119. Can Exercise Change the Course of Disease? How Movement Improves the Odds of Healing

Does an Alzheimer's diagnosis really mean that memory loss and cognitive decline are inevitable? Research is challenging long-held assumptions about Alzheimer's disease. Recent studies have documented improvements in memory and cognitive function among some people with early Alzheimer's using personalized and multifaceted lifestyle interventions. In this episode, we'll examine what these studies actually found, why addressing factors beyond the brain itself may matter, and how to identify potential contributors to cognitive decline. You'll learn which areas I'd investigate first after an Alzheimer's diagnosis and what practical changes may help support brain function and recovery.

Could your blood sugar be affecting your ability to heal—even if your bloodwork looks normal? If you're facing cancer, Alzheimer's, dementia, MS, Parkinson's, heart disease, or another chronic illness, blood sugar and insulin resistance may matter more than you realize. Research is revealing connections between metabolic dysfunction, inflammation, immune function, brain health, and even cancer outcomes. And surprisingly, insulin resistance can develop long before blood sugar levels become abnormal. In this episode, you'll discover why blood sugar and insulin are important to healing, which blood tests to review—including fasting glucose, A1C, and fasting insulin—and how to recognize metabolic problems that standard bloodwork may miss. You'll also learn practical ways to improve blood sugar regulation through simple dietary changes, meal order, movement, sleep, and stress management.

What if something that happened years—or even decades—ago is still creating a physiological response in your body today? Trauma can trigger a threat response that can affect the nervous system, stress physiology, inflammation, and immune signaling years after the event occured, and research suggests that addressing stressful experiences can sometimes produce measurable changes in physical health. In this episode, we explore the connection between trauma and the body, including fascinating research on PTSD, adverse childhood experiences, inflammation, and chronic disease. You’ll learn how to recognize experiences that may still carry an emotional or physical “charge,” what processing trauma actually means, and several approaches that can help—from journaling and trauma-focused therapy to EMDR, mindfulness, breathwork, and body-based techniques.

If you’ve been treating symptoms but want to understand what may actually be driving your illness, your health history and bloodwork can contain important clues. In this episode, we’re going beyond the idea of one single “root cause” and building a practical investigation map for chronic illness. You’ll learn how to look for patterns involving nutrition and metabolism, infections, gut health, environmental exposures, medications, hormones, stress, and more. Then we’ll get extremely practical: I’ll walk you through the bloodwork I’d want to see when investigating chronic illness, including CBC, CMP, glucose, A1C, insulin, iron, vitamin D, thyroid and inflammation markers—and explain what those results can tell you. You’ll also learn why “normal” doesn’t always tell the whole story, how to spot trends and patterns in your existing labs, and what to bring to your doctor or practitioner so you can ask better questions. Start by pulling up your latest bloodwork, and listen along as we begin looking for the clues your body may already be giving you. Join my free email community for practical healing tools, research, survivor stories, and encouragement between episodes: https://TheRenegadeNutritionist.com

If you’ve been sick for years and are afraid you waited too long to start trying to heal, this episode is for you. Chronic illness can leave you looking backward—wishing you had changed your nutrition sooner, managed stress differently, found another treatment, or known then what you know now. But having a disease for a long time does not necessarily mean your biology has stopped responding to change. In this episode, we explore what happened when one man dramatically changed course after 13 years of severe heart disease, along with extraordinary recovery stories involving advanced cancer, organ failure, and hospice. We’ll also look at research showing that meaningful biological and functional change can occur even after disease has been established for years. Most importantly, you’ll learn how to stop measuring your possibilities by what you didn't do five years ago and begin asking a much more useful question: What can I change now? Join my free email community for practical healing tools, research, survivor stories, and encouragement between episodes: https://TheRenegadeNutritionist.com