Is your prolapse a depletion problem?

We all know that prolapse is associated with “weak” pelvic floors.
Most of you here have tried all the kegels.
Many of you have tried *breathing.
Some of you may have even worked on your **biomechanics/movement patterns in daily life and exercise.

If you HAVEN’T tried the ** strategies above those are HUGE rocks for overcoming prolapse, so file that away, we will come back to that!

But NOT many people know that prolapse is in fact a depletion issues.

When our bodies are lacking in energy, nourishment, emotional support and healing, they sink.

Yep they 100% do.

In fact, the Chinese, who have been treating prolapse since the Jin dynasty (266 AD to 420 AD) so I think they know a thing or two about it, focus PRIMARILY on treating spleen chi depletion in the body when prolapse symptoms arise.

They believe that a lifting of the energy lifts the organs and treats the underlying cause of the sinking of which we feel the musckoskeletal consequences.



And while that may sound a little “woowoo” to you, think about it.
Do your prolapse symptoms increase when you feel down, depressed, anxious, heavy from the world, slouch and sad?

I know mine does!

And so let’s talk a little bit more about the indicators that YOUR prolapse is an energy issue and NOT just a muscular one, i.e. you are struggling with depletion!


#1. You don’t sleep well.
If you’re sleeping less than 8 hours a night OR you sleep 8-9 hours a night but its disrupted, then that sleep deprivation could be contributing to your sinking feelings in your pelvic organs.
When we are well rested we are better able to detox appropriately, digest foods, repair tissues, recover from workouts etc., but we also carry our bodies differently.
We have a lifted spirit and a lifted body!

#2. You feel like you’re going to crash late afternoon OR after a workout.

Feeling SUPER low energy in the afternoon especially after a workout is an indicator that your adrenals are struggling.
Your adrenal glands are located at your kidneys and when they are not happy it can be an indicator of poor kidney health, maybe not the kind that sends you to the doctor with urinary issues, but the kind that causes an increase in prolapse problems, including incontinence.
MANY of us type A ladies grow accustomed to using adrenaline to get things done in our lives.
You know that urge to start a new project, solve someone else’s problems, do a hard workout, add more stress to our lives because when we are busy we are more productive?
Yeah, that’s bad for your prolapse-and can also cause over-tightening of the pelvic floor which is not uncommon in women with prolapse!

Spleen chi deficiency and kidney chi deficiency are two forms of energy depletion arising in the body that will absolutely manifest in prolapse issues.

We push, push, push on our bodies and even though many of us have heard about “adrenal fatigue” we don’t really

#3 You have skin and food intolerance issues.

Yes, this is linked to gut health, but if you’ve read my articles here then you know that gut health and pelvic health are 100% linked, like if you struggle with one, you most likely struggle with the other.

But in this case I would say that your liver is the kingpin for issues.
A congested liver makes it difficult for the body to remove toxins and expired hormones.
The result?

Bad skin. Bad gut. Bad hormones. Bad feelings.

Spleen chi is directly impacted by the liver as well so if your liver in working overtime either because your 1. disrupted sleep interrupts your detox cycles, 2. your stress prevents adequate digestions which creates toxicity in the body OR 3. because your life style leads to intestinal permeability (over-exercising, consuming toxins, under-resting), your prolapse is a depletion issue.

#4 You have a short fuse.

Maybe not all of the time, but if often you find yourself snapping at your kids or hubs, losing it when a glass get’s broken or just feeling so much stress and tension in your body when something goes wrong, that can be a sign you’re emotionally and energetically deplete!

You may feel that perhaps your frustrations with your body are causing you to be ill at ease and that if you could just get your body back, you would be calmer and feel more like yourself, but the truth is that a spleen that is struggling, a liver that is congested and a body that is deplete may actually be the source of your issues!

#5 Your hormones are erratic

I don’t care if it’s strong mood swings, sadness, the need to sleep, painful periods, irregular periods, STRONG emotional responses to things at certain times in your cycle, or just other common indicators of hormone imbalances, your hormones acting wacky is a sign of depletion!

