[00:00:02] Ready to lose 40 plus pounds without giving up happy hours, weekend brunches, or date nights. Then it's time to uncover the hidden link between binge eating and toxic relationships. And finally, break free from both. Welcome to the Hungry for Love podcast with Jillian Scott. Y' all ready? Let's go.
[00:00:24] Hey. Hey. Welcome back and welcome to a very sciency episode. Today the topic is going to be around autoimmune and its connection with abuse, especially emotional and verbal abuse, the forms of abuse that really create physiological damage on our internal systems. And one of the challenges is that we just can't see it. We can't see how it is manifesting in the body. And this is something that not only your doctor is likely not going to know, but I guarantee your therapists, psychologists, are also not going to know this, because the way that medicine is done in particular here in the US Is it is divided into categories, parts of the body types. We don't see a lot of crossover between the psychology aspect and the physiology aspect, but it's all one body. And when we have damage psychologically, we are going to have damage physiologically. But so often you've got different doctors looking at different pieces of the puzzle because that's how they've been trained. Rather than bringing them in all together across spectrums, we're going to get into a little bit more of the science around why it is so common for abuse survivors to also have autoimmune diseases. And this is something that I saw a lot anecdotally over the last couple of years. So it probably started about three years ago as I was starting to notice and wake up to the abuse that I had in my life and in my past. And I was starting to recognize in my clients the emotionally abusive people they had in their lives, as well as making the connection with often autoimmune diseases.
[00:01:59] So not only was there emotional eating happening, but many people were also really struggling from a physiological standpoint. So there were other health conditions that were diagnosed and some that were just a little more symptomatic. For a long time, I've known that these were connected, but I didn't fully understand the physiology of how.
[00:02:21] And I know that so many people listening are maybe similar to myself. You might be symptomatic, but undiagnosed. You have some very common symptoms, but because standard measurements fell within the, quote, normal range, you were dismissed. You were written off as, that's just part of aging. That's normal. It'll get better with time. Just try harder, just eat less and Exercise more. And there is nothing more infuriating than a doctor and somebody who is supposed to be knowledgeable and have experience and expert who just dismisses you. There is nothing like being gaslit by your doctor. It is so frustrating and to not be taken seriously either. I've had so many different occurrences of this. Anyways. When I first started learning about GLPs, what really caught my attention was how the vagus nerve was a key player in its effectiveness and it was also a key player when it comes to increased inflammation and increased insulin resistance. The insulin resistance then further drives inflammation, both of which are tied to autoimmune diseases and being key drivers of autoimmune. That's when I really knew that I was getting close to putting these pieces together and better understanding how emotional abuse actually creates the physical damage inside the body. And it's so insidious because we can't see it from the outside. And that's why I am so passionate about this topic. It's why I'm going to spend a longer amount of time here on this episode because I really want to share and help you to understand what's coming up. There are some key tests and key ways that we can have a better idea of what's happening in the body, but we need different markers. We need to be aware of really what we're looking for.
[00:04:05] So one, I would say over the last five to 10 years, science has really recognized the strong connection between chronic psychological stress and autoimmune disease.
[00:04:15] So let's set the foundation. An autoimmune disease develops when the immune system, whose job is to protect you from infections, mistakenly identifies parts of your own body as a threat and begins attacking healthy tissue. So instead of targeting viruses or bacteria, your immune system starts targeting things like your joints, your thyroid tissue, your skin, nervous system, your gut lining. There are at least 100 different recognized autoimmune conditions, but they all share similar underlying mechanisms. And so I've heard people talk about this as the autoimmune rainbow. On one end you've got Hashimoto's, which is the hypothyroidism that has turned autoimmune. And at the other end of this rainbow, you have cancer. More on this later. But this is really important because the more that we leave diseases unaddressed, the more we are likely to see cancer develop. What studies consistently find, but what rarely ever gets talked about in a therapist's office, is that people with histories of chronic stress, childhood abuse or neglect, emotionally abusive relationships, PTSD or long term Caregiving stress have significantly higher rates of autoimmune disease, especially in midlife. But we're seeing a lot of this happen in women, in particular, 70% women, and then also midlife women, because not only have we typically been in abusive relationships and dynamics for decades, for many of us, it's been like our entire lives. But we're also seeing a lot of hormonal shifts because of perimenopause and menopause. And so we are just primed and ripe for autoimmune to manifest.
