True Roots Holistics

11/11/2025

🍬 What Sugar Does to Your Lymphatic System

Most people know sugar affects weight, energy, and teeth… but did you know it also impacts your lymphatic system – the body’s waste-removal and immune highway? Let’s break it down.

1. 🚰 Sugar Thickens Your Lymph Fluid

Your lymph fluid is about 95% water. High sugar intake pulls water into your bloodstream (to dilute the excess glucose), leaving your lymph thicker and sluggish.
👉 This makes it harder for your lymph to flow, leading to puffiness, swelling, and fluid retention.

2. 🔥 Sugar Fuels Inflammation

Excess sugar spikes insulin and triggers pro-inflammatory molecules (like cytokines).
👉 This increases pressure on your lymph nodes, which have to filter more inflammatory waste. Chronic inflammation makes nodes tender, sore, and less efficient at doing their job.

3. 🛡️ Sugar Weakens Immune Response

Your lymphatic system is a big part of immunity (housing ~70% of your immune cells). When blood sugar is high, white blood cell activity can be suppressed for hours.
👉 That means your lymph nodes aren’t as strong at fighting infections.

4. 🍭 Sugar Overloads the Gut–Lymph Axis

Refined sugar disrupts gut flora, feeding yeast and harmful bacteria. Because the gut drains into lymphatic vessels (lacteals and Peyer’s patches), toxins from an imbalanced gut leak into the lymph stream.
👉 This is linked to systemic inflammation, autoimmune flare-ups, and lymphatic congestion.

5. 💔 Sugar Strains the Liver & Lymph

The liver and lymph work as detox partners. Excess sugar (especially fructose) overloads the liver, leading to fatty liver changes and reduced toxin clearance. The lymphatic system then has to carry more waste products, which worsens swelling and fatigue.

✅ Lymphie Tip:
• Swap refined sugar for fruit, raw honey, or dates (in moderation).
• Hydrate to keep lymph fluid thin.
• Move daily (walking, stretching, rebounding, dry brushing) to flush out the sugar-induced congestion.

✨ Your lymph thrives on clarity and flow. Less sugar = smoother lymph highways, stronger immunity, and less inflammation.

Healing regards,
Bianca Botha
CLT, RLD, MLDT, CDS

www.TrueRootsHolistics.ca

11/11/2025

I hate to be the one to mention this but it’s almost 6 weeks to Xmas and 7 weeks till your benefits run out. Book your appointment so you don't miss out. Gift Certificates are available as well. www.TrueRootsHolistics.ca

11/08/2025

Would you pay attention if your body came with a low battery warning?

HINT: It does.

Tight shoulders, aching back, poor sleep, irritability — these can be signs your nervous system is running on empty.

Bowen Therapy works with your body’s natural repair mechanisms, gently reminding your system to rest, rebalance, and recharge, to the best of its ability.

Sometimes, the body doesn’t need more pressure — it needs permission to reset.

Time to top up your inner battery? www.TrueRootsHolistics.ca

11/04/2025

When posture and the nervous system don’t see eye to eye

When the body is out of alignment — maybe one shoulder sits higher, or there’s a slight shift through the spine — it’s not just a structural issue. This unevenness can affect how the brain and body communicate.

Uneven posture can send mixed messages through the nervous system, influencing balance, coordination, and even emotional regulation. For some people, especially those with retained primitive reflexes, this imbalance can keep old movement patterns “switched on.”

Reflexes such as the ATNR, STNR, TLR, and Spinal Galant are designed to help us develop in infancy — but if they’re not fully integrated, they can contribute to muscle tension, altered spinal curves, or inefficient movement patterns later in life.

Bowen Therapy offers a gentle way to bring attention to postural and nervous system patterns, inviting the body to explore greater ease and balance as best it can.

Source: https://www.mdpi.com/1648-9144/61/3/427 www.TrueRootsHolistcs.ca

10/31/2025

Maybe you’re not here by accident.

If you’re hearing about Bowen Therapy for the first time, it might just be the right time to try it.

Trust the timing of your life. www.TrueRootsHolistics.ca

10/26/2025

Great read regarding traumas, and Bowen Therapy can help with the process of healing.
www.TrueRootsHolistics.ca

What Trauma Does to Your Body Over Time (Even If You Don’t Talk About It)

There are things we survive — but never speak about.
Things we push down with a smile, a laugh, a “I’m fine.”
But the body keeps a different kind of memory.

It doesn’t forget what the mind tries to bury.

🧠 Trauma is Not Just a Memory. It Becomes Biology.

Trauma isn’t just what happens to you —
It’s what happens inside you as a result.

Whether it’s childhood neglect, emotional abuse, betrayal, loss, or years of living in survival mode — trauma doesn’t just live in your mind.
It rewires your nervous system.
It reshapes your hormones.
It recodes your immune response.

Over time, trauma becomes physical.

🔬 Here’s What Trauma Does to Your Body (Over Months… and Years)

1. It dysregulates your nervous system.

The body gets stuck in fight, flight, freeze or fawn.
You might feel always on edge, or always exhausted.
Your vagus nerve — the one responsible for calming your body down — goes offline.
Suddenly, loud sounds feel threatening.
Touch feels overstimulating.
And rest? Impossible.

📉 Chronic trauma = chronic dysregulation = chronic stress.

2. It hijacks your hormones.

Your adrenal glands don’t know you’re safe.
They just know you’ve been running from lions for too long.

