The Wellness Connection with Fiona Kane

All Your Body Systems Are Connected: What Your Symptoms Are Really Telling You | Ep. 137

• Fiona Kane • Season 1 • Episode 137

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Welcome to the Wellness Connection Podcast! I’m Fiona Kane, and in this episode, we explore how every system in your body is connected and why understanding this can change how you manage your health.

From urinary tract infections and mouth infections to high blood sugar, blood pressure, and mental health, many symptoms are interconnected. Ignoring a “small issue” can sometimes lead to bigger health problems, but early awareness and intervention can make a huge difference.

Learn how:

Your gut, skin, and nutrition affect each other
High glucose and blood pressure impact your kidneys, heart, and eyes
Mouth infections can influence heart health
Mental and physical health are deeply intertwined
Simple signs like dehydration, headaches, and skin changes reveal important clues

Understanding these connections helps you respond early, prevent serious complications, and take better care of yourself and your family.

If you find this episode useful, please like, subscribe, and share to help others discover the importance of listening to their bodies.

Music by Josh from Pixabay



Outro: Music by Musinova from Pixabay

Learn more about booking a nutrition consultation with Fiona: https://informedhealth.com.au/

Learn more about Fiona's speaking and media services: https://fionakane.com.au/

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SPEAKER_00:

Hello, welcome to the Wellness Connection podcast. I'm your host, Fiona Kane. Today I'm going to be talking to you about something that I think of when I talk to people about nutrition and health, and I hear different stories about nutrition and health, is that a lot of people don't realize that all the systems in their body are all connected together. So we see things as very separate. I think part of the reason is because we have a specialist for every different thing. So you know you've got the neurologist for the brain, and you've got the cardiologist for the heart, and you've got the orthopod for the for the bones, and you've got the nephrologist for your kidneys, and they're all different. And so there's different specialists in different areas. But it's just a good reminder to let people know that all of these systems are connected. Might sound silly, but people don't always think of it that way. They don't understand it that way. And so some of the examples I want to give you to help you understand this sort of common things I see. So one of those things is that your bladder is connected to your kidneys. So for people who suffer from urinary tract infections, know that they can very, very quickly move to your kidneys and cause you a lot of drama, a lot of, you know, a kidney infection can be really nasty and really painful and really dangerous, right? So when you suffer, if you're the sort of person that suffers from urinary tract infections, you really do need to get on top of them as quickly as possible. You need to learn what's causing them, maybe how you can prevent that. Whether or not you know, if you're the sort of person that's prone to them, the things that you can do that might be preventative for that. You need to learn the signs and symptoms so you can quickly get on it when it happens and know the difference between maybe when you need to just uh drink some urine from the pharmacy and when you might need to actually go and get um do a urine test, maybe go on some antibiotics or something like that. But uh kidney infections are really, really serious business. So urinary tract infections can cause a lot of serious issues. So it's really, really important that we don't just see it as oh yes, it's a bladder issue, because it's not just a bladder issue, it is actually potentially a kidney issue, which is uh really, really serious stuff. And um, people often just let these things go and say, Oh no, it'll get better. If it's not getting better, then you know you've got to do something about it. The um the next one I see is I see um I see if people have say infections somewhere in their body, they say they might have an infection in their foot. And I heard someone say this not that long ago where they said, Oh, yeah, my brother's got this um this bad infection in his foot and his you know, legs all swollen, but he's really healthy otherwise, so I don't think it's a problem. It's like, no, that really is a problem. If you have an infection anywhere in your body where it's kind of swelling up and inflamed, if you've got that inflammation anywhere, uh that's a problem. And it might be a localized problem initially, but it won't stay a localized problem if you don't go and get help for it. So please do go and get help for it. Go to your doctor, go and see someone about it, and do what you need to do because you actually, you know, even though I'm about natural medicine, sometimes the best thing is you need to be on antibiotics, that's what you need to do. But you need to go and get things identified and treated because I think what we do is we do a lot of Doctor Google thing and think that we know something's safe. No, it's best to actually get things assessed and uh and diagnosed, and if you need antibiotics, use them. I think the problem is um the good thing and the bad thing is in the Western world in particular, we're used to antibiotics now, so we don't realize that infections can kill you. But once upon a time, people knew that you could you could have a small wound, and um that could take your life, and and I think now people are not as aware of that because we've got antibiotics, and because so often we get saved from that fate more often than not because uh we do have antibiotics. So just understanding that small infections can lead to big infections, and if you've got your circulation, your circulatory system goes around your whole body. So whatever's going on in your foot is going to go elsewhere, it's not just gonna stay