[00:06:00] This is why we see it diagnosed so much for women in their late 30s, 40s, and 50s. But we have some bigger studies that really recognize how adverse childhood experiences correlate with increased autoimmune risk, how chronic stress alters immune signaling and inflammation markers. And trauma changes our immune regulation.
[00:06:20] It changes our immune system, not just our psychology.
[00:06:24] The immune system learns threat just like our nervous system does. So when the nervous system lives in a prolonged survival mode, the immune system now can shift towards hypervigilance, chronic inflammation, impaired healing, which are core features of autoimmunity. There are a couple key aspects in terms of what typically happens and the steps that our bodies go through in order to develop this. So step number one, the foundation is often a genetic predisposition. Okay, so we're told that genetics can predispose you to particular diseases, but in particular, autoimmune.
[00:06:59] Now, I think it's also fascinating because we also can be exposed to generational cycles of trauma. And just like genetics get passed down, trauma and patterns of trauma and behavior can get passed down as well. And so part of me wonders how much is something in your genome that has changed or is altered versus how much of this is trauma being passed down and how our bodies just naturally respond to trauma. I don't know. Just throwing out some ideas here. Okay, so genetics, though, have been shown to play a role in how aggressively immune cells respond and how inflammation is regulated. But genes alone do not create autoimmune disease. They create a vulnerability or maybe primes the breeding ground for it. It does not create destiny, though. So there needs to be a trigger. This is step two. There has to be something to disrupt the immune balance enough to activate that vulnerability.
[00:07:53] One of the key points here that I think a lot of doctors look at is they look at the physical and environmental triggers, which, yes, are also helpful, but they're not looking so hard and as deeply at the psychological triggers. But common ones include chronic infection, gut microbiome disruptions. So this would be from, like, medications or antibiotics, maybe highly processed foods, excessive alcohol, exposure to toxins, hormonal shifts, especially again in women. Postpartum menopause, perimenopause, chronic sleep deprivation, nutrient deficiencies, and metabolic dysfunction we also see at the very end of the list. Doctors will also note prolonged psychological stress. In my opinion, I feel like it is so overlooked and often dismissed. But what we find here is that it's not just one event, it's not just one trigger. And there you go. It's multiple stressors stacking over time. And so when we look at that constant, prolonged, often complex trauma that we've experienced, that prolonged psychological stress, that's why many of us have complex ptsd. It's not from a single incident. It's from decades of incidents. It's from decades of our nervous system being in a fight or flight response.
[00:09:13] And now what we're also finding is that our immune system then is in that heightened hypervigilant fight or flight response as well. But it's because of the pattern. It's because of the constant repetitive nature of it.
[00:09:25] So normally the immune system has brakes. It prevents it from self attack. This is called immune tolerance. But with autoimmune disease, what we find is there's more immune dysregulation.
[00:09:37] So inflammation stays chronically activated, regulatory immune cells stop calming responses effectively, and the body loses clear recognition of self versus threat. I see this as your body has been in such a constant high state of fight or flight that it can't distinguish friend from foe. It's just constantly activated. So that nervous system that's always on edge, always waiting for the shoe to drop, never able to fully relax, our immune system is the same way. And so it's like this guard dog that is on alert, but it's gonna jump and pounce at the mailman, at the neighbor coming over to the door, at the kid who walks through the front door, right? It like it cannot distinguish what is a real threat versus who's friendly, who is known.
[00:10:23] This creates this ongoing inflammation and tissue damage. So most doctors will note physical symptoms like chronic stress, but I don't see many tying it really specifically to. To abuse, specifically abuse that we don't see if it's verbal, emotional, spiritual, financial, nor are we really calling out the severity of trauma and its impact on our internal systems.
