Warning Signs You’re Sliding Down the Health Ladder
Imagine there’s a ladder—and it represents your health.
At the top of the ladder is your best health ever.
You’re energized, motivated, balanced, and thriving. You’re kicking butt and loving every minute.
This is where you want to be – at the top of the ladder.
As we go through life, we get exposed to toxins and infections, then nutrient deficiencies creep in.
And if we aren’t consciously protecting against them and flushing them out, we begin to experience symptoms.
We’ve officially moved down the health ladder.
This is where things like moodiness, joint aches and pains, low energy, brain fog, or constipation creep in.
If we don’t do anything about it at this stage, we continue to move down the ladder… nearer the bottom where diagnoses and disorders happen.
The symptoms are so prolonged and bothersome that they get official names—anxiety, depression, autoimmune diseases, hypertension, arthritis, just to name a few.
We may get put on medication or have to do some other sort of serious medical intervention.
And if we still don’t address the root cause (yep, those pesky toxins, infections, and nutrient deficiencies), we progress to end-stage disease.
Things like cancer, diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and more.
It’s the end of the ladder.
I’m not getting all morbid to scare you… it’s just a fact of life these days.
But it doesn’t have to look like this.
My goal is to catch you before you fall.
And help move you back up the health ladder… together.
Before we get into HOW we do that… let’s explore each of the factors that cause you to slip down the ladder bit by bit.
Inflammation
Inflammation is a normal and healthy immune response to dangerous invaders, pathogens, and injuries.
However, chronic low-grade inflammation — triggered by modern lifestyles — inflicts tremendous harm.
Research shows that systemic, cellular inflammation is the underlying mechanism behind today’s most lethal conditions: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and more.
Chronic, low-level inflammation has no obvious signs like acute inflammation does (heat, pain, or swelling). It happens subtly, at the microscopic level.
So what exactly is going on with low-level inflammation in the body?
Special immune cells called cytokines get produced at slightly high—-but constant levels—and circulate everywhere, creating oxidative stress and damage.
This can go on for years, as the roving inflammatory cytokines interact with tissues in organs, muscles, joints, arteries, and even the brain. Over time, they inflict damage that adds up.
For example, some overactive cytokines trigger a buildup of plaque in blood vessels. As this builds over the years, it hardens arteries and raises the risk of heart attack and stroke.
In the brain, inflammatory cytokines can gradually kill nerve cells and connections between them. As this spreads, mental function starts to decline, potentially leading to forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.
Joint tissue also erodes from years of attacks by cytokines, resulting in painful arthritis. The pancreas can also lose insulin-producing cells, contributing to diabetes.
The key point is chronic inflammation sparks destructive small processes here and there on the microscopic scale. But as cells die or dysfunction accumulates across tissues, eventual disease results. Avoiding this fate requires identifying and treating sources of continuous low-grade inflammation.
What Fuels Systemic Inflammation?
Trouble foods top the list, especially intake of sugar, refined carbohydrates, industrial seed oils, factory-farmed animals, gluten, dairy, GMO foods, etc. Processed foods are loaded with toxic chemicals, trans fats, and fillers the body doesn’t recognize as nutrients.
What else fuels the flames of inflammation?
Chronic stress – Prolonged activation of the “fight or flight” stress response over-stimulates inflammatory pathways through repeated release of cortisol and cytokines, keeping the body’s immune system in a constant state of hyper-alertness that ultimately harms healthy tissues.
Environmental toxins – Exposure to hazardous substances, like heavy metals, air pollution, and chemicals,.
Together these factors keep inflammation switched “on”, degrading health over time.
How To Address Inflammation and Move Back Up the Health Ladder
An anti-inflammatory lifestyle offers profound healing power. Its cornerstones include:
Cut out trouble foods: corn, soy, processed sugar, canola oil, eggs, dairy, pork, farmed fish, and gluten are some of the top trouble foods.
Omega 3s from fatty fish sources inhibit inflammatory messaging between cells (but be careful with foods and supplements as many have a high mercury count)
Stress moderation practices like meditation, exercise, or journaling trigger anti-inflammatory nervous system responses, lowering inflammation-producing adrenaline and cortisol
Reducing exposure to environmental toxins minimizes inflammatory reactions triggered by immune system cells trying to neutralize irritants
Research confirms this approach extinguishes inflammatory fires so the body can rebalance homeostasis and heal.
