Crusaders for Health Newsletter: Edition 7
Dr. Elena Villanueva and Modern Holistic Health
Dr. Elena Villanueva is an international speaker, health influencer, & co-author of The Longevity Code. She teaches evidence based approaches for finding & treating the underlying causes of chronic illness & brain related conditions. Dr. V’s unique approach incorporates the merging of science and spirituality & the integration of the mind/body/spirit.
As seen on…
Elena is the producer and host of the Mental Health Masterclass, Inflammation Masterclass, Mastering Trauma Masterclass, The Leaky Brain Summit, Your Brain & Mental Health: What They Aren’t Telling You, and the all new Beyond The Pill Masterclass, plus the TribeTalk Podcast. Find information on these topics and more relevant to your health and holistic healing at ModernHolisticHealth.com.
People dealing with anxiety and depression have to tackle a complex set of functional and emotional challenges daily. Being able to address these challenges is one of the critical benefits of a holistic approach to mental health.
According to a study done by the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, Forty million adults over the age of 18 today suffer from anxiety and depression in the United States alone. Alarmingly, Suicide Rates are at their Highest level since WWII, quickly rising to become one of the leading causes of death in the United States. This number is baffling, especially considering the existence of modern medicines and the use of pharmaceuticals like anti-depressants to treat these symptoms.
However, what many don’t know is that the same anti-depressants used to treat depression can also trigger a plethora of side effects that can offset ones mental health entirely.
A Holistic functional approach to addressing disease or sickness isn’t merely concerned with healing a particular issue with the mind or body but healing the body as a whole. Holistic and functional practitioners understand that true health can only be accomplished by identifying and addressing the underlying root causes of all the imbalances.
Healing the Causes of Poor Mental Health
Various signs warn us about degrading mental health. Issues like anxiety, depression, mood swings, mind racing, memory loss, etc. are all red flags that should be taken seriously.
To fix these issues, it is crucial first to understand what causes them.
The Evolution of Coping Mechanisms (and why you should laugh more)
When we get stressed out, we automatically turn to a range of defense mechanisms to help us slow the flood of emotions — or pause them — so we can process them in our own way. Some of those techniques are healthier than others, so let’s review them and see how they evolved.
Legendary neurologist Sigmund Freud was a pioneer in identifying the psychological defense system as part of the human psychic. He defined the human personality as a hybrid of the ego, id, and superego. The id is the pleasure-seeking child in you that is curious and likes to play without rules. Meanwhile, your ego develops as you mature, working within the rules but willing to break them to suit its purposes.
Later in life, you develop the moral compass of the superego, which sees the world as more black and white, and controls the impulses of the other two elements. This helps us get along in society and its regulations. It also pits various parts of your personality against each other, depending on what we want and what we will do to get it.
The ego, in particular, uses unconscious defense mechanisms to distort reality to rationalize a desired behavior and reduce anxiety levels arising from them.
Here are some examples:
- Denial – refusing to acknowledge something you are not ready to accept, such as a breakup or a death
- Sublimation – Channeling certain behaviors into situations where they are socially acceptable, such as boxing to release aggression
- Reaction Formation – Behaving out of character to fit in, such as adopting a macho swagger when you are not that type of person
- Displacement – Targeting your emotions at an inanimate object rather than the person who triggered them, such as punching a wall
MHH client Jana wants you to know how Modern Holistic Health can help your own healing journey…
Are you wondering if Modern Holistic Health can help you? I would like to share a short version of my journey to help you make an informed decision.
In 2009 stress, diet, and lifestyle caught up to me in my 48th year. I was struggling with panic attacks and anxiety. I was awake for 14 days straight. I kept begging my husband to take me to a hospital, but he wouldn’t. So, I started mixing his pain medication with my anxiety medication to get some sleep, but no sleep to be had. It only made me very happy, and people were noticing. So, I excused myself from work and went home. I made an appointment with my family doctor, and they admitted me to the Psych Ward in the hospital.
For the next 4 years I was in the pharmaceutical/allopathic medical care system. Without doing any kind of complete blood work-up, the doctors decided that I was bi-polar, severely depressed, had a personality disorder, amongst other things. I was given many different medications over the next 4 years (not all at the same time); 10 kinds of blood pressure meds, Synthroid for thyroid issues, 14 kinds of mental disorder meds, and 6 kinds of sleeping meds. I was in the hospital 7 times for medication changes, tons of counseling. I found out that I was the 1% patient, if you have ever read the flyer that comes with the medication, and it says 1% of the patients experienced this…, that was me. I either had a reaction to the medication or it never worked. I was labeled as a non-compliant patient and my psych doctor fired me. I complied with everything, and it just made me sicker. When my doctor fired me, it made me very hopeless and extremely mad. Did the doctors even look for a root cause? Why could I suddenly not sleep? How could my brain suddenly switch to that many mental symptoms /diagnoses? So, I took the mad and used it to start researching on my own for answers.
