Outline and Objectives of The 12 Steps to Healing Modern Illness
In this article, we outline the key points, objectives, and performance metrics for each of the 12 steps of the sequence of healing.
Preliminary Learning Objectives
- ATP is the molecule that provides the body with the energy needed to function properly and heal from disease or injury.
- When there is insufficient ATP for a cell to perform all the tasks, functions, and healing necessary the cell enters a less optimal state where it must select and prioritize emergency functions even at the expense of optimal functions, health, and healing. In other words, when the burden of the body is greater than the capacity of the body, sacrifices are made.
- Both cells and the nervous system have a three-step sequence that must occur before a cell or the nervous system enters a fourth state where the body can heal and return to ideal health.
- Each of these four phases need specific resources otherwise the healing sequence stalls and symptoms and chronic illness ensue.
Be sure to read the following pages to familiarize yourself with these preliminary concepts, the root of chronic disease and the four phases of healing:
- Chronic Conditions That Result From Cellular Stress (Greater Burden Than Capacity)
- A Primer On The Bear Protocol
The 12 Steps of Healing
Let’s take a quick look at the 12 steps. And then we’ll look at the objectives for each step.
- Reduce The Inflammation Response and Immune Reactions
- Adopt A Non-Toxic Lifestyle
- Increase Neuroplasticity
- Optimize Glutathione and Neurotransmitter Synthesis
- Optimize Mitochondrial Function
- Reduce And Manage Stress
- Remineralize The Cells
- Tone The Vagus Nerve and Release Trauma
- Rest, Sleep, and Engage with Others
- Prepare For The Healing ‘Crisis’
- Support The Detoxification Pathways
- Apply The Law of Restoration
Step #1 Reduce The Inflammation Response and Immune Reactions
All cells need lipids and fatty acids to build and maintain healthy cell walls. These cell walls make sure toxins don’t leak into and burden the cell and make sure beneficial nutrients don’t leak out limiting the capacity of the cell. Without a sufficient amount of the right healthy lipids, cells have weaker membranes and become increasingly unable to protect themselves from potential harm. This can result in the cell triggering an immune and inflammatory response to even small amounts of environmental toxins, viruses, foods, stress, sunlight, or even moderate exercise.
Objectives
- Understand why healthy cell membranes are critical to protecting cells from toxic burdens and preventing the cells from entering a state of dysfunction and disease.
- Understand the lipids (phospholipids) and fatty acids needed for healthy cell membranes.
- Understand the antioxidants critical to maintaining optimal cell membrane health.
- Understand which 4 foods are the most powerful food sources of the nutrients needed for optimal cell membrane health.
- Begin The Bear Diet and emphasize consuming the four foods most helpful to cell membrane health.
Metrics for Measuring Performance and Progress
Monitoring for levels of functional sufficiency of essential and conditionally essential fatty acids including:
- DHA
- EPA
- DPA
- ALA
- LA
- AA
*While we won’t discuss the simple method for monitoring nutritional levels and needs here – keep in mind that all your nutritional biomarkers can be done in a single simple test.
Step #2 Adoption of A Non-Toxic Lifestyle
A non-toxic lifestyle is a bit of a misnomer given there is no way to avoid all toxins BUT in cases of chronic illness it is critical to avoid placing any unnecessary burdens on the body, nervous system or cells.
Objectives
- Check the air quality of your living and working spaces for mold and environmental biotoxins.
- Ensure regular vacuuming, dusting, trash removal, and laundry are part of your regular routine.
- Keep the humidity of your living spaces below 50% and keep the temperature (if tolerated) below 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Choose uncarpeted living and working spaces whenever possible going forward.
- Take the simple steps to adopt a low artificial light lifestyle.
- Ensure that all your drinking water is coming from a high-quality filter or reverse osmosis system.
- Take the simple steps to reduce exposure to excessive manmade ETFs
- Note that The Bear Diet is free of toxic artificial ingredients, additives, fillers, thickeners, GMOs, and preservatives.
Metrics for Measuring Performance and Progress
Many of the most burdensome toxins to the body are biotoxins. Which are toxins that come from bacteria, fungi/mold, parasites, and viruses. Unfortunately, these biotoxins are in the air of the buildings we live and work in. You want to be dedicated to keeping your toxic burden far below average. There are four good metrics you can use to monitor how well you’re doing at keeping air-borne biotoxins low in your living spaces.
- TVOC Levels: Work to keep TVOC levels below .2 mg/m3
- PM2.5 Levels: Work to keep PM2.5 levels below 14 ug/m3
- PM10 Levels: Work to keep PM10 levels below 24 ug/m3
- HERTSMI-2 Score: Work to keep the HERTSMI-2 score of your home below 4
*TVOC, PM2.5, and PM10 levels can all be monitored 24/7 with an indoor air quality monitor.
Step #3 Increasing Neuroplasticity
Nervous system health is critical to the health of every body system. When neuroplasticity is high the potential and speed of healing and nervous system healing increases. On the other hand, when neuro rigidity is high the potential and speed of healing and nervous system healing is lowered or lost.
It should also be noted that when the body and nervous system are in the ‘freeze’ response neuroplasticity is essentially nonexistent. So in this step, you work to both come out of the ‘freeze’ response and to increase neuroplasticity.
Objectives
- Neurostimulation: Become more fully embodied through touch, massage and neurostimulation.
- Mindfulness / Awareness: Develop the practice of keeping your awareness on the sensations. Be mindful of what you are seeing, what you are hearing and what you are feeling. Increase your capacity to maintain this awareness by practicing it.
