Podcast Episode 159: How Your Genes Impact Your Mental Health, Anxiety, Hormones, and Gut

How does genetics play a role in your mental health and anxiety? How does it influence your hormones and your gut? Shae Leonard shares lots of juicy info, along with some tips and strategies to heal the gut and to become mood resilient.

You can find all the info and links about this episode at https://holisticwellness.ca/episode159.

Click here to listen on iTunes, Stitcher, or Spotify:

iTunes – Click Here
Stitcher – Click Here
Spotify – Click Here

Be sure to subscribe to this podcast on iTunes and leave us a rating and a review!

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

How genetics plays a role in mental health and anxiety
The role of genetics in our hormones
Gut health and its impact on mental health
The connection between food and mood
What it means to have mood resilience
Living a low tox lifestyle

Key Takeaways:

Pharmacogenomics or how the body processes medication genetically is very helpful.
What impacts us the most is epigenetics — how we express our genes through our lifestyle.
It is rare to see someone with abnormal thyroid lab results that don’t have some sort of genetic variant for either iodine or selenium.
If you’re a bit sluggish in autophagy, you can tend to have increased inflammation and insulin resistance.
90% of how our genes are going to be expressed is through our environment — what we do or don’t do every day and what we prioritize every day.
Epigenetics is the ability to alter the expression of our DNA through our lifestyle choices.
The gut is connected to the brain by the vagus nerve through our enteric nervous system. And the microbes in our gut have a huge impact on how we feel and perceive life.

Action Steps:

Get genetic testing.
Tips and simple strategies for healing the gut:

Avoid gluten and processed foods.
Take mucilaginous herbs.
Get rid of birth control pills.

How to be mood resilient:

Eat whole foods.
Use tools to learn to navigate the natural ebbs and flows of life (meditation, grounding, earthing, affirmations, movement, etc.)
Make sure you are adequately hydrated and excreting properly.
Get adequate sleep and rejuvenation.
Make sure you have a healthy, diverse microbiome.
Make sure your blood sugar is balanced.
Balance that fight-or-flight and rest-and-digest state.

Maximize good stuff in your life. Minimize stuff that’s bad and stressful to you and your body. And prioritize healing, laughter, fun, and sleep.

Shae said:

“Our choices impact our environment; our environment impacts our genes; our genes impact our biochemistry; our biochemistry impacts our wellness or illness.”

“In order to have a resilient mood, you have to eat whole foods.”

Thanks for listening!

Important Announcements:

Learn more about our DUTCH Hormone Program here and see if it might be the next step for you. We’d be happy to support and guide you in your transformation journey!

Sign up for our newsletter at holisticwellness.ca/newsletter and connect with me over on Instagram, @holisticwellnessfoodie. Let me know if there’s anything you’d love for me to expand on. It would also mean so much if you would leave us a rating or a review at any podcast platform that you’re listening to us on.

Links to things I talk about in the show:

Head to eatonhemp.com to save 20% off site-wide with the coupon code HEALTHYHORMONES. I absolutely love the Maple toasted hemp seeds and the full spectrum extra strength CBD oil, which I use before bed.
My favourite pendant for EMF protection and stress support. Save up to 50% off the HARMONI Pendant by clicking this link here: https://www.wendymyersdetox.com/2CN2HP5/BP658/?uid=39.
Save 15% off any Organifi Products at organifishop.com. Check out the NEW Organifi Harmony Women’s Hormone Balancing Blend and their delicious Green Juice Powder. Use code HEALTHYHORMONES. Check out the green juice here: https://www.organifishop.com/products/organifi-green-juice-1-bottle.
Check out CANPREV products across Canadian Health Food Stores and online at Natures-Source.ca – I personally LOVE their MYCO10 and Collagen powder. I also like adding their amino acids to my pre or post workout smoothies. My go to’s are L-glutamine and L-tyrosine. Head to https://canprev.ca for more info on Canprev products.