I found a common theme from my research that everyone was recommending. The first thing was the build-up of toxins in my body. My bucket was full and overflowing. While researching I ran across free information summits and conferences dedicated to particular symptoms and ailments, and all I had to do was sign up, watch, and listen. I have a library of over 40 summits.
I started looking at where the toxins came from? My foods, food storage, cooking utensils, and pots and pans. I also looked at anything my body was exposed to. The same things that are discussed in Month 1 of Modern Holistic Health’s program. Here’s two of my sayings, “You are what you eat, what your body can do with what you eat, and what your food ate or was exposed to, how you cooked it, what you cooked it in and is the food processed or whole living food with energy in it.” The other saying, “Health and Healing is a multifaceted issue and there is no one-size-fits-all approach, every person is a unique individual, requiring a unique solution.”
I noticed a difference in the first three weeks, I wasn’t having a problem with hives anymore. I was off all my medications in 6 months, except for insulin. I was spending $800 dollars a month on medications and that was with prescription insurance. I stopped going to psychiatrists and counselors. All my mental issues just vanished. I researched in-depth every step and supplemented with natural medications in preparation for my 6-month weaning off from medications, so please don’t just quit your medications and do this on your own.
I suspected I had heavy metal toxicity. A dentist was straightening out my TMJ jaw problem and ground down one side of my mouth, amalgams, and all. I listened to a doctor explain this on a summit and knew that is what had happened to me. I called that very doctor and hired him to teach me how to detox. Tests confirmed that I had a very high mercury in my urine and 3 times the high lead limit. Generally, mercury hides in the brain and lead hides in the bones, but it was high enough to be in my bloodstream and my kidneys were filtering it off into my urine.
My body was a mess, heavy metal toxicity, diabetes, atrial fibrillation (Afib), asthmatic issues, diverticulitis, leaky gut (gut permeability), bronchitis, inflammation, multiple food sensitivities, candida, pelvis/sacrum pain, muscle cramps, and fatigue issues.
I needed to learn a lot more to help with changing my health outcomes and getting my body to heal. My goal is to grow old gracefully, with no pain and good mobility, and not taking any pharmaceutical medications. I don’t live in a city where holistic health care doctors are easy to find and most just treat with acupuncture and supplements. But there is so much more to consider when needing to correct your body and helping it to heal.
When I had my metal amalgams removed from my teeth, before I started detoxing heavy metals, I traveled over 300 miles to go to a dentist in Seattle. They provided mercury-safe, biological holistic dentistry with a whole-body approach and they could make caps and crowns for the teeth onsite, same day. Look for a SMART (Safe Mercury Amalgam Removal Technique) Certified with IAOMT (International Academy of Oral Medicine & Toxicology). Look up IAOMT on the web to find a certified dentist near you. My detox coach taught me about preparing the body for detoxing. Information that you find in Month 2 and then in subsequent monthly modules. I paid over 3 times as much, just for my detox coach for a year.
There were a lot of things missing in my care that I needed but didn’t have access to through my allopathic doctors, like labs, (test don’t guess!), good supplements, and experience. There is an order to healing and supplementing that should be followed. Certain things need to be addressed before others, like gut repair is towards the end, and some of the first things are lymphatic, liver, kidneys, the detox pathways. Then biofilm, bacteria, parasites, mold, etc…
I attended over 40 online health medical conferences and summits. I have a background in electronics, computers, industrial plant automation engineering, so I understand EMFs, microwave communications and electrical noise and what it can do to the body. I studied functional nutrition and I’m a certified functional nutrition counselor. I also studied the energy body-field information signatures and trained as a NES Health Certified Practitioner.
Why did I study all this health stuff? Until I found Modern Holistic Health, there wasn’t one place that I found to get everything that is needed to help find the root cause. I got stuck in my healing process. I suspected that I needed trauma work. Now Modern Holistic Health is my one-stop everything health place, and as an added bonus, low-cost labs. It’s a place to ask questions and to learn how to take care of my body and help to manage almost all my health needs, plus trauma coaching, tailored labs, and hands-on experience. When I finish the program, I can keep up with my health maintenance by booking individual 1 on 1 sessions and labs.
I say this when looking back on all the research and training I’ve completed in the last 8.
