Scott Resnick, MD: Think Differently - What Drives Inflammation?

In today's episode, Scott shares how disruption of our barriers drives autoimmunity, and steps we can take to start to return to health.  From maintaining our barriers, to reducing our exposures...we dive in to how to interrupt the chronic inflammation that may be driving symptoms.Scott is a physician trained in General Surgery and OB/GYN and realized the need for a more integrative approach, bridging the gap between allopathic and functional medicine when he was practicing obstetrics in New Mexico.Years after his training in allopathic medicine, Scott looked up the definition of allopathy and realized that the focus was symptom treatment.  He wanted to do more than that, and studied and began practicing functional medicine in 2012.Living in a microbial/invisible world...we have selective, semipermeable barriers.  How can we support their optimization and keep them from creating a frenzied response that turns into autoimmunity?King or Queen of the CastleLet's think of ourselves as the King or Queen of a Castle.When you build your castle, it will likely have gates, walls, maybe a moat, a drawbridge, friendly villagers waiting to defend you, perhaps and army at the ready.Our body has protective/selective barriers as well!SkinGutLungsBlood-Brain BarrierBlood vesselsWe can take steps to reduce exposures and also allow our barriers to be selective when they defend us.These systems operate on pattern recognition.* Know what you are putting on your skin.  Are you slathering yourself in toxins?Maintaining hormone balance (insulin/thyroid/cortisol) will keep your skin supple and protective.*The gut - where up to 75% of the immune cells are in the lining needs to be able to take in nutrients AND fight intrudersCreate a ceremony around eating:  think, prepare, smell look at your food...sit down, relax and enjoy your meals.Chew your food really well.Our digestive system needs time to break down our food and our enzymes break food proteins (which can be considered dangerous strangers by the immune system) into smaller, safer particles so that the alarms don't sound and the armies don't attack.BREATHE!Keep your cortisol and stress response in check in order to support the integrity of your barriers!