[00:10:47] So this chronic relational threat, unpredictability, hypervigilance, attachment trauma, emotional unsafety, repeated activation without recovery. Right? This isn't just, oh, I had a stressful day, oh, I was on a time deadline at work. This goes so far beyond just quote stress.
[00:11:05] But because of repeated activation of the vagus nerve, when it's in this prolonged traumatic environment like abuse, it really deteriorates that vagus nerve. And so simply put, when we have any type of stressor, especially that of fight or flight, it is constricting and it's activating that vagus nerve. It's constantly pulling on the emergency break and eventually it wears it out.
[00:11:28] So that vagus nerve just starts to deteriorate and that in turn drives inflammation in the body and it drives insulin resistance. And that insulin resistance then further drives more inflammation. These are two things key drivers of autoimmune disease. Now, what I think is really fascinating here is the aspect of cortisol signaling and how stress and then cortisol really impact our immune system and in particular autoimmune diseases as well as. But we can't see that full picture from the outside. The way it might manifest is with weight gain, especially when it's weight gain around the belly section. But for how many years I've heard women talk about wanting to reduce belly fat or I just need to lose weight in my belly. I have never, until this year, never heard anyone say that's a sign of insulin resistance, even when it's not showing up on labs. So there are some important things that we want to really understand. And none of this is done in a vacuum. There are so many pieces of this that intertwine and intermingle. This cortisol piece is actually really important because with the trauma and our bodies being in fight or flight for so long, I really believe this is likely what's impacting all of us.
[00:12:40] So long term, trauma will change cortisol signaling. Cortisol dysregulation will play a major role in both the development and the progression of autoimmune diseases because cortisol is one of the body's primary immune regulating hormones, hormones. So under healthy conditions, cortisol is going to help control inflammation and regulate immune activity. It'll also help to stabilize blood sugar and help the nervous system adapt to stress. That is the whole goal. That's the whole design of it. So while we often think of cortisol and high cortisol being a problem, cortisol actually does a lot of positive, beneficial things in the body when it is properly secreted and when our body has proper sensitivity to it.
[00:13:25] So the problem really begins when stress becomes chronic and that cortisol response becomes dysfunctional. Cortisol is meant to be a brake pedal for inflammation. Your immune System is naturally inflammatory. That's not a bad thing. Inflammation is how the body heals infections and injuries.
[00:13:43] So cortisol acts like the body's internal anti inflammatory signal.
[00:13:48] When inflammation rises, cortisol should rise temporarily to help calm that immune response and prevent damage. So this is one reason why corticoid steroid medications are often used in autoimmune conditions. They mimic cortisol's immune suppressing effects.
[00:14:05] So what happens with chronic stress though is that when someone is in this chronic heightened stress state, like we see with emotional abuse, trauma, over training, sleep deprivation, blood sugar instability, chronic dieting, infections, inflammation, all of those aspects, the stress response system can become dysregulated. And this really involves the HPA axis, or what we call the hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal access.
[00:14:32] So all of those lead one to another to cortisol. So it goes, hypothalamus sends signals to the pituitary, then to the adrenals to release cortisol. But when there's dysfunction and dysregulation over time, the body can produce cortisol at the wrong times. Too much cortisol, it may become less sensitive to the cortisol, which is also really important factor, and eventually can produce insufficient amounts relative to the demand.
[00:14:56] So the issue is often not just the high cortisol, it's loss of proper cortisol rhythm, signaling and sensitivity.
[00:15:05] Why does this matter?
[00:15:08] Why, why do we care? Okay, number one, there's loss of immune regulation. So when cortisol signaling becomes impaired, the immune system can lose that important off switch and this will contribute to that chronic inflammation. So just like how we've said, stress can drive inflammation. This is why.
[00:15:28] So not just chronic inflammation, but increased cytokine production, which is an inflammatory state. So often we see inflammatory cytokines that are being produced. It creates an immune overreaction and reduced tolerance to self tissues. So the immune system becomes more reactive and less controlled is essentially what all of those factors point to. The second piece here is leaky gut. If you have leaky gut, that is often a precursor to autoimmune. If you have an autoimmune disease, you also have leaky gut. So this is where we want to be able to stop things and prevent them before they start. We cannot cure an autoimmune disease.