there. Uh, the same goes for mouth, your mouth. So a lot of people they get really like they're they're afraid to go to the dentist, they don't want to go to the dentist, and um, and they have terrible infections in their mouth and they just suffer through them and don't do anything about it. And again, that's really, really dangerous. If you think about, if you stop and think about it and think about your mouth and think about where it is, then think about are there any vital organs nearby? Stop and think about that, right? Your mouth and your brain are pretty much in the same place. Well, they are in the same place, right? So you're so close to your brain, but not only that, but your heart's just here and you've got all this circulation going between your heart, you know, up to your brain and and um and things uh things uh being circulated around your body. Uh what is actually a really, really common thing is people getting mouth infections. And if you have mouth infections, sometimes uh what can happen is the infection from your mouth can actually end up sitting somewhere on a heart valve and actually damaging your heart valves. Did you know that? Probably not, but that can happen. So if you'll if you've got already got any weakness in regards to your heart and you're getting mouth infections, you really want to get that seen too. Um, it's not uncommon, and I've actually heard stories where people have spent many, many years on drugs, and you know, back in the days in in my generation, there were so many people who were on heroin and drugs like that, and they've you know finally kicked the habit and finally come clean and finally got their life in order, and they go and get their teeth fixed up, and while they're getting their teeth fixed up, they have a heart attack because of all of the infection that's in their mouth. That's it's it's has a this it's a systemic thing. If you've got infection in your mouth, it's going to travel to other places. You've got that uh infection going in other places. Not only that, though, you've got when your body is in that mode, um, that inflamed mode where it's sort of dealing with something, it's in that sort of emergency inflamed mode. It's not really in a kind of rest and digest and calm and that kind of mode. So the problem is when your body is in that mode, uh, you um, you know, if your body's in that mode all the time, it's not in the mode where it's actually kind of looking after everything because it's just too busy trying to patch something up. Uh, the same thing goes for, and I've talked about this before, but in regards to uh how having sort of high glucose levels, high blood sugar levels, which is sort of diabetes, insulin resistance, that sort of thing, well, that in that high blood glucose, that glucose in your bloodstream, it damages your vessels. So it's like shards of glass and it damages your vessels. So then what happens is your body sends cholesterol to do just like as a band-aid, just to go and you know, um, plug that hole and and and fix that little spot, right? Now, if you only had that assault to your blood vessels occasionally, it wouldn't be a big deal. Your body makes a bit of cholesterol to patch things up, it all sorts itself out, it heals, everyone's fine. But if you're having that, like if you're having the high glucose all of the time, then what's happening is you're getting this assault to your blood vessels all of the time. Therefore, you're pumping lots of cholesterol to the area to uh heal and protect your blood vessels, you're more likely to get these blockages and these situations where you get these hardened areas where this cholesterol hardens and sticks there and causes a problem. So, you know, cholesterol seen as the bad guy and ultimately it does a bad thing, but it actually was trying to do something good and ultimately did something bad because we didn't understand what was going on in our body, and we're not protecting our vessels from this. And if you um go back and listen to the cholesterol episode, I think if you just type cholesterol and you'll find it, I think it was like 30 something, maybe I can't remember, it was a while ago. I'd probably need to do another one at some point. So, you know, we have to understand that um that our blood sugar level affects our vessels, also affects, in particular, one of the things that you'll see is say if someone starts having uh difficulty with their vision, well, that could be a sign that you've got high uh blood glucose and it's damaging your vessels. So, you know, we need to understand that our uh what we eat and how well we manage our blood glucose levels affects the vessels in our eyes. It also affects the vessels in our feet, so those small vessels, which is why people with diabetes often have issues with wounds on their feet, that kind of thing, and need to uh and because they just don't get the circulation to their feet because those vessels have been damaged. The same goes for erectile dysfunction, which is often a cause of heart disease and diabetes and this kind of insulin resistance syndrome. The vessels get damaged, and so you get that sign, and you think, oh, I just need to go and take some blue pills, and that might be fine. But you actually also do need to investigate what's behind it and do you actually need to do something to protect your heart health and your blood glucose levels and you know reverse that insulin resistance that you're developing. So it is really, really important to understand again, these things are connected and not just see things as kind of random, sort of unusual things. The other thing in regards to vision, which I've talked about before, and it has happened in Australia. There was one boy in Australia who went blind in one eye before they realized that you know he had a vitamin A deficiency and he was permanently blind in that eye, but they saved the other one because they discovered it in time. So if you're having issues with your vision, particularly your night vision, there could be a sign that you're deficient in vitamin A. So again, don't