Pathogens
Foreign invaders like bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites pose another threat to staying high on the health ladder. They live all over our bodies and while many are helpful in terms of immune function and digestion, some are harmful germs that make us sick.
Many kinds of pathogens live in our body - some dormant, some actively feeding off the trouble foods and environmental toxins that penetrate our body. They wreak havoc inside the body.
When bad bugs like Candida yeast, SIBO bacteria, or stealth infections take over, big problems happen. They release toxins and steal nutrients we need. As they spread, they create hard-to-treat chronic infections that have a downline effect that contributes to overall health decline.
How To Address Infections and Move Back Up the Health Ladder
Identifying which infections are the root cause of the problem and eliminating them is the key to moving up the health ladder.
Get testing done through a functional medicine practitioner to identify hidden viral, bacterial, parasitic, or fungal infections
Promoting the growth and proliferation of “good” bacteria in the gut microbiome using probiotics and prebiotics.
Eliminating pathogens’ preferred food sources.
Boost immune function with diet, sleep, stress relief and key supplements.
Toxic Load
Every day, we face an avalanche of toxins from modern life that our bodies struggle to process.
Toxins are everywhere:
Heavy metals like lead and mercury lurking in our homes and food sources.
Hormone-disrupting chemicals like BPA and phthalates leak out of plastics and packaging materials, ending up in our food and environment.
Herbicides and pesticides in our food, water, air, and the fibers of our clothes.
Air pollution from both indoor (VOCs) and outdoor (car exhaust, industrial sources, and power generation).
Toxic chemicals in conventional personal care items and cleaners that get absorbed through our skin or inhaled,
The body tries detoxifying this chemical barrage through the liver, kidney, and gut. But it often gets overwhelmed, allowing toxins to accumulate in tissues and cause harm over decades.
Research connects high toxic exposures to nearly all chronic illnesses: cancer, heart disease, diabetes, depression, Parkinson’s, autoimmune disorders including rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease including ulcerative colitis, and so on. So reducing contact with toxins is key.
How To Address Toxic Load and Move Back Up the Health Ladder
Avoid toxin sources as much as possible – wash your produce well and/or choose organic produce, filter your water (whole house if you can afford it), use natural personal care and cleaning products, and invest in a high-quality air purifier (the kind that has a 0.1 HEPA filter, which removes airborne contaminants as small as 0.1 microns.
Support detox pathways with nutrients that help your body draw out toxins, process them, and eliminate them from your internal drainage pathways.
Get a toxin test to reveal individual toxin levels and areas that need special focus.
Retest toxin levels through specialty labs after several months to monitor progress, identify areas of continuing focus, or refine protocols to address stubborn toxins.
How To Know What’s Causing Your Slide Down the Health Ladder
Most people assume there is a single source behind their health problems, but the truth is that it’s often multiple factors.
The foundational step is to resolve the four main factors we’ve just discussed: inflammation, infections, nutrient deficiencies, and environmental toxins.
Now here’s the thing…
Everyone’s path up the ladder looks different.
Your best friend or partner may have the same symptoms or diagnosis as you, but the root causes could be completely different.
Maybe your problem stems from mycotoxins (mold) and maybe theirs is rooted in pesticide exposure.
Maybe your microbiome has been taken over by “bad” gut bacteria… and your body simply can’t process the nutrients you need from food.
Instead of guessing and hoping you land on the right changes, it’s much better (not to mention faster and less expensive) to find out what’s going on inside your body.
A functional medicine practitioner (like me) has many tools to work with—things your primary care physician likely won’t offer you.
Not because they don’t care, but because most of them are locked into a healthcare system that doesn’t give them that kind of flexibility or training.
What I know for sure, because I’ve seen it in my practice consistently, is that when you address the root cause, your health improves.
That means fewer doctor appointments.
Money back in your pocket because you save on prescriptions and testing.
More time for yourself—whether that’s to spend with your family, grow your career, volunteer at your church, or just read under a cozy blanket—because you’re full of energy and motivation… not too wiped to do anything or afraid to be too far away from your own bathroom.
More confidence in how you look, feel, and perform because you have the energy, mental clarity, and trust in your body to do what you want, when you want.
Moving back up the ladder is totally possible—and while it’s not going to be an overnight fix, it is the path to permanent results.
I’d love to help you move up that ladder… with your own customized and rock-solid plan.
Let’s see if we’re a good fit.