[00:16:07] We can put the symptoms into remission, we can decrease the symptomology, but we cannot cure it. Once you've got autoimmune, you've got it for life. And once you've got One, you are more likely to continue getting others with cancer being on the very end of that spectrum.
[00:16:23] So this is where if you do have something like hypothyroidism and potentially leaky gut, we want to stop that from turning into an autoimmune disease. So this is where I believe GLP1 use can be very effective, not just from a weight management or weight loss standpoint, but really in preventing these diseases from getting out of control and preventing it from turning into a full blown autoimmune disease and keeping it at just an underactive thyroid. Let's just treat that, let's manage that and not let it develop any further. Because once we cross that line, we can't go back. All we can do from there is just symptom management.
[00:17:02] But leaky gut stems from chronic cortisol dysregulation that impairs your gut lining, digestive function and microbiome balance. This is when there's intestinal permeability, which allows food proteins, bacterial fragments, toxins to enter the circulation and trigger immune activation.
[00:17:20] Third, we also have nervous system dysregulation that keeps the immune system activated. So like I pointed out earlier, the immune system and nervous system are constantly communicating and a chronically activated sympathetic nervous system that fight or flight will increase inflammatory signaling. So people with long term trauma exposure or that chronic emotional stress typically show elevated inflammatory markers, altered immune cell activity, impaired vagal tone and disrupted cortisol rhythms.
[00:17:50] This creates an environment where autoimmune activity can worsen or flare more easily.
[00:17:56] We also see blood sugar instability and this blood sugar instability increases inflammation. Right. So it's like this is all connected. So dysregulated cortisol will also contribute to insulin resistance, reactive hypoglycemia, increased abdominal fat storage and inflammatory cytokine release. Which again is why people talk about, oh, the belly fat. That's a stress response. This is why, because blood sugar swings themselves are inflammatory stressors and they can aggravate the autoimmune symptoms. So it's like it keeps stacking one symptom on top of another. This is why these pieces are all interconnected as well. There is no monotherapy out there. We really need to look at what is our health, especially our metabolic health, and how do we heal that as a whole. And there are going to be multiple different aspects that we want to address, not just lifestyle, but from an emotional standpoint, with emotional eating and healing from emotional abuse in creating better hormonal regulation and also better metabolic pathways.
[00:18:57] I also think that just like we have insulin resistance, we have cortisol resistance. One of the really interesting findings in autoimmune research is that some people, their immune cells become less responsive to cortisol's anti inflammatory signals. Cortisol is designed to be beneficial to the body when it is secreted properly. When cortisol is present, but the immune cells stop listening, it means that inflammation continues despite the production of that cortisol. Cortisol is not able to do its proper job. So we have extra of it in the body. Now it's just driving the dysfunction.
[00:19:35] There are common autoimmune conditions that are associated with the HPA axis dysfunction, Hashimoto's being number one. So having a hypothyroid, an underactive thyroid that then becomes autoimmune because of the insulin resistance and inflammation and its impacts with insulin and glucose and cortisol. Like all of these things, they are all drivers of Hashimoto's. And that is one of the number one autoimmune conditions for women, especially women who have been through trauma. I was also reading a study that about 80 or 90% of hypothyroidism of an underactive thyroid is actually autoimmune. So it's actually Hashimoto's. But we also often see rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus, multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease or Crohn's disease and psoriasis.