- Environment: Change up the sights and sounds in your environment. Try new pictures, new colors, new clothes, new artists, new music, new entertainment genres, and anything else that will arouse the senses of sight and sound.
- Openness, Curiosity, and Learning: Reawaken your inner child that is open and curious, and eager to learn and discover new things. Be open to ideas you were once closed to. Rather than triggering resistance, allow things you don’t understand to trigger curiosity. Have an eagerness to understand. All this will trigger neurogenesis in the brain and nervous system.
#4 Protein and Amino Acid Optimization
Just like lipids are the essential building blocks for cell membranes, proteins, and amino acids are the essential building blocks of the workers within cells and the workers that transport resources and information between cells and throughout the body and nervous system. Many of these workers are known as enzymes and neurotransmitters but there are other types of workers as well. For the body to create these critical ‘workers’ the body needs amino acids.
Objectives
- Learn why high glycine glutathione and high cysteine whey are powerful ways to raise the most abundant antioxidant in the body and cell – glutathione.
- Learn why consuming leafy greens in combination is important to optimal function and balance of the methylation cycle and neurotransmitter synthesis (creation).
- Learn why BCAAs (Branch Chain Amino Acids) are an important part of any diet that includes intermittant fasting or emphasizes shorter windows of eating or focuses on lower glycemic eating habits.
Metrics for Measuring Performance and Progress
Test for sufficient levels of:
- Methionine
- Glycine
- Cysteine
- Leucine
- Isoleucine
- Valine
- Tryptophan
- Tyrosine
#5 Mitochondrial Optimization
Having more and better functioning mitochondria is critical to healing. The amount of capacity that can be produced by the body or cell is limited to the number and function of the mitochondria.
- Intermittent Fasting:
- HIIT:
- Resistance Training:
Metrics for Measuring Performance and Progress
- VO2 Max
- Hemoglobin A1c Test
#6 Stress Management
Stress triggers the fight and flight state of the nervous system. When the body is in the fight and flight state it is in a state where it expends its precious healing resources on survival and preparing for battle instead of restoration and healing. We must learn to avoid as much bad stress as possible.
Objectives
- Understand that the unhealthy survival states of the nervous system are triggered by things that make you FEEL afraid, ashamed, isolated, trapped, controlled, hopeless, embarrassed, small, unaccepted, untolerated, unimportant, unsafe, or unloved.
- Brainstorm a list of items in your life that trigger these feelings.
- Mark the items that you can easily fix and make a plan to fix them.
- Mark the items that you think you can accept and/or change how you feel about them so that they are no longer a trigger. Practice not being triggered by these items.
- Mark the item that is the biggest and most common trigger in your life and make a plan on how you can work to resolve this issue. Follow through.
Metrics for Measuring Performance and Progress
- Sleeping HRV
- Sleeping Breathing Rate
- Sleeping Heart Rate
#7 Remineralization and Mineral Optimization
Minerals are essential to health, healing and longevity. They play a massive role in nervous system function, helping enzymes create energy, and the detoxification processes in the body.
Objectives
- Understand that healing is limited and stalled for mineral-depleted bodies and cells.
- Understand that the SAD does not have sufficient minerals to remineralize depleted cells.
- Understand that greens, cruciferous vegetables, berries, seafood and organ meats are excellent sources of minerals.
Metrics for Measuring Performance and Progress
Several minerals ought to be measured and monitored:
- Magnesium
- Manganese
- Zinc
- Molybdenum
- Selenium
- Iron
- Potassium
- Calcium
#8 Vagal Nerve Toning and Trauma Release Therapy
The importance of the vagus nerve cannot be overstated. It has two main branches the ventral vagal and the dorsal vagal. When people discuss the vagus nerve they are usually referring to the actions of the ventral branch of the vagus nerve. And that’s the part of the nerve we want to exercise and tone. This special nerve activates and increases the rest, digest, restore and healing functions of the nervous system and body. It directs resources to and coordinates activities of the organs that are in charge of digestion, breathing, blood flow, detoxification and healing. When you use vagal toning exercises to increase the activation of the rest and restore state of the body you are also decreasing the resources that are directed to fight, flight and freeze actions of the body. If you remain in fight, flight or freeze you cannot enjoy the healing benefits of rest and restore. Unfortunately, far too many people are spending the majority of their day in the stress states of fight, flight, and freeze.
Objectives
- Learn top exercises to increase the ‘rest and digest’ or ‘rest and restore’ state of the nervous system.
- Adopt a daily 15-minute meditation practice.
- Understand the breathing techniques that increase and decrease vagal tone/activity.
- Learn the impact tension, tightness and trauma have on the vagus nerve.
- Learn to express what you feel in a healthy and safe way.
- Embrace the playfulness of your inner child (which will increasingly awaken with vagal and trauma work).
- Commit to a daily practice of pandiculation (the practice of releasing and relaxing), breathwork, and extended static stretches.
- Listen to music and sing and dance while listening.
Metrics for Measuring Performance and Progress
- Sleeping HRV
- Pre and Post Meditation HRV
#9 Rest, Sleep and Engage with Others
Objectives
- Make an effort to engage with others in person at work by day and at play by night.
- Ensure ultra-low blue light exposure after sunset.
- Get to bed early enough to wake up with the sunrise without alarms.
- Sleep in complete darkness.
- Sleep with electronics away from you.
- Do turn on bright lights to visit the bathroom at night.
- Sleep with a grounding sheet and/or grounding pillow.
- Enjoy direct sunrise light on your face in the mornings to set your sleep cycle.
Metrics for Measuring Performance and Progress
- Average night sleep duration
- Average minutes of deep sleep
- Sleep Score
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