Book Excerpt: The Adrenal Thyroid Revolution

Title: The Adrenal Thyroid Revolution: A Proven 4-Week Program to Rescue Your Metabolism, Hormones, Mind & Mood

Author: Aviva Romm, MD

Publisher: HarperOne; First Edition (January 31, 2017)

Ordering Information: Amazon | Barnes and Noble

My thirty years of experience as a midwife and herbalist taught me to guide women in holistic lifestyle changes, not just reach for a prescription pad as the first and only way to help my patients. Midwifery and herbal medicine are predicated on the beliefs that the body possesses its own innate healing wisdom, that the human organism intrinsically wants to move toward repair and wellness, that there is no separation between the mind and body, that the human body is interconnected whole rather than separate systems, and that chronic diseases doesn't begin at the time of diagnosis but, with rare exception, is the result of a combination of cumulative factors that eventually tip the balance away from health and toward disease.

These ideas are not new (though my solutions are!), nor is the mind-body connection "woo-woo" philosophy. Twenty-five years of hard science has now emerged from the field of  psychoneuroimmunology (PNI; the study of the interconnectedness of the immune, nervous, and endocrine systems) that unequivocally demonstrates the connections between stress and our emotions, immunity, mood, cognitive function, and hormones. As I began exploring this phenomenon more deeply, I found myself revisiting the first PNI book I ever read to help me connect the dots on what was really going on.

I'd first read Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, by MacArthur Genius Award Winner and Stanford University neuroendocrinology professor Robert Sapolsky in 1998. Sapolsky draws vastly on science demonstrating not only the physiologic interconnectedness of what appear to be separate body systems and symptoms, but also the impact of a variety of forms of stress on the human body as a result of their triggering a primitive survival system, called the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis (HPA axis), which controls the stress response. This axis begins in your brain and extends throughout your body, connecting your nervous system, immune system, and digestive and circulatory systems, via cascades of chemical and hormonal messengers. Disruption in any area can and does lead to any—and all—of the symptoms and conditions my patients were struggling with.

I knew I'd hit on the heart of the problem, and over time it led to the development of the program I use in my practice.