WHY Holistic Health

Hear me loud and clear — I am not a doctor.

But I am no stranger to low ferritin.
Im fully aware of the standard checklist: Heavy periods? Pregnancy? Poor diet?Intense exercise?— the list is long (and don’t tick those boxes)
The one nobody talks about is chronic stress driving down stomach acid so your body can’t absorb iron in the first place.
This is my story:
I diligently took my prescribed supplement, WITH Vitamin C for absorption. WITHOUT Calcium at the same time, because it inhibits absorption… (SO many rules!) I did all the expensive tests- everything came back negative. Still, I knew the feeling in my body when my iron was low. Then as standard practice, I’d do the expensive blood test again. The results came back under 10. Sometimes way more alarming than that… And the only solution is a million rand (not really - but feels like it- iron infusion…. So NO! - I had to just get on with it.

So through living the experience followed by the rabbit hole I take myself down to figure things out- I have found success (😂 story of my life)

There is direct correlation between whats going on in my life and my ferritin dropping.
So now, I slow myself down,
I adjust my exercise to lessen any extra stress on my body, I release stored tension through my TRE practice, and I work on rewiring my nervous system so that I don’t stay in the loop that’s keeping my body braced and unable to prioritise my digestion.

AND at the same time…

I support my stomach acid — apple cider vinegar before meals, ginger shots, Betaine HCl.

And within days, I feel my body begin to shift, my energy lifts, which, let’s face it-makes everything easier. (I haven’t even gotten into the part about iron also being good for our serotonin levels…)

Anyway, this works for me.

If this resonates with you, if your ferritin levels are always low and your expensive iron supplements do nothing but make you constipated… there is enough information out there for you to do your own research on how stress affects iron absorption and ferratin levels.

But please.

Stop underestimating your stress state.
It is costing you more than you think.

This is the one that breaks my heart a little every time. - Hence the reason I repeat this message SO often!

Because I see her everywhere.

She has read the books. Done the programmes. Tried the protocols.
She is genuinely doing everything right.

And her body is still not responding.

But she doesn't want to hear this:

When your nervous system is stuck in a threat state, your prefrontal cortex — the part of your brain responsible for clear thinking, decision-making, and recovery — goes offline.

Your body is not prioritising digestion or metabolism or restful sleep.

It is prioritising survival.

And no supplement, no diet, no sleep hygiene protocol can override that signal.

The body will not release what it's holding until it feels safe.

That is not a metaphor.
That is how the autonomic nervous system works.

So if this is you — if you are doing everything right and your body still isn't responding — please hear this:

You are not the problem.
You have just been missing one piece.

And that piece is understanding regulation.

Send this to the woman who is exhausted from trying.

Why the Adults in the Room Need Tending to First We book the appointments, run the assessments, and ask what's wrong with our children. We pour everything we have into finding answers for them. Very rarely, almost never, do we stop to turn the same...

I've just published something that I think a lot of parents need to read — and honestly, it's something I needed to write.

We pour so much into our children. The appointments, the assessments, the research, the showing up. And most of us are doing all of that while carrying things we haven't yet tended to in ourselves.

What I've come to understand — through my own journey as a mother, and through my work with the nervous system — is that our children don't just respond to what we say or do. They absorb what we carry. The grief. The stress. The patterns we inherited and never questioned.

And that changes where the real work begins.

If any of this is landing, the full article is here: https://www.brainzmagazine.com/post/why-the-adults-in-the-room-need-tending-to-first

I'd love to know what comes up for you when you read it. 🖤

Why did it take me 46 (or 47, I'm not sure; I feel justified in losing count between 45 and 50) years to get here?

To the place where learning actually lands.
Where I read a page and not only does it stick, it stays - and I WANT to know what comes next.
Where going down the rabbit hole of the topic is MY favourite thing to do 😂
(If you knew me at school, you would know this is not the "me" we knew)

Okay...Three reasons.

One — I discovered I have ADHD. (hence taking so long to get to the actual point)

Late diagnosis. Which means a lifetime of thinking I was lazy - struggling to finish things - needing to re-read the same paragraph forty-seven times, and then just drawing a picture next to it instead- feeling everything more intensely than everyone else and masking well enough that nobody noticed.

And finally understanding WHY..

Two — I learned how to regulate my nervous system. (hands down number 1 lifetime gamechanger!!- I just can't put it first because it wasn't in that order)

When your body is in survival mode —
cortisol is elevated and your threat response is active —
your prefrontal cortex goes OFFLINE.

That's the part responsible for focus, memory, and learning.

You cannot absorb information properly when part of your nervous system is still watching for the threat.

Parasympathetic state changes everything.
Safe. Open. Present.

Information lands differently when you're in that place. (More reason to make sure your kids understand regulation if you expect them to do well at school -read my Brainz Mag article, link in bio😂)

Three — I have never been more in awe of the content of the work I do.

The science of the nervous system, fascia, trauma, neuroplasticity — people... it pulls me in every single time, because it just makes SO much sense!

I am so in love with this curious life of mine! - And also, I really recommend taking your hands off the wheel sometime and going with the flow.

46/7 years to get here.
Worth every one.

When we tip into fight response, the prefrontal cortex — the part of the brain responsible for reason, empathy, and measured response — goes offline. What remains is the amygdala. The brain's threat detection system.

The amygdala's job is to detect threat and keep us safe. So when someone goes quiet in the middle of a fight — and if quiet in conflict is not what your nervous system knows — it sends the only message it knows.

Danger.

So when our child shuts down or goes quiet, a flooded brain doesn't read it as "they need space." It reads it as threat.

We escalate into their shutdown.

Not because we're bad parents. Because we're human nervous systems doing exactly what we were designed to do.

In that moment, we can't reason our way back either. We're in survival too.

What actually helps is the thing that feels most counterintuitive in the moment.

Getting quieter.

Slowing down. Staying present without escalating. Offering the nervous system beside yours something different to read.

That's co-regulation. And it starts with understanding what's happening — in them, and in you.