The MEN1 Mosaic

#40 - Is Stress Making Your Disease Worse? (Dr Gail Sharman, Functional Medicine Doctor)

• Lizzie Dunn • Season 1 • Episode 40

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How does stress affect your body, and what can you do about it?

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Gail Sharman, a functional medicine doctor specialising in stress and anxiety, to explore how our thoughts, emotions, and lifestyle choices impact our health. We discuss the mind-body connection, the role of nutrition, and practical ways to reduce stress and build resilience—which I relate back to my journey healing MEN1.

ABOUT OUR GUEST:
I have had careers as both a qualified medical doctor and lawyer,  and I know all too well the demands of a high-pressured job as well as that of a mother.

I am a Certified Functional Medicine doctor having trained with Dr Georges Mouton who is an internationally renowned pioneer of Functional Medicine. I completed a postgraduate training course with the BSEM (British Society of Ecological Medicine) in collaboration with the ACNEM (Australian College for Nutritional and Environmental Medicine), which is fully accredited by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP).

I have additional qualifications in coaching and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming).

The coaching I am trained in is as follows:
· Resilience Coaching
· Confidence Coaching
· Neuroscience and Coaching
· Mindfulness
· Behavioural Coaching with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

I have a passionate interest in the integrative approach to health and the impact of stress on our bodies as well as how our physiology can affect our minds.

Having started my practice in Hong Kong, I now see patients either privately at my office in London or via skype/zoom. Reach out to me here.

Join my MEN1 community & receive the free guide that helps keep me out of surgery, off medication and asymptomatic. Click here.

*Here I share my personal experience as a MEN1 patient. Nothing is intended to provide medical or holistic health advice. All opinions are personal, including those of my podcast guests. Always consultant a qualified medical professional.*

 Hello and welcome back to the MEN1 Mosaic podcast. My brand new episode guest today is Dr. Gail Sharman who is a functional medicine doctor and has special interest in stress and anxiety. I've invited her on to hopefully share some of her wisdom that you might be able to take away and apply to your own health journey.

So welcome Gail, it's so nice to have you here and thank you very much for giving over your time so generously. Pleasure, lovely to be here, thank you. So I'm going to jump straight in with the first question if that is all right and I just briefly mentioned your specialism is stress and anxiety and I wondered if you'd be able to explain To me and to our ME in one patient listeners or whoever is tuning in today What is it about stress and anxiety that might affect our health in ways that we're not aware of that? Maybe if we're in with a functional, sorry, not in with a functional medicine doctor already we might not be aware of 

I do think actually in the media today, we're hearing, we hear a lot about the harms of stress. We do hear how it can affect lots of our risk factor of chronic conditions. For your particular audience what's very important of course is the negative effect that it can have on immune system and gut health, both of which are really crucial to be strong for MEN1 patients.

My particular interest is the impact of that stress on mental health issues and how it can disrupt our sleep, and also how it very often can trigger unhealthy coping mechanisms to deal with the stress so we can end up binge eating and drinking too much alcohol and all the other bad habits that further keep us in a hole and aren't particularly helpful.

And it does affect, sadly to say, Every part of the body we could think of, including our skin, our heart, everything. But I also find that, so it's called the silent killer, because it's going on in our body, we may not be aware of the physical impact it's having. But I don't really find that very helpful, because if we're already a bit stressed in life, whether because of our circumstances, a diagnosis, perhaps like MEN1, that we're trying, we're getting adjusted to, to start thinking, oh my god, I'm feeling stressed, and I don't remember all the things that this stress is going to do to my body, is not particularly helpful.

So if there's one thing I really want your listeners to come away with, from today is that our bodies are far more resilient than we give them credit for. And if we put our energy and focus into building that resilience, rather than freaking out about what might be going on, we can actually help mitigate some of the harmful effects of that stress.

So I really don't want people to come away. Thinking, oh my goodness, I'm stressed and now I'm actually going to make myself even more ill. Because it really isn't helpful. Yeah that's what I think is very important because a lot of the things that we try and do to improve our stress levels can in itself overwhelm us.

And it's very important, as with anything, to get the balance right in our bodies and our minds. 

Absolutely. And I'm really glad you just did that there when you pointed to your body and your mind, because as we've discussed, the two are not separated in the way that necessarily we think they are, or our current medical models split them up.

And for Patients who are coming in Emmy, M1 patients, but maybe anyone who's listening to this podcast . Who isn't really aware of how their thoughts, their emotions, whatever, go, whatever sort of going up here, if that makes sense. 

. 

Can connect with what's going on in their body. How can you explain that link between thoughts, emotions, and then physical manifestations of disease in the body.