THANK YOU! MODERN HOLISTIC HEALTH YOU ARE MY ONE-STOP HEALTH PLACE
– Jana H. 5/13/2022
How Magnesium Can Relieve Stress and Anxiety
While we have made so many advances in our health over the past century, one area is seriously lagging: our daily intake of magnesium.
Magnesium is essential for more than 600 metabolic functions that we all take for granted. One of those is alleviating our levels of stress and anxiety. This mighty mineral fires up several mechanisms that make us feel calmer and more rested while helping our brains cope better with the world around us.
Some doctors have even dubbed it Mother Nature’s version of Valium. In the right dosage, this mineral can be as effective for treating depression as a prescribed antidepressant. Yet the average American – a shocking 75 percent of us – is only getting 200 milligrams a day, compared to the 500 mg our grandparents ingested. We are also experiencing much higher rates of anxiety.
Could the cure to some of this anxiety lie in adding more magnesium to our diets?
Can a probiotic really push back on your anxiety and depression?
The answer to this question may make you smile.
For generations, we have known that certain foods make us more functional and clear-headed. Now, the connection between our gut and our brain is becoming more clear as new research connects the dots.
Food & mood: a review of supplementary prebiotic and probiotic interventions in the treatment of anxiety and depression in adults looked at seven studies to see why we feel that way. The researchers at Brighton and Sussex Medical School and the University of Brighton in the United Kingdom discovered that a two-way relationship between the brain and the gastrointestinal tract benefits from probiotics and the prebiotics that help them flourish.
And they identified a possible connection to mental health conditions, including depression and anxiety.
Why does your gut impact your mental health?
Our bodies are complex, interrelated systems that work together to help us think and function every day. Sometimes, we underestimate how closely everything is tied together.
Here are four things you need to know about your gut…
How Genes Play A Role In Your Mood, Personality, and Mental Health with Dr. J Dunn
Probiotics are one of the best ways to improve your gut health — but how do you know your probiotic is actually working? In this episode of TribeTalk, Dr. V and Ann are talking with Tina Anderson, a former in-house counsel for a major pharmaceutical company turned health and wellness advocate. Tina created her own line of probiotics after her frustration with the abuses in the pharmaceutical industry.
How Probiotics Can Heal Your Gut With Tina Anderson
Probiotics are one of the best ways to improve your gut health — but how do you know your probiotic is actually working? In this episode of TribeTalk, Dr. V and Ann are talking with Tina Anderson, a former in-house counsel for a major pharmaceutical company turned health and wellness advocate. Tina created her own line of probiotics after her frustration with the abuses in the pharmaceutical industry.
How Magnesium Can Relieve Stress and Anxiety
This month’s featured summits and documentaries are particularly meaningful to me because they address issues that are close to my heart. It’s my mission to spread lifesaving truths around the world so that together we can help as many people as possible to get their health back, their lives back, and live their lives with all the love, joy, health, and vitality they desire.
Remember, your health is in YOUR hands. So join me for some TV viewing time in the evenings to watch our recommended featured summits & documentaries this month. Let’s kick up our feet, relax, learn how to be our own guarantee in life, and let’s thrive and heal together!
Dr. Elena Villanueva
Did you know about this silent epidemic?
These past couple of years have not been kind to our mental health.
There has been a 41% spike in anxiety and depression in the U.S. and a 25% increase worldwide. And suicide rates are up 30% in the U.S.
Many of us are lonely and socially isolated. Some of us have lost jobs, family members, and our community support structure.
With all of this going on, it’s no wonder our stress is reaching critical levels. It’s making us sick, exhausted, and overwhelmed… and that’s pushing some of us to the mental breaking point.
That’s why I’m so excited to share what my team and I have been doing to help reverse these terrible statistics…
I know exactly what it’s like to struggle for years with worsening anxiety and depression and get absolutely NO solutions from traditional medicine.
I almost lost everything to my mental health challenges. But when I embarked on my own journey of discovery, I was finally able to overcome them. And that led to the development of a protocol based on the latest science that allows me to help others do the same — over and over. I go into detail on my personal journey in Part 4!
If you want to find out how you can do it, check out this video. It will definitely restore your hope.
How Probiotics Can Heal Your Gut With Tina Anderson
Is your perfect life a lie
If you had to describe your absolute PERFECT dream life, could you?
If you answered “yes”, you’re in trouble…
The truth is, if you can describe your dream life, you’ll never get it. Here’s why:
Most people are hyper-focused on the end goal. Figuring out exactly how they’re going to get there. How they’re going to experience it and at what point it will make them happy.
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