ADVANCING NUTRITIONAL THOUGHT VIA THE

MINERAL-MIND-BODY-SOUL INTERCONNECTION

 

by Rick Fischer C.H.H.C., h.T.M.A.P.

June 2018
 

As our minerals regulate nearly every function of the body, and as mineral imbalances can be linked to nearly every dis-ease, we cannot ignore the importance of minerals when we talk about health or nutrition.  Yet, most of the health field turns a blind eye to minerals (let alone nutrition as a whole), happy to prescribe medication instead when a problem arises.  Meanwhile the field of nutrition loves to focus on generic diets (keto, paleo, vegan, Atkins, Weight Watchers, etc) which are easy for the public to understand but ignore the individual biochemical foundation (and thus unique needs) of each person.  This bio-individuality is not adequately understood in part because we've been led to believe that our mineral deficiencies and toxicities will show up in the blood tests that our doctors run for us, that our bodies are 'self-regulating', and sadly this is simply not the case. Blood, as a homeostatic transport system, is always working to return to a healthy range, and mechanisms in the body are always working to return the blood to that healthy range (otherwise, we would die).  What's ignored by focusing on blood is what's happening in our cells and tissues. Excesses in the blood that are not excreted out of the body get stored in our tissues (wreaking havoc long term).  Deficiencies in the blood get compensated for by robbing the cells of needed nutrients, again creating health issues down the road.  And so, while a blood test occasionally picks up on an imbalance, more often than not we are led to believe our levels are fine, and the toxicity or deficiency at the tissue and cellular level is ignored.


So can we not just eat a healthy diet?  It's far from being that simple!  Let's assume for a moment that one is truly consuming an optimally nutritious diet. We first then need to ask, optimally nutritious for who?  A fast oxidizer / metabolizer requires higher amounts of calcium, copper and fat in their diet, whereas a slow oxidizer / metabolizer will do worse on a diet high in those nutrients.  So step one is looking at the micro-nutrient needs of the individual, minerals being the core (even more important than the vitamins since vitamins are useless without minerals).  But while minerals are at the core, there is still so much more!


When we talk about mineral balancing, we have to keep in mind that just as minerals are all connected to and affect each other, so too are they connected to our physical, emotional, and spiritual body. Each affecting the other. When we see a high sodium to potassium ratio, we'll want to give the person more potassium to bring that ratio into better balance. And though that can help, we can't ignore the effect that stress also has on this ratio, or that excess copper can also heighten this fight or flight ratio and response.  Likewise, addressing high copper (something that silently affects so many women in particular these days) with antagonistic minerals may help to an extent, but we can't ignore the importance of liver health, bile production, continuous exposure to exogenous estrogens, digestive function, or stress here either. If any of those are ignored, copper is likely to continue accumulating in a bio-unavailable form, in turn affecting a cascade of changes across the broader mineral profile.  Without adequate liver functioning & bile production/flow, copper and other toxins simply end up being mobilized and then reabsorbed back into the body (akin to a street sweeper going by and stirring up a cloud of dust which then just resettles).  We need to be able to get rid of those toxins rather than just stirring them up and letting them resettle.  This is why I choose to use my 'Integrative Health Coaching 4R Approach' which involves reducing or removing the source of toxic exposure, re-establishing healthy gut bacteria, restoring cellular energy, and rebalancing minerals and nutrients.   

 

A "healthy" diet is great, but that alone isn't going to cut it, not with nutrient depleted soils, nor to mention rampant low HCL production and gut issues and environmental toxins / metals that respectively impair nutrient absorption and block receptor sites preventing nutrients from effectively getting into the cell. See it's not just about how much of something you consume, but how much is actually absorbed, and toxins impair this absorption.  Chelate those toxins? It's not that simple. We have to consider the antagonistic effect of stress on nutrients such as magnesium and zinc, depleted levels of which lend to the body holding on to toxic metals such as aluminum and mercury for which doctors then want to chelate, only further creating a vacuum in the body as the primary nutrients were lacking in the first place. We go about our diets, blissfully unaware that the "organic vegetables" we consume thinking we're making healthy choices are often sprayed with dangerous copper sulfates (a known toxin); or the non-organic crops being laced with glyphosates which deplete magnesium and further impair our stress responses.  Consider further that if thoughts can lead to actions and stress, with stress in turn affecting our minerals, then our very thoughts play a role in our accumulation of toxins, as well as the body's ability to release them. If we're not addressing our stressors (present day as well as buried traumas from the past), this can and will affect our mineral and metal levels.


Stress also raises soft tissue calcification - this calcification affecting at least 3/4 of the population and being an underlying factor in the common degenerative bone diseases we see so often in old age. Yet our media and doctors have conditioned us to believe we need more calcium when that just adds to the problem. Aiming instead to reduce high calcium with nutrients such as K2, Mg, Zn, and Io can help to an extent, but what if a deeply engrained trauma is working subconsciously and protectively to keep that calcium shell high?  We now move into the field of psychology, into an area most phsycologists are not even aware of.  While nutritionists study nutrition and psychologists study psychology, there is very little integration between the two fields. If a mental health counselor is able to understand the psychological ramifications of minerals patterns such as high Na/K, calcium shell, copper toxicity, etc we'd be able to address so many relationship and mental health issues without the needed for dangerous psychotropic drugs.  Calcification goes beyond the obvious - bones and tissue. What if a copper toxicity induced calcium shell calcifies the pineal gland - our third eye that connects our physical body to the astral plane. Logic, self awareness, and perception of the universe around us diminish.  We become closed, shut down, rigid, yet the numbing effect of the calcium shell (which is essentially a protective mechansim against overhwleming stress) buffers the awareness of what's happening.  Understanding these concepts means first accepting that our minerals affect far more than just our physical body, and the reverberations of this extend far beyond that which is taught in standard nutrition or psychology. This however is the transformational unlocking to understanding and achieving our highest potential, in physical, mental, and spiritual health. 


Relying just on eating healthy or adjusting a mineral imbalance to 'heal' is over-simplifying things. While proper testing, eating 'healthy, and those mineral adjustments are essential first steps, we also have to do our own self nurturing and inner investigation to heal. Though, as just alluded to, mineral imbalances can block the mind from doing the work, just as traumas and stressors can block minerals from rebalancing, just as poor detoxification pathways and metals can impair nutrient absorption. This is why, ultimately, working all areas of the path when possible is so important.

 

 

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