When our livers are congested, they become stagnant and negatively impact the health of the spleen, gut and gall bladder.
The energy imbalance that ensues can cause tight jaws, muscle aches, headaches, sciatica and so many other issues, but the important thing to know is that hormonal imbalances almost ALWAYS indicate a liver health issue and a liver health issues means energy in the body is blocked.

Without that energy flow we sink and our organs sink with us.

What to do about it?

One of my FAVORITE aspects about God’s design for the human body is that there are MANY ways to heal, many roads in to the root cause of pain, discomfort and sub-optimal functioning.

If you’ve made it this far in the article and you’ve said, “Yes, this is me,” to any or all of these indicators, then you need SMART programming.
You need more than just kegels and core-training exercises, you need to learn how to STOP sinking!

I have an entire program designed do help women address this issue called, Hold Up!
Hold Up! is a digital course that will help you change the 5 habits behind your prolapse, address the depletion we talked about in this article and teach you how to USE EXERCISE to heal your body and CONQUER PROLAPSE.

***But before you’re ready for that program, I want you to try two things for me!

1. I want you to start practicing breathing with your diaphragm three times per day for 5-10 breaths minimum!

If you don’t know how to do that, please take my FREE digital course.
I will teach you how to breathe in the most effective way possible to start supporting and lifting your body.


What students are saying about my course:
”I feel like I’ve gotten more oxygen in these past 36 hours than I have in my whole life!” -Archi

”Makes so much sense. I have suffered from burning in the bladder for so many years. Tried so many diets, nothing has worked. Using the breath and focusing on relaxing my pelvic floor is the first time anything has worked to relieve the pain and make me regular in the mornings. Thank you Sarah, I’m so glad I have found you.” -Julie

”Single most powerful things I have done in my life!
Thanks to you and 2020 for calming my nervous system.” -Sam

It works and it will get you some early wins to help LIFT your body and support your liver, gut, hormones and nervous system to help you feel less like you’re drowning.

2. I also want you to take Epsom salt baths 3x a week to help detox the body and calm your nervous system.
BONUS points if you practice your breath IN the bath tub!

STAY tuned for Hold Up! coming soon!

In the meantime, tune into Dirty Strength Radio™ for more support, love and free coaching!

My personal benefits experienced from using an Infrared sauna and also, scientism

There are loads of articles on the benefits of infrared (IR) sauna use, but this ain’t one of them.

If you want evidence-based research on these things, then I recommend checking out the articles I link below.


THIS ARTICLE is simply about the changes I saw in my own body.

Our modern culture and obsession with “scientism” (research considered science that may or not be repeatable, scientific method-proof or without bias, aka-funded by the people that stand to make money off of the “results”.
Yes I made up that definition.

In the quest for regular folks to ONLY post “scientifically- sound” information on social media or even share it in conversation with friends, we have done something very silly and unscientific and that is we have lost an appreciation for anecdotal evidence.

A friend’s or trusted person’s testimony about their own person experience can in many cases be MORE relevant and helpful to regular folks like you and me, than a peer-reviewed journal articles conducted by strangers, on strangers.

YES we have to be discerning and responsible about what we believe, what we are willing to try with our own bodies and pocketbooks, but the idea that something ISN’T valid if it doesn’t have citations and footnotes from articles that let’s face it, most of the general public can’t even read and comprehend, is silly.

I’m not saying we should ignore science and or jump on every fad that comes down the pike, BUT I do believe that people’s personal stories can actually lead us to scientific discovery.
After all, all science is is people making observations about responses to changes in variable.

We are PEOPLE and we can make observations too!

In fact we regular people and our observations can drive scientific exploration and funding because science is a business.
It costs money to do science so then science needs to make money and if the public show that they are willing to pay for things, then the science will follow.

But I digress…

Ok, so SAUNA!

I have an IR sauna.
I purchased it in 2018 from High Tech Health because of their VERY low EMFs and VOCs.

