gonna have to skip probably about like five to nine different markers before you find the neutrophils. So neutrophils are considered the most important white blood cell because they’re the most abundant.
a white blood cell and they really help the body with inflammation. So the magic number for this is 60%. So if it is above 60%, this can be a really good indicator that our body is fighting some sort of bacterial infection. And these bacterial infections, they like to hang out.
Sydney Torres (22:31.98)
basically in two areas and that’s inside of our guts and in our joints. So depending on who you are and where your weak links are, it can manifest into things like constipation, diarrhea, acid reflux. It can manifest into IBS, IBD. It can be like a middle ear infection. It can be a sinus infection.
AnnaLaura (22:56.503)
you
Sydney Torres (23:00.884)
urinary tract infection, it can basically, it can go anywhere. Like I said, it just depends on who that individual person is. And then the other marker I just wanted to share with your audience is called lymphocytes. And our lymphocytes, those are made inside our bone marrow. And the magic number for this is 30%. So when something is,
Above 30%, that just lets us know that the body is dealing with some sort of virus. And whenever the body is fighting any sort of infection, it takes our body a lot of, lot of energy. And then we’re left with, we’re left with chronic fatigue. We’re feeling tired. We don’t have enough energy to just do the things that we need to do.
So those are just kind of like a couple of markers that I just wanted to share with your audience.
AnnaLaura (24:06.389)
That’s good. That’s awesome because I think the thing is I think a lot of times people don’t really know what they should look for and like we’ve already discussed a lot of times Western medicine has markers that are a lot broader. So then, you know, they’ll say, no, you don’t have any infection or anything going on when in fact you probably still do. And yeah, there’s just a lot of things that can trigger a lot of things. I’ve had several guests on this podcast that have had their autoimmunity triggered by Lyme disease, you know, so I know that that can be.
a big one, that’s probably one of the more severe ones, but yeah, there’s a lot of stuff that can really cause a lot of issues. So what would you say one to two lifestyle changes are that can help reduce stress?
Sydney Torres (24:48.324)
I would definitely say, and I know this has been said so many times, but I think it’s that important that it bears repeating, is number one, to get rest. And I think that rest is just so, so crucial because when we get like that, at least eight hours of rest a night, that just allows our body just to reset itself.
And that’s when our bodies are able to really repair the damage throughout the day. So, just getting a good rest, making sure when you do get that good rest to make sure your room is dark as possible, making sure that your cell phone room, I mean, that your room remains free from any cell phones, iPads, any tech.
Do your best to put it outside of the room so you’re not tempted to lie there in bed and scroll. And before you know it, you’re like, oh my gosh, I’ve been on my phone for like two hours. And another thing I would say to kind of like help with stress is just maybe finding those things that work for you, whether it be journaling, getting your thoughts onto paper, whether it being tapping like, you know, like for me or whether it just be getting outside.
AnnaLaura (26:05.731)
. . .
Sydney Torres (26:14.628)
Um, just getting outside into nature. So, um, just kind of just playing around to see what works for you and what calms like your nervous system, the best.
AnnaLaura (26:28.785)
That’s awesome. That’s great. So thanks for all that you’ve shared with us today. So if somebody wants to get in touch with you, what is the best way for them to do that?
Sydney Torres (26:37.092)
The best way is through email. My email is info at balancehealthnow .com. And I’m also on Instagram. You could always DM me at balancehealthnow. And I will reach out and respond and open up any kind of dialogue you want to talk about.
AnnaLaura (27:00.707)
Awesome, sounds great. Yeah, so we’ll include that information with the show notes, with their bio. We’ll have a link also to her podcast as well, that she has. And anything else you want to share that we didn’t bring up before we end for today?
Sydney Torres (27:09.512)
Thank you.
Sydney Torres (27:14.916)
I just kind of like wanted just to share maybe like one little golden nugget bonus marker. I just wanted to like briefly talk about like vitamin D and just how important, especially with autoimmune and inflammation, how vitamin D can like kind of like help boost up our immune system.
So the optimal range, if you’re still looking at your blood labs, is between 60 and 80. But when I’m looking at the blood labs, I like to see people’s vitamin D more towards 80 than 60. So just take a look at your blood labs and just see where your vitamin D status is. And just making sure to have adequate vitamin D.
Um, and just getting our vitamin D from the sunshine as well, like 10 to 15 minutes directly on the skin.
AnnaLaura (28:18.595)
Awesome. That’s great. Okay. So thanks for sharing with us everybody. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, we appreciate it. If you’d rate the podcast, consider leaving us a review and share it with other people that you know could benefit. This has been Auto Mean Rehab.
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