[00:20:22] Cortisol dysregulation is not the one sole cause, it's not the one thing, but it is definitely a big driver of it. This is where the overlap of GLP1's effectiveness comes into play. Because it helps to heal the gut, it helps to restore proper insulin secretion and absorption into the cell to create better insulin sensitivity, it restores proper cortisol sensitivity, it decreases inflammation and inflammatory cytokines. Ultimately what we're doing here is we are healing your metabolism over time. And in order to heal it properly, we really need that overtime aspect. We cannot just heal it in four months. We need most likely one to two years. Right? When we have been through 30, 40, 50 plus years of trauma and abuse and dealing with this, this is going to take some time. Finding the proper dose is also really essential. This is why I recommend people go low and slow is because most people's bodies don't need the standard starting dose. They don't need to keep titrating up, they don't need those higher dosing levels. And when we keep it lower, not only are you still able to lose weight, but Again, you're losing weight because your body is getting healthier.
[00:21:38] So we are helping to create better functioning, better systems, better efficiency within the body. That's what's allowing you to lose the weight. We don't lose weight to get healthy. We get the body healthier and functioning properly. And that's when the weight will release because the weight is just a symptom. That's how we have to think about this. I've done a lot of research actually on this episode because I find it so fascinating and to be honest, so many women I know are really impacted by this.
[00:22:06] But I did some research around cancer and cancer treatment because I've also been baffled by the negative response that we're getting in the media around GLP1 use. It just seems like there's so much bad press and yet in proportion, very few people are talking about the positive benefits, the low dose studies that are being done. Very few are talking about the healing properties of these peptides, how it's actually creating new neuropathways, better and faster, how it's healing and creating new heart tissue, healing livers and creating new liver tissues. There are so many positive benefits, especially when used at lower doses instead of these jacked up weight loss doses. I thought this was kind of interesting as I was looking at this autoimmune rainbow and thinking about it and you got Hashimoto's on one side, then we got cancer on the other side. And I just got curious and I was like, I wonder how much the US spent in cancer treatment in recent years.
[00:23:07] So the most recent data that we have is for 2023 and it was $200 billion.
[00:23:14] Okay, 2026, the projected spend is $230 billion. This is spent not just on research, but also on treatment. So both combined.
[00:23:26] Now what I'm looking at here is if autoimmune conditions are driving cancer, we want to prevent autoimmune from even becoming a thing, right? So autoimmune is being driven by insulin resistance, cortisol resistance and cortisol dysregulation, all of which are addressed by a GLP1.
[00:23:45] So regardless of whether you do the semaglutide or the tirzepatide, both of those agonists are going to address the insulin resistance and bring it down, create better insulin sensitivity, it's going to reduce the inflammatory cytokines, it's going to create better cortisol sensitivity, it's going to decrease inflammation and help the body to be functioning better and healthier.
[00:24:09] We're preventing the body from developing an autoimmune disease, which means we could also be preventing the body from developing cancer.
[00:24:19] And I just pose this as a theory. I wonder if there's such a backlash against GLP1s because it's going to potentially wipe out at least 50% of some of these healthcare industries. Imagine if only half the people who got cancer this year actually did.
[00:24:38] Let's say half of what's being spent currently on cancer treatment actually gets spent.
[00:24:44] So instead of 240 billion next year, what if it's only 100 billion, 120 billion?
[00:24:53] These GLP1s are going to reduce the need for liver transplants, potentially heart transplants, joint replacements, dialysis centers.
[00:25:04] It's going to reduce the need for other treatments for things like Parkinson's or Alzheimer's and dementia.
[00:25:11] Not only are we seeing it impact snack food companies, fast food companies, right? We're seeing it impact the food industry and there's been some backlash from that. But I think we're also going to see it be highly disruptive in the healthcare space.
[00:25:26] To me, a GLP one makes the most sense as being one of the best, potentially most reliable cancer prevention tools.
[00:25:36] Now, I am not a doctor claiming that if you take this GLP1 never will you ever get cancer. I'm just saying I believe you will drastically decrease the chances of getting cancer when using a GLP1, which also goes against what a lot of people have said in this black box warning that comes from the study in rats with super high jacked up doses of these peptides and also a predisposition in the rats for the medullary thyroid cancer. So not only did the rats in the study group with the peptides get it, but so did the rats in the control group. They all got it.
