vagus clinic
Functional Optimization For
Athletic Performance
Back in 2015 when Dr.Stephanie was struggling immensely with her health, she was working with professional athletes as a chiropractor. As she started talking to these athletes about what was going on with her health, about her new interest in Functional Medicine, and how much it had helped her, they started to show an interest. This is when Stephanie started learning that these athletes were not as healthy as they looked on the outside. She started applying the testing she was using on her patients on these seemingly healthy young men and found that they were having multiple stealths, and not so stealth infections in their guts!
A stealth infection may refer to an overgrowth in your intestines that is not necessarily causing any intestinal symptoms, but can be causing other issues, such as severe anxiety, as seen in one athlete in particular. However, multiple athletes were also having actual intestinal symptoms like diarrhea, gas, bloating, bowel urgency and cramping, running to the washroom after every meal, burping, or just experiencing pain.
Gastrointestinal symptoms are so common with these athletes because they are often on the road, and eating foods that are not necessarily the cleanest. These environments can cause stress, and stress lowers the immune system. Many have a damaged circadian rhythm from evening games, and no one teaches them how to eat or unwind after games, so they can sleep well. Due to easy accessibility and frequent injury, they are overly subjected to medical procedures or medications.
In addition, many of the athletes tested were low in basic nutrients, had multiple food sensitivities, and lacked basic lifestyle behaviours that support their well being!
All of this puts them at perfect risk for things like leaky gut, long term cognitive issues, and different autoimmune diseases. At around age 24-25 is when we see a tipping point and when the breakdown begins. This is when professional athletes testosterone lowers, and each year they become more vulnerable. The career span of an athlete tends to be short because of the reasons above, and this list just continues.
For that reason, we work with athletes to get their hormones as best as they can, to ensure the health of their gut is as strong as possible, to aid them in avoiding injuries, to prevent chronic issues, and help them feel their best! We look at their DNA mutations, vitamin deficiencies, food sensitivities or allergies, gut health, and brain health to come up with strategies to protect them and lengthen their careers. Working to optimize an athlete’s health can add a few more years to their career, meaning more money in their pockets. More importantly, it ensures their life after the sport is healthy and well, and that is invaluable.
Athletes and Lifestyle
Athletes have a lot of extraordinary needs based on their profession and their lifestyle. Functional medicine testing allows us to dig deep, to understand what that unique individual needs, and give them a cutting edge in their sport and their lives. We reveal blind spots in their metabolism or mutations in their DNA, and can help them avoid the detrimental effects of their physical game but also help them have a healthy life after their sport!
Athletes and TRAVEL
Athletes Travel A lot and are at greater exposure to radiation and toxic chemicals.
Did you know that on a flight you are exposed to as much radiation as an x-ray?
While on a flight you breath in recycled air and get dehydrated, you are also above the ozone layer so you are hit with more electromagnetic frequencies. Since professional athletes fly oWhile on a flight, you breathe in recycled air and get dehydrated. You are also above the ozone layer, so you are hit with more electromagnetic frequencies. Since professional athletes fly often we offer them techniques from the inside out to protect them from the damage to this exposure when they travel.
Did you know that staying in a hotel, you get exposed to 80 different chemicals?
From the industrial cleaners used to clean the bathroom to the detergents used on the sheets, or the chemicals in the body products, the athlete stays often in a hotel setting being exposed to a lot of toxins, which can cause an array of health symptoms, and cause the body to underperform. This is exactly what an athlete does not want!
We train our athletes on how to protect themselves from these exposures as much as possible.
ATHLETES AND CIRCADIAN RHYTHM
In most professional sports, the athlete is unaware that while we are all getting ready for bed, they are ramping up their stress hormones to play a game. We give athletes the tools they need to shut down stress hormone productions after games with nutrition, supplementation, vagal nerve exercises, breathing and binaural beats, so they can get into a deep sleep and recover in a way that is important to all of us, but especially athletes.
ATHLETES AND GUT HEALTH
We heal their gut first! An athlete is no different for our Functional Medicine Vagus Clinic approach. An athlete is often not in charge of what they get to eat, and food quality is important. They require good sources of good quality protein - grass-fed meat, pasture-raised non-grain fed chicken and eggs, organic produce and dairy.
We give our athletes tips on how to choose the best foods for them with what is available. We provide food hacks on what to personally pack in order to get the proper nutrition they need without counting on the team. Our gut testing protocol also helps us understand what food is the best for them from a diet and supplementation individual needs perspective. We can guide them to what is the best probiotic, prebiotic, and if digestion support, in the way of enzymes, is required. We get rid of overgrowths in their gut which can indirectly harm their performance and lead to inflammation in the rest of the body.
ATHLETES AND Nutrient Deficiency
In the athlete we use other tests like the organic acid and the spectracell test in order to measure nutrient deficiencies and see what else the body is lacking. We then create a custom designed supplementation protocol to help replace nutrients on an individual needs. If their test results show they have low stomach acid, which would mean they are not able to digest their food optimally and therefore not absorb the nutrients from their food we would look to increasing stomach acid in order to break down food better and stimulate better digestive enzymes or supplement with a specific amino acid.
Our primary objective is to take the burden of missing nutrients off of the athletes body so they can use the fuels they need and feel like a machine and in top performance condition when they are on their field of play.
ATHLETES AND STRESS COPING
Being an athlete can be stressful. We optimize and balance hormones and treat gut bacteria for optimal brain function and mental health. We also offer different coping techniques, visualizations, or books in order to get their mind right so they can perform better.
Book a 20 minute discovery call to learn more about for Functional Optimization for Athletic Performance
