Histamine Well Podcast: Exploring Histamine, Methylation & Holistic Health · Joanne Kennedy

29. Healing Chronic Illness Through Nervous System