I love it.

I typically sauna 3-4 times a week for 30-40 minutes.
The temperature reaches 145.

I TRY to mostly just read in the sauna, since it seems silly to buy a low EMF sauna and then BRING emfs in the sauna with you (i.e. my iPad) but I’m a human and sometimes I just want to. zone out and watch a show OR I need to do some work while I sauna and I just “kiss it up to God”-is that a thing for EMF’s? I don’t know, but I do it.

I do not plan my meals around the sauna-I MOST often sauna after dinner once the kids are in bed because that’s what I can do consistently.

And I typically drink an entire mason jar glass of water while I’m in there.


Ok, now lets get to the good part!

Why did I get an IR Sauna?

Most of you know me here as someone that values strength training, has worked hard to rehab my own pelvic floor ( I have pelvic organ prolapse ) as well as others and I LOVE supporting the gut.

I’ve learned over the years that BOTH pelvic health and gut health are tied strongly to LIVER decongestion.

A congested liver is bad for the gut and proper tissue growth.
It drains the entire system which creates a sinking of energy, organs and mood.

AND so after trying various other strategies to improve my overall health, I decided that an IR sauna was in order.
I had talked with multiple people that had explained to me how the routine gentle detox caused by an infrared sauna was just the ticket to getting their bodies to slowly release toxins in return to homeostasis.

”It has been known for decades that sweating is a wonderful way to get rid of stored chemicals, including heavy metals. In fact, a sauna is one of the detoxification procedures used in the Environmental Units in Dallas (Dr. William Rea) and North Charleston (Dr. Allan Lieberman) where the sickest of folks go to heal.” Dr. Sherry Rogers, Total Wellness, May 2000.”

What changes have I noticed from using the sauna?

1. The most noticeable change is my sensitivity to food and digestive distress
   When I purchased the sauna, despite having worked with TWO different functional medicine doctors that supposedly helped me clear out Candida and multiple parasite infections, I was still having random stomach aches, digestive issues and sensitive to various foods with no clear pattern.
   
   Just BAM for no reason I was struggling.
   
   After about 4 months of using the sauna routinely, I noticed that stopped.
   Stomach aches and digestive challenges no longer just appeared for no reason.
   I would get them, but for very specific reasons-more on that another time.
   
   I also noticed that I just wasn’t nearly as food sensitive.
   I could be less militant about avoiding certain grains and dairy because my body was cool with it.
   I didn’t go off the rails or anything, but feeling LESS fearful or stressed about food triggers relaxed me which also contributed to my reduced digestive issues.
   
   
   
   
   

2. My skin
   Before the sauna I had noticed that my back was more susceptible to breakouts. I wasn’t getting them on my face so much, but my back, so annoying!
   My acupuncturist explained to me that it’s excess heat or dampness in the body, which is ALSO associated with Candida.
   Using the sauna seemed to resolve this in about 2 months.
   
   While I do believe that sweating so much helped me to clean out my pores and clear my skin, I was pretty sure my back breaking out was a toxin/hormone/liver issue brought on my stress and Candida.
   I was lifting heavier at the time, which means more testosterone and other hormones, which means the liver has to work harder to clear out old expired hormones.
   I also wasn’t resting as much as I needed too, too much life in the sympathetic and not enough parasympathetic.
   AND I knew I had tested with some high levels of Candia multiple times.
   
   Since we know that sauna helps to gently detoxify the body especially of heavy metals and toxins associated with liver congestion and Candida, I’m not surprised that using it for a couple of months cleared my skin.
   Learning to value the process of resting and detoxifying the body because I saw the value of it via the sauna, ALSO contributed to my shifting my training program and expectations for my body that no doubt helped with toxin load as well!
   
   
   
   
   

3. Soreness
   
   I pretty much sauna every day that I train and I’m now rarely very sore from a workout.
   Keep in mind that being sore from EVERY workout is not normal.
   It can be a sign of over-training, so if you’re reading this and you do experience lots of soreness form every workout, I would recommend getting with a professional that can take a second look at your training program and make sure you are getting adequate rest and recovery-a MUST for good gains and results.
   