So they keep pumping:
• Cortisol (your stress hormone)
• Adrenaline (your panic hormone)

Eventually, this can lead to:
• Adrenal fatigue
• Burnout
• Thyroid issues
• Hormonal imbalances like estrogen dominance or low progesterone

🌀 The body starts to think that calm is dangerous — and chaos is normal.

3. It weakens your immune system.

When your body is always in crisis mode, it stops prioritizing healing.

Studies show that trauma and PTSD:
• Increase pro-inflammatory cytokines (which age you from the inside)
• Suppress immune function
• Make you more vulnerable to chronic infections and autoimmune conditions

🛡️ The immune system can’t protect you properly when it’s constantly in battle mode.

4. It affects your gut (deeply).

Did you know 80% of your immune system and 95% of your serotonin lives in your gut?

When trauma strikes, your gut gets hit too.

Trauma is linked to:
• IBS
• Leaky gut
• Food sensitivities
• Bloating, constipation, or diarrhea
• Gut-brain axis dysfunction

🍽️ This is why trauma survivors often struggle with digestion — it’s not “just anxiety.” It’s biology.

5. It gets trapped in your fascia, your lymph, your breath.

Trauma isn’t just in the brain — it lives in the body:
• Muscles hold memory.
• Fascia tightens with fear.
• The lymphatic system stagnates under inflammation.
• Breath becomes shallow.
• The diaphragm freezes.

That’s why trauma healing often requires more than just talk therapy.
You need to move it.
Breathe it.
Drain it.
Release it.

🕊️ You can’t think your way out of trauma — you have to feel your way through it.

💥 Silent Signs of Long-Held Trauma

Sometimes trauma doesn’t look like flashbacks.
It looks like:
• Chronic fatigue
• Autoimmune flares
• Hormonal chaos
• Constant people-pleasing
• Panic over small things
• Neck tension that never releases
• Being “too strong” for too long

The body whispers before it screams.

✨ The Good News: Healing is Possible.

But it’s not linear. And it’s not quick.

Healing trauma means:
• Safety first — the body needs to feel safe to let go.
• Nervous system repair — through lymphatic therapy, breathwork, cold therapy, somatic work, and nervous system regulation.
• Restoring trust in your body, slowly.
• Unfreezing the parts of you that went numb to survive.

It might take years.
But you’re not broken.
You’re healing.

🕊️ Final Words for the Silent Warrior

If you’ve carried pain no one saw,
If you’ve survived seasons that nearly broke you,
If your body is tired in ways you can’t explain —

Know this:

✨ You are not crazy.
✨ Your symptoms are valid.
✨ Your body is doing its best to protect you.
✨ And you are so worthy of healing — slow, gentle, whole healing.

You didn’t choose the trauma.
But you can choose to unlearn the fear,
Restore the safety,
And come home to your body — one breath at a time.

10/24/2025

The vagus nerve connects your brain to your body — regulating everything from inflammation to calmness.

Research shows that activating this pathway can help reduce stress responses and support recovery.

Bowen Therapy’s light touch and mindful pacing may help engage this same calming network — helping your body shift from survival to healing ( as best it can).

www.TrueRootsHolistics.ca

10/20/2025

Your calf muscles do more than help you walk or run—they serve as a secondary heart, actively pushing blood back toward the heart and supporting healthy circulation. This action helps prevent blood pooling in the lower legs, reduces swelling, and lowers the risk of varicose veins. Regular movement—walking, calf raises, or even stretching—keeps this vital muscle engaged and working efficiently.

A healthy calf pump is particularly important for cardiovascular health, as strong circulation ensures oxygen and nutrients reach tissues throughout the body. Sedentary lifestyles can weaken this system, leading to fatigue, slower recovery, and increased pressure on the heart. By staying active, you maintain not only leg strength but also overall circulatory efficiency.

Simple daily practices, such as walking, jogging, stair climbing, or stretching, can activate the calf muscles and keep blood flowing. These small efforts accumulate over time, contributing to heart health, improved endurance, and reduced risk of circulation-related issues. Your calves may be small, but their impact on your cardiovascular system is enormous.

Source/Credit:
American Heart Association (AHA) – “The Calf Muscle Pump: A Second Heart”
Mayo Clinic – Circulation and Exercise Guidelines

www.TrueRootsHolistics.ca

08/29/2025

It’s not about force.
It’s about finesse.

Bowen Therapy works with the body’s innate intelligence — using gentle, targeted moves that aim to speak directly to the nervous system and fascia.

Often, less really is more.

Because in Bowen, we trust the body to do the work. We’re just offering the invitation.

www.TrueRootsHolistics.ca

08/25/2025

That bloated, gassy, or uneasy feeling in your stomach? Stress might be the real culprit.

What many people don’t realize is just how much stress plays into poor digestion. When you're anxious or overwhelmed, your body shifts into fight-or-flight mode and that puts digestion on the back burner. The result? Sluggish digestion, bloating, constipation, or nausea.

Stress doesn’t just slow things down it can also stir up or worsen digestive conditions like IBS, ulcers, or inflammatory bowel disease. Why? Because your brain and gut are deeply connected. When one is off, the other often feels it.

The good news: supporting your gut starts with calming your mind. Gentle practices like meditation, yoga, breathwork, or even a simple walk outside can help reset your nervous system. Therapies like Bowen Therapy or acupuncture may also bring relief by helping you manage stress from the inside out. Your body listens to your brain so when you care for your mind, your gut often follows.

Have you tried Bowen Therapy?

www.TrueRootsHolistics.ca

08/22/2025

It’s the concept of like attracts like, or the law of the universe. I also believe that what you believe is what you are. If you believe you are peacefully you will attract more peace.

www.TrueRootsHolistics.ca