kind of just go off with this random symptom. We've got to investigate what it's about, and uh and some things affect other things. So if you're not eating the foods with vitamin A, then you're not getting enough vitamin A to feed your eyes. But it also, if you're not digesting well, if you have indigestion, digestive issues, maybe you're not absorbing the nutrient as well. So there's just so many things sort of to think about here. The point of this episode really isn't to give you all the answers, it's more of an episode of making your thing and realize that things are connected, right? So the other thing is that um, you know, when we have skin issues, it's often a sign of poor gut health. So when you're having, if you're having rashes on your skin, or if you're having uh if you if you're having sort of eczema, psoriasis, those sorts of issues, well, it can be a sign of poor gut health and it could be a sign of nutrient deficiencies, it can be a sign of food sensitivities, all of those things, but it's not sort of just some random thing. It's usually associated with something else. So we need to investigate it and not go, okay, okay, that's just a skin thing. Might just be a skin thing, but the skin issue you're having might indicate that you're vitamin A deficient as well. And you could end up going blind from a vitamin A deficiency just by thinking else it's a skin thing, it's all right, and not looking more into it, right? And not kind of figuring out what is behind things. So it's really, really important to understand that these signs and symptoms, these things are connected. So the other one I wanted to bring up today is um that the um I'll get there in the end. Oh, yeah, in regards to what I was talking before about the vessels getting damaged by the high glucose levels, that also affects your kidneys. So if you've because you're there's small vessels that go to the kidneys, and those vessels can get damaged by the blood glucose, they can also get damaged by high blood pressure. So one of the really common causes of people having uh kidney damage is actually caused by high blood pressure, and so it's it's blood pressure and kidneys are not a separate thing. That's what people sometimes get confused with what's kidneys got to do with blood pressure. If your blood pressure is too high, then it can absolutely damage your kidneys. So again, we need to manage our blood pressure so we can manage our kidney health. The two things go together because our body systems are connected. The other one I see commonly is people talk about you know brain foods and heart foods as if they're sort of separate things, but they're not separate things. What's good for your brain, things that are anti-inflammatory and things that are you know are good for your cells and your brain is also good for the cells in your heart. So whether that be you know your good fats or your protein, uh, those kinds of foods, uh it's you know, uh those two things are connected, they're very much connected. Your blood um heart is constantly pumping up nutrition and and and uh and and blood to the brain and circulation to the brain, those two things are really connected. So your heart health will affect your brain health, which is one of the things, one of the things that can cause people to have dementia as they get older, is that they have these like like micro um like small strokes and small I I've had a couple of small strokes when I was in my twenties. They're they're called infarcts when you have the stroke and it damage, it does permanent damage, and it's just this like a small, like localized area, uh, although it might have these TIAs, and a TIA is a trans a transient ischemic attack. Um, and uh if they clear up and you don't end up with any damage, then it stays at that. But if you end up with uh damage, then it's an infarct or a small stroke. And um you know these things happen a lot when people are really, really inflamed and they're and they've got they've got circulatory issues and they've got heart health issues. Well, the heart can throw off clots or cause all sorts of sorts of issues that affect the brain, right? So again, you know, your heart health will affect your brain health, and you could be developing uh dementia because you're having a lot of many strokes, and so bit by bit your parts of your brain are dying off. So, again, the two things are connected. We have to not think of like heart health and brain health as like two separate things. No, these things are connected. So the other one uh that's that's worth mentioning, and um, I might leave it here that look, there's lots of things that are connected, and I can probably do more in future episodes, is two other things I wanted to mention. So, one is you know hydration. So uh when we're not hydrated enough, you often get headaches. So sometimes people get a headache, they go for a panodol, and uh maybe water would be enough because we're just dehydrated. And if you think of um, you know, our skin and that sort of thing, if your skin looks like a prune, you're probably dehydrated, right? If you think of like a grape, a dehydrated grape, a dehydrated grape is a sultana, right? So that gives you an idea of how important hydration is. So when we look at different symptoms like headaches or if our skins uh if we start looking like uh a sultana, uh, there's clues there that we need hydration. So uh, and understand that water does a lot of things. Like when you go to get a blood test, if they can't get your veins, and I've got terrible, terrible veins. Well, one of the reasons is not you don't have enough blood, you don't have enough fluid. So we we drink more water, we can make more blood, and we can have more circulation, and they can actually do a blood test. The two things are very connected. Uh, but uh also um when we drink plenty of water, we can make synovial fluid, which is you know the joints in the in our joints. So the synovial fluid is a fluid that sits in between you know the cartilage and the and the where the bones connect and everything, and that protects