[00:26:15] So why we are hyper fixated on that, there's gotta be other reasons for it. And when I look at why are things happening the way they are, Money and power, the simplest way, why do we go to war? Money and power, unless it's a distraction tactic. When I really look at like why do things happen the way that they do? Money is a big motivator for a lot of people. I'm putting together those pieces. I think that's pretty interesting. And if we can create better insulin sensitivity, cortisol sensitivity, decrease inflammation, to now where we are highly preventative in terms of an autoimmune disease, we now become highly preventative in terms of cancer. So I think this is highly effective, highly beneficial, and the downsides, the risk associated with it for most people are going to be minimal to none. Especially when you do a personalized microdose that is adjusted to your body. This is what's most important. I have been helping and guiding clients through finding the right doses for them. Not only have I been doing this in my own life and with my own dose, but I've been helping clients decide and determine the best dosing and titration schedule for them so that they are still getting the benefits, they're still feeling better, they feel less puffy, less inflamed, they have more energy, they're sleeping better, the weight is starting to come off. And they also don't feel nauseous, they don't have projectile vomiting. Nobody has any significant side effects.
[00:27:40] So this is possible for everyone. I think that is one of the benefits of some of these telehealth companies, when you know how to do it right, when you understand the dosing and what a standard dose is and what a micro dose is, which is the guidance that I give clients and I help them to better understand what it is that they're dealing with. Because when you order a microdose online, off the Internet, a lot of times it's not a microdose, it is the standard starting dose. And that will likely be too much. And that's okay. But this is where they can be effective. This is where compounding pharmacies, especially the licensed 503A compounding pharmacies, they are such a key player in this, in creating really effective and inexpensive ways at getting access to these GLP1s.
[00:28:24] You can get nearly a year's supply for $700. That is not bad at all.
[00:28:30] Now you can use HSA and FSA spending accounts, you can't necessarily use insurance, but 60 to $80 a month, that is not bad at all.
[00:28:40] So when we look at the true healing regenerative properties, this goes well beyond weight loss. It is so powerful. And this is why I'm such a huge advocate. It's why it's become a larger part of my business. And what I'm talking about now is because with new data, with new information, I give myself permission to change my mind and to realize when there is something here that is effective and groundbreaking and will forever change our health moving forward in such incredibly positive ways. But we have to do it right. And we can't use these peptides as a monotherapy. We can't rely on them and not change any lifestyle factors.
[00:29:19] We really need to be creating an insulin sensitive life. We need to restore those metabolic pathways. We also need to address some of these key hormonal aspects and hormonal shifts, especially that hit women in midlife in our 40s, 50s and beyond.
[00:29:33] So if you would like some help with this and you'd like to learn more about how I work with clients and help them develop not just a weight loss protocol, but a weight loss, weight maintenance and then a long term lifestyle protocol where you may be able to cycle off the peptide. My thoughts in particular are if you have an autoimmune disease, you may want to cycle on and off a peptide long term. If you do not yet have an autoimmune disease, you can prevent it from becoming autoimmune. You can catch it before it starts. And now you won't need a peptide forever. You can cycle off of it and still maintain your weight loss. But we've got multiple factors we have to solve for. We have to be building muscle, we need to be drinking water and sleeping. We need to be regulating other hormones. We need to have everything on board. So it's definitely a lifestyle piece, but we're just adding to what I've already been teaching and coaching, which is amazing.
[00:30:28] So if you would like to learn more about this and if this is the right approach and the right step for you, which I would say if you have anywhere from 15 to 50 pounds, this is the right approach, this will help you. But if you'd like to have a personalized conversation, then let's chat. So you can schedule your free
[email protected] forward slash schedule. The link is always in the description and let's set aside some time to really explore what's going on for you. And I'm happy to answer any questions because I know that this is newer for many people, but there is so much positive data and positive science supporting use not just of autoimmune disease, but in so many other health aspects. If you've been under prolonged stress, trauma, abuse, it is important that we get proper testing, proper treatment, and we find ways to truly heal our bodies and heal our metabolisms. All right, that is it for today. I hope you all have a fabulous weekend. Here's to creating the life and body you crave.
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