Toxic Insult and Autonomic Imbalance

Toxic insult affects all aspects of our health and well-being, but what exactly is it? According to Alice Adams, Acupuncturist at Peaceful Spirit Therapeutic Massage and Wellness Centers, most environmental toxins can be considered to be toxic insults. These toxins can range from air and water pollution to chemicals and additives in food. Other factors that play a role in toxic insult include stress and other emotional imbalances. These toxic insults take our bodies out of homeostasis, or balance, making good health even harder to achieve.

Autonomic imbalance is a condition that occurs when our bodies are not in homeostasis. The autonomic nervous system is made up of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, which control body functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar, breathing rate, the fight-or-flight response, and much more. Autonomic imbalance occurs when the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are out of homeostasis or imbalanced. Because the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems control a wide range of body functions, autonomic imbalance can have a wide variety of symptoms, depending on which system is overactive or underactive. Therefore, people with an autonomic imbalance may have high or low blood pressure and high or low blood sugar. They may also feel fatigue, depression, anxiety, asthma, dry mouth and insomnia, to name a few of the many symptoms that occur.