How Serotonin Affects Mood, Metabolic Health, and Obesity Through It's Impact on Brown Adipose Tissue

Psychogenic Fever, Depression, Anxiety, Thyroid Issues, and Low-Level Infection: The Perfect Storm

The Role of Iron in Psychogenic Fever Iron has a profound effect on fat and muscle tissue. Iron deficiency causes big problems in the body starting with a reduction in the number of red blood cells available to provide oxygen to every cell in the body. Iron deficiency impairs exercise capacity, it increases insulin resistance, reduces AMP-activated kinase activity, and it increases the risk of developing diabetes and obesity.  The thing is, if you have a low-level infection, your body will sequester the iron in your body and put the iron in the mononuclear phagocyte system. The mononuclear phagocyte system is a network of immune cells that includes monocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells, all of which are derived from bone marrow. These immune cells police the body for infection...

Chapter 3: Herbalism for Toxoplasmosis

Herbs for Toxoplasmosis There are many herbal remedies for toxoplasmosis, it’s true. In this section, we’ll talk about a few herbs that have a known, anti-Toxoplasma effect, but to really get the most out of an herbal remedy for toxoplasmosis, you have to realize that herbs don’t work like antibiotics to heal the body. Often, you have to take high doses of an herb for long periods of time to really see what that herb can do. Herbs don’t cover up symptoms (unless this is one of its medicinal effects). Rather, herbs are generally working to balance the body’s physiology to restore health.  Click here to schedule a health coaching call with us.   I remember my own initial consideration of herbs just a year or two after I’d completed my undergrad degree as a pre-med student majoring in biolo...

Fever Caused by Stress: Underlying Causes and Effective Treatments

Psychogenic Fever and Norepinephrine In the scientific literature and conventional medicine, psychogenic fever is a “disease”, but we might also look at psychogenic fever as evidence that we all possess the same abilities as the Tibetan monks doing Inner Fire meditations to consciously raise their body temperature in very cold conditions to a point where steam rises from their backs. Advanced practitioners of this practice can raise the temperature of their fingers and toes by up to 17°F.  But if your body is responding to emotional stress by producing a fever without your conscious control, this issue needs to be remedied. Stressing out about your fever because it is a “disease” per your doctor isn’t helpful. In fact, the story that you tell yourself about what’s causing these feve...

Psychogenic Fever: What It Is and How to Get Rid of It

Brown Adipose Tissue, Fever, and Emotional Stress-Induced Hyperthermia Emotional stress-induced hyperthermia, also known as “psychogenic fever” is a basic stress response that occurs in relation to an increase in physical activity and stressful events. Normally, psychogenic fever promotes adaptation to stress, but when stressors are chronic and ongoing, this can lead to chronic hyperthermia or chronic psychogenic fever.  At a doctor’s office, a psychogenic fever might be explained to the patient as “psychosomatic” or as a problem that’s “all in the patient’s head”. In fact, this isn’t true and this type of explanation is incorrect because it fails to recognize the autonomic nervous system as the very well-studied and well-documented mediator between mind and body. What doctors cl...