   But yeah, there are workouts that I do that challenge my body in a new way and I expect to be sore from it and it’s just not the case if I sauna and I usually do.
   
   
   
   
   
   

4. Sleep
   
   When I first started with the sauna it would knock me out.
   
   I would sauna, shower and get in bed and pass out and sleep the entire night.
   And that was mostly the case for months.
   
   I don’t notice that as much any more.
   My body has adapted to the sauna and I think I have also caught up on a lot of MUCH needed sleep.
   I don't pass out and I may wake up from time to time, but in the beginning when I was probably severely sleep-deprived after a sauna sesh, I was ZONKED!
   
   I typically sleep 10 hours a night now, but if you are someone that struggles to fall asleep and stay asleep, I tell ya, try the IR sauna-just don’t bring your blue light screen in there with you which will wake you up!
   
   
   
   
   

5. Sickness
   
   If any of us (my husband or one of my three boys) feel under the weather, run down or like we are fighting something but are neither dehydrated or nauseous, we do the sauna.
   
   My boys (10, 8 and 5) do abbreviated sessions at lower temperatures and MAN it’s remarkable.
   They rarely get sick as it is, but when they feel a little run down, we put them in there for about 15-20 minutes and not only do they sleep harder, but they don’t get sick!

   
   Same goes for my husband and I.
   Any indication that we are not feeling well or are fighting something off, we get in the sauna and we don’t get sick, Praise the Lord!
   
   **I will say, having this baby over the past year (2020) has been a HUGE blessing.
   I totally trust in our immune systems and the decisions we’ve made/work we do in this household to invest in, exercise and protect them and to me having an IR sauna is part of our prevention program at the Smith household!
   
   
   
   
   
   Ok well, in the words of the great Levar Burton, “Don’t take my word for it, find out for yourself!”
   Get in a sauna!
   
   Many cities have IR sauna and cryotherapy spas that you can join and use.
   I think the lowed model for the HighTech health sauna is about $4k or so.
   Not cheap, I get it, but when I tallied up all the money I was spending on tests and solutions for my gut health issues, I have to say that sauna has paid for itself OVER and OVER again!
   
   We know that parasite infections, Candida (and I had both detected by various tests) are connected to heavy metals in the body.
   In fact, some research shows that Candida is PROTECTIVE against heavy metal poisoning because Candida complexes with the metals in the body to render them less harmful.
   
   Using the sauna to GENTLY detox my body seemed to help me with the symptoms associated with high levels of Candida in the body AND improve the overall health of my microbiome and intestinal lining.

   
   Now for some science!
   Most of these sources are enjoyable to read and cite peer-reviewed science too!
   
   
   
   Resources on IR saunas:
   
   Mercola on sauna use for protection against disease
   Detoxify or Die
   Ten Scientifically Proven Reasons I’m Addicted To A Daily Sauna
   Candida and sauna

   Science behind heavy metal detox and sauna
   Maximize the benefits of sauna detox
   
   
   
   Sauna’s are AWESOME, but if you want to maximize the benefit of your sauna time, then take my nervous-system relaxing breath course, Better Than Kegels and literally change your body!
   
   
   “Having pelvic floor problems for about 16 years, I have tried many, many different methods for treatment and relief. Not until Sarah’s program of diaphragmatic breathing have I begun begun feel better and not had a need for daily medication to relax my pelvic floor. My new breathing practice has helped me to fall back asleep if I awaken in the night — a many years’ struggle for me.  I am a convert and true believer in her programs and so thankful to have found her!!!”

   ~Amanda ❤️ 
   
   ”It’s a miracle! I already have less pain and I haven’t been dizzy after just three days of breathing like this!”

   -R. Boer
   
   

Tap into the power of your breath

to soother your pain, digestive distress and pelvic floor problems!