Well, 

the intricate details of all of that is well beyond the scope of a podcast, but broadly speaking, both mind and body are connected, communicating all the time in both directions, whether it be through our hormones, our nervous system, there's the gut brain access that some people have heard about the immune system is communicating, so it really does work both ways.

And I think the thing that is crucial to realize is that whilst we may have a certain stress going on in our lives that perhaps we can't do something about an acceptance of the things that we can't do something about will ultimately it is important for us to lead us to be able to focus more on the things we can do something about, which is effect, taking some control over what, how our lifestyles, which inevitably address the body first.

I, I always work with my patients to address the body first. So whilst you asked about the effects, how they communicate. It is through those methods I mentioned, but I often work with patients to look at the body first, because first of all, it's a lot easier to change what's going in to your mouth than to change a thought as such.

You don't, I don't actually believe you can consciously, actively change thoughts in a way that's lasting. And also, What people will find is as they make the positive lifestyle changes and the inflammation in their body settles down and that everything is a lot more in balance in the body, naturally what will happen is the brain will effortlessly become calmer, things will become clearer, and then the ability to perceive our stressful situation in a different light with more optimism and objectivity will be far greater and the quality of our thinking will therefore change.

So I always find that if you focus on the body, which is a little bit easier to implement at first, because let's face it, if you're drinking two bottles of wine a night and 10 coffees and a whole big cake three times a day with all that sugar, your brain is, you can't do anything to change the quality.

of thinking of your mind. It's always going to be in a frightened state. So it's very important to ultimately address the two alongside each other. But I find that a very good starting point is with the body. 

That's absolutely fascinating. And I am now harking back to a conversation we had before, where we talked about Tony Robbins.

For anyone who is not listening is. I guess for want of a perfect expression to describe what he does helps people to have the most amazing life by essentially rewiring what's going on up here and thinking differently. And very much in my experience with Emian, one, and I'm going to quote Tony Robbins here, which is why I mentioned him.

He says decision is destiny. Decision is your destiny. So what you decide is where you end up going. And. I know that to be true because as soon as I made different decisions as an ME M1 patient, but in the rest of my life as well, where I thought I was going was not where I ended up going. So my disease trajectory changed completely.

In other areas of my life, things started to improve massively as well. And it's very easy to say change your decisions, but in order to change my decisions, I had to think differently, I had to believe differently, I had to come. at that decision from a totally different psychosomatic space. 



What I wanted to ask you is, when you're working with your patients, and they come in and they say, I'm stressed or I'm anxious, and I've got this going on in my life, and my health is worsening as a result.

Is there anything specific that you point your patients towards, or perhaps you've used yourself in your own personal health journey that you find is a really helpful tool? And I ask this because. It is, I mean there is so much out there. There's so much out there now. Is there anything that you know to be particularly helpful?



Do 

I have to pick only one? I've probably got, five, let's say, things. But I probably would start with the obvious. which is eat well. I can tell you my five and what, sometimes to be honest, everybody's in, everyone's got their own unique, never mind their unique biology, they're in their unique life, their unique circumstances, and it's not always for me.

I don't like to be too It's hard to answer this question about one thing because everybody in front of me is completely different. So I may lay out my several fundamental elements and they may resonate with you. Ooh, that's something. I think everyone intuitively has a sense of what one thing needs to happen for them that will get the greatest results.

But if I had to pick for somebody, I probably would look at what you're putting in your body because, food is medicine and affects everything, every sort of, biochemical reaction in our bodies. So if I was forced to pick one, I would say eat well. And in terms of eating well, I think a lot of people get very, there's so much out there.

Gluten free, paleo, keto, blah, blah, blah. I don't know where it ends. No one diet is going to be perfect for everybody. That's one thing I want to say. And that's why the work that I do is very individualised and I do tests so that I don't say to someone, come off gluten if they don't, if they can potentially get away with it.

Not everyone needs to be gluten free, for example. And I do think people get caught up with being so uptight and strict. with themselves and what's that gonna do? I can't go to that party because I think that, you're just going to overwhelm yourself and you're actually taking yourself away.

from that place of calm inside. In terms of eating well, I would also say, use your common sense. I don't think everybody knows that tons of sugar's not good for you. Everyone knows, I like to think a lot of people know it's all, all over the place in the media that processed foods are not good for you and ultra processed foods, and broadly speaking, a doctorate balance and moderation approach.

So don't deny yourself. The things that you love, if you can find healthier alternatives to your chocolates or whatever. I am a big fan of dark chocolate and eat it daily in, fairly large amounts. And I'm all for people enjoying their lives and enjoying their food. It's just about getting the balance right.

Do have a variety of vegetables and fruit. And don't go crazy with the fruit because that's very high in sugar. So You know, be mindful and the fructose in the fruit is also not particularly good for us in the high quantities. But I also wouldn't say to someone, spend a whole day eating broccoli, because whilst that's a healthy food, if you eat it all day, it's not going to become healthy.

So that's to the balance and moderation point. And focus on quality proteins, healthy fats, olive oil, avocado, nuts.

Carbohydrates, really important for the gut microbiome to have a high fiber diet, which isn't just from the vegetables, but it's also from some complex carbohydrates that can be really beneficial to our health. I don't like to tell anybody totally cut something out unless it's really justified on the basis of testing.

Or they say every single time I eat blah blah blah I am sick or I am bloating. I think the other thing I would say is listen to your body. Often the Patient is the best doctor in the room. They know themselves far better than me and they will know intuitively what works for them. The thing about the intuition is when we are so stressed in our minds and full of too much.

information and we can't work out exactly what to do. And we're overwhelmed with all the, we're bombarded with information in this day and age, and especially if we are listening, which I do recommend to podcasts, but imbalance again, if there's information overload, we can become overwhelmed and then we can't listen to our bodies.

I think it's crucial to become self aware of what works for us and what doesn't. So yes, eating well would probably be my number one. Very closely followed by, I'd say, sleeping well and moving your body. But again, with sleeping well, you don't want to drive yourself mad. Oh my goodness, I only had five hours sleep.

It's about the quality, number one. And number two, the body is more resilient than we think. And we can get away. with not such great sleep for different periods of our lives, as might be needed if we've got, little children. The message there is, chill out, everybody. Myself included, everybody.

It's, to get too caught up in the detail of what may benefit our health. We can't do it all. Pick something small, do it on a consistent basis, and wait patiently for the results. 

I love that. You've touched on so many. important things there. And I think if any listener were to dive into just one of those, they're going to find themselves with, such an amazing scope for improvement, not just in the way, they feel day to day, but, potentially even in MEM one as well.

I know that's my experience and it's very difficult to get any medical professional to agree to this. But I have to say that the more I feel in my life, the more I look after my general health. And for anyone who's listening and not watching, I'm putting general health in in air quotes because in my opinion, personally, we can't separate general health from MEN1.

And I know that MEN1 isn't your specialism, but it's fascinating talking to you and just being able to see how. How much of what you share and how much of your, your journey so far with your own health, but also into practicing medicine there is crossover. And that's why I say to me and one patients, take your diagnosis blinkers off as much as you can and start thinking about if I were a normal person again in air quotes, what would I do in this situation?

Yeah. And I think that brings me on to a question I want to ask. If If a patient came to you and said absolutely I'm stressed and I'm anxious but there's this going on in my life, there's this, outside of me, I've got this boss who screams at me, I've got this, friend who is pissing me off or whatever and to them, everything is happening outside, how would you approach that conversation with them?

Ultimately and This isn't something that I would leap straight into because it would have to be a conversation that starts to develop over time with working with me, but in essence our feelings are coming from our thoughts. They're two sides of the same coin. And whilst it may seem that the boss who's screaming at me is directly causing This stress in my brain, we all know that boss screaming to person number two, three or four, not everybody's going to respond in the same way.

So it is our own unique response. to that situation, our own unique thought, thinking, that is creating the experience for us. However much it may look like it's coming from the outside, and this is not to put blame on anybody, but we are ultimately creating that experience ourselves. And that, sometimes, just an awareness of that, is, oh, I'm feeling like this.

I thought it was because he screamed at me, or she screamed at me, whoever. But I'm now recognizing this feeling is coming from my thoughts. Okay. And that thought doesn't have to be that thought. It just happened to be that I created that particular type of thinking in response to that outside situation.

So I think when we start to realize that we are ultimately living. through creating our experience moment by moment, it can be a bit liberating. We don't have to be a victim of our circumstances or of what's going on out there in quite the same way. And it's easier said than done and it takes practice and it's about being aware of, okay, sometimes we have a feeling and we're like, Where's it coming from?

I'm not sure why I'm feeling a bit off today or whatever. And it can be helpful if you think, oh why am I? It's got to be my thinking. And, ah, okay, yeah, I was just thinking that. Now, did I have to think that about the external situation? Are there other ways of looking at it? The classic sort of reframe of a situation.

We would look in that direction. But It's not a one sentence answer to that. It, it evolves through several conversations. 

Absolutely. There's always nuance to it. And sometimes I wish that I wore one of these you know how people have dash cams in their car? I wish I just had one of those stuck to me somewhere so that I could share with people the conversations.

that I get to have 

day to day. That would be quite dangerous. I think if everyone knew what was going on with every crazy thought that we have, that would be but it would be good, I think it's helpful to know sometimes, okay, and to just tell yourself, I've got my miserable head on today and to know that it will pass.

It's a bit of a cliche to compare our emotions to the weather, but it is true. Sometimes, you're not in such a good mood. That's okay. You're not going to stay like that forever. All our moods are temporary in the same way that the weather is temporary, and in the same way that on a cloudy day, the sun is still there, we just can't see it.

When our head is full of a lot of, lots of cloudy thinking we haven't lost that inner calm that we were born with. It's always There, we just need to allow, and not poke too much. Don't try and fix too much. There's often, just sit with it. I'm, myself, I'm not the best at sitting with those sort of uncomfortable feelings.

I want to fix it. And I think a lot of people do. Sometimes if you remind yourself, it's, this is, I'm not going to feel like this probably in an hour. And you won't, because your thoughts keep changing anyway. I don't know what I'm going to be thinking in 20 minutes time. And maybe it's going to be some sort of thinking that causes my mood to drop.

Maybe it's going to be some wonderful thinking. None of us know what is our next thought. So take comfort in the fact that our frame of mind aren't set in stone. And they will shift if we give them space to shift. 

Absolutely. It's been my experience anyway, and I think the work I've done around, let's say, stress and anxiety, my thoughts, my patterns, my beliefs, all of that, I think when I have a shift and, I feel amazing, it's so easy to forget that, without wanting to sound too pessimistic, with every high, can come, it's low as well and we get down, I get down there and I forget how high I've been.

I forget that also it goes like this and for anyone listening or watching, I'm doing this very funny rollercoaster because I think that's how it is and it is so easy to believe we should feel amazing a hundred percent of the time. 

And it's just 

not true. 

First of all, it's not normal. And more importantly, if you did, you wouldn't get those wonderful, joyful moments if you've never suffered or experienced sadness or stress and anxiety.

If you've never gone through what maybe, I know people don't like to call them negative emotions because they're a part of the human existence, but those uncomfortable emotions, shall we say, I actually think The more hardship people have gone through, the more capacity for joy they do have. And that's something to look forward to.

Because you can, whatever is going on in your life, whatever your situation, there's always something that you can do that will make things better in some little way. And, even if it's And I know there's a lot talked about gratitude, but it really is helpful. However awful life feels, and it's very easy to feel victim of your circumstance, however bad things are, there will be something that's good.

Even if it is just the sound of that bird tweeting, if you like birds tweeting, whatever. Focus on something nice. Whether it's the fact that you're going to have a nice meal that day or I don't know, your brother's coming over, whatever. There will be something small to find joy in. And the more you start focusing your energy into, Okay, this is really bad, but what is going well for me?

What have I got going on? I've got furniture, and to take it to its extreme, I've got a roof over my head, hopefully. Then it really can help start getting into the habit, really of not indulging and wallowing in those sort of negative emotions, or unhelpful emotions that keep you stuck.

So I find that is useful for my day. 

What, Gail? I love what you've just said. I love this bit of the conversation we've had, because I think many MEN1 patients will have gone to their GP, or their consultant, or someone within what I call the kind of conventional medical sphere, and said, I am so stressed, or I'm so anxious, and I've got this going on, and I've got these symptoms, how is it affecting me, how is it You know, could it be related to me and one and I know from my own experience that it's very difficult and quite understandably very difficult for a purely medical expert to be able to understand the impact of what we think of as emotional stress, whereas their training is it's very much about medical stress and that's an entirely different concept as I came to learn from a different podcast episode and I think listening to you sharing about how it's very helpful.

the mind interacts, our thoughts interact with our emotions, what's moving through the body, I think will be so heartening for many listeners to know because they'll be able to feel validated a lot of the time in what's going on and what feels day to day and what feels like general health, 



But actually, is it has importance.

It does have. relativity to, this thing we've labeled as MEN1, which is ultimately, a bunch of symptoms that act in a certain way. And I think it's very refreshing for me to listen to you share it definitely and to be able to make the link. And so thank you very much for doing that.

And I hope that anyone, listening back and can appreciate that too. 

I do have the advantage of being able to spend so much longer with patients, which is partly why I left the NHS, because the way it's structured, sadly, doctors can't spend time with patients. Never mind we're not trained to really look in a more holistic, in depth view of the person in front of you.

You don't even have the time to be able to do that. So it's very quick, symptoms, symptomatic relief. Next, and this is where I, why I feel very privileged to be able to truly help people at the deeper level that I always wanted to because we can really look at the why. And it's never just one cause, it's so many.

So many aspects of physical health, so many aspects of mental health, and it takes time to be able to really get to the bottom of what's at the heart of the issue, really. So that's the advantage of being in the space that I'm in now, these days. 

Absolutely. And I think if I hadn't had experience with my own functional medicine 

doctor 

who indeed was the person who put us in touch.

I don't think I'd have that appreciation for how difficult it is for medical professionals because it is so easy and I fall into the trap myself of going, traditional medicine does this commercial medicine doesn't do that. Dr. Seuss da, actually the parameters they are operating within and as you will have done as well are so rigid.

and so exhausting that I think as patients it's always worth considering how it might feel to be on the other side of the consultation desk, as I said to you before we started. 

Yeah, although I'm always, I always feel that, it's, I'm on team patient and I do think that everyone, there needs to be more focus on looking at how.

The patient is receiving the information that they're getting from a doctor who are, yeah, they, everyone, look, everyone's doing their best, patients and doctors, but it's not easy for both sides of the desk. 

Not easy at all, and I think, as you said, that, mutual appreciation for the fact that everyone is doing their best, ultimately, even if it doesn't necessarily look like it or feel like it, in the moment is so important.

Yeah. So important. And I did want to ask you, and you've mentioned that you had worked, you have worked in the NHS, you moved over into functional medicine, and you specialize in stress and anxiety. What is the difference that you really want to make if you had a mission per se? What is that?

How do you want to help people? 

It's maybe a bit of a cliche, but I just want, and it's actually, I went into medicine wanting to be a psychiatrist. And I realize now, in hindsight, all these years later, that what I really wanted from psychiatry was to help people live their best lives possible.

And what do I mean by that? I just want everybody, as many people as possible, to be able to wake up after a good night's sleep feeling refreshed, to feel happy when they wake up and optimistic about the day ahead. I know this is a bit cheesy, but I think we all have a right to try at least to get to experience life like this, where We've got energy throughout the day.

We feel motivated, motivated in particular to get those boring things done that no one likes doing, the boring admin that can be so hard to achieve when we're really stressed. And, just to be able to more effortlessly get things done. And life can be stressful or stressful events or what's perceived as stressful events, because what's stressful to one person.

isn't necessarily stressful to everybody. To come back to that point, it all depends on our thoughts. To be able to cope. with life's challenges as they are thrown at us. And the only way in my mind to do this is you have to look at both the mind and the body together, as I say, starting with the body and just seeing where you get to, because, Things may happen in between with my patients in between appointments that makes us direct, focus our direction in another part on another path as life is evolving.

So you have to go with the flow, really, and do what is needed in that moment that gives you the best. outcome. Don't waste your energy on, on, I need to meditate twice a day, 20 minutes to feel great. If, you still haven't sorted out moving your body properly and you're leading a sedentary life, you've got to do, prioritize the things that will make the biggest difference first.

Because then when you start to see different, a difference, it's motivating. Suddenly you want to do this, you want to do that. But all those habit changes become far. more effortless. So yeah, that's where I am today with my mission. 

That's such a lovely note to I think leave listeners with and.

I'll be taking a lot, definitely, from what you've just said I've been mentally writing things down. Are patients able, or anyone listening back to this podcast, whether you're a patient or not, whatever the diagnosis, or none at all, are they able to get in contact with you if they feel that coming and working with you might help them at all?

Of course. They can look at my website, which is drgailsharman. com. G A I L for Gail, or they can email me. I'm very happy to answer questions. And I'm also very happy if they want to have a brief chat and book in for that. My email, will you put it in the underneath or I won't spell it out at this point then.

But very happy to hear from anybody. And if they mention where they, how they came across me, then I'll And I'll know and I'll be very happy as I say, to offer the conversation as well if 

they've got That's lovely. That's lovely. It's always really nice when there is a follow on from any of these episodes.

And patients don't feel as though they're left on the end of a cliff. No. 

I love, if I can help anyone, just briefly, I would be, it would be my greatest pleasure. It really would. 

Thank you, Gail. It's been my greatest pleasure to have you on as my 42nd guest on this podcast. I've got a badge that says 42.

Absolutely. Expect party poppers and balloons and all sorts. So thank you very much indeed for being so generous with your time. If anyone is in my position right now listening to you, all I can say is I've taken a gold mine of wisdom away and you've definitely helped me look into the future. areas or think about things I hadn't done before and that I'm incredibly grateful and on behalf of everyone who is listening to the MA1 Mosaic podcast, thank you very much indeed.

My pleasure, Lizzie. It's been lovely talking to you.