your joints, that cushioning, right? Well, we have less of that cushioning when we dehydrate it. So, you know, we've got to sort of understand, start to learn signs and symptoms, how do things relate to each other? We're really gonna tune into the body and learn some of these things. How do things relate to each other? When do I need to? When is it an emergency? When is it not? If you're not sure, ring an ambulance or go to the doctors or go, if you're not sure, get help because it really is important. The other one that I see uh is I see people, you know, they'll ring their GP and say, Oh, I'm having, I'm having uh, you know, I'm having chest pains and oh, but I don't want to go to the doctor, I don't want to go to the uh hospital. Well, you know, you're probably past that point. You really do need to go to the hospital unless you've already had a diagnosis and already talked to your doctor and you know what's going on. But if you don't know what's going on, then you need to ring the ambulance, not wait until your GP rings you back in two hours or something like that. So uh, you know, if you're having if you're having chest pain, you've got to treat that like a a it's an emergency until otherwise, as you've got to can treat that like it's a medical emergency. And um, and the same with actually the other one I see too uh is um ticks. People don't understand you've got to get ticks removed as soon as possible because that could be um they can cause major health issues. So again, you don't kind of go, oh well, I'll wait and go next week. You go and get that removed as fast as you can because we know that all of the diseases, Lyme disease and things like that causes a lot of health issues. The longer that ticks in there, the more you're gonna have problems. So I said there's only two more things, but I have one more thing to go because I thought this one was worth mentioning as well. Um, and it's in regards to you know, noticing we we think that our mental health is separate from our physical health, but it's absolutely not. And your physical health could be one of the reasons why you're having issues with your mental health. So if you're low in nutrition, if your gut's not working properly and you're inflamed, um, you know, and and what what we do know is that uh depression can actually be caused by an inflamed brain, and it may be inflamed because of your diet, your lifestyle, some other health issue, not enough nutrition, not enough water, a whole bunch of things. But um, your mental health and your physical health are very much connected. Um your gut health and your mental health are very much connected. But even if you know you're getting out and exercising and sunshine and all those things, it's very much connected to your mental health. So don't see mental health issues again as being this isolated thing that don't have anything to do with your physical body. That absolutely can and do. And look, and we even know that like if someone, you know, there've been studies on this when someone sits in a if you sit in a crouched sort of position, it could actually cause you to start feeling depressed and anxious. Uh, and and it's one of those things that you're more likely to probably sit in that position if you're depression, depressed and anxious, but also being in that position can cause you to feel depressed and anxious. I can't say depressed, I said it right at that time. So I just wanted to give you an idea. This idea of this was uh sort of waking you up to some ideas of things that you know, really listening to your body and getting to know and getting a bit of knowledge to know what's an emergency, what's not, uh, that everything is connected. So don't assume things are random and disconnected, things can be very much connected and understanding that if you get onto things early, if you if you um identify what the issue is, um, if you get support or help or whatever thing you need earlier, then you're more likely to have good results. But if you don't, then you're more likely to have you know results that turn out to be, you know, really negative for you. So please start paying attention to your body, starting paying attention to signs and symptoms, listening to some of my podcasts and um and talking to whoever it is that your health professionals are about different signs and symptoms and things that you can do, um, knowing when to treat something like emergency, knowing how to help um help reduce the risk of certain things. It's the sort of sort of thing I talk to my clients about a lot. Is you know, these are the sorts of things you do if you start having these symptoms or that symptom or that kind of thing. It's really useful stuff to know so that you can look after yourself and your family. And I'm sure those things I've missed in here too. The list could be very, very long. I might even do another episode along the same topic with some different um different things that you might not be aware of. Anyway, I just thought that was useful information. I just I see so often people not realizing that the body is a body systems are all connected, your body is all connected. I'm you know, attempted to start singing that, you know, leg bones connected to the thigh bone, all that kind of you know, that song I won't because you'll never tune in again. But it's all connected, and we have to understand it is and often simps systems affect other systems, and that can be a real problem. So you have to understand that uh, you know, we need to treat things um, especially when they're localized and when they're sort of one thing before they become six things, ten things, lots of things. Anyway, I will leave it there. Uh, this is a podcast where I like to talk about or you know, have real conversations about things that matter. I hope that was useful to you. Please like, subscribe, share, rate, review, all of those wonderful things. And I'll talk to you all again next week. Thank you. Bye bye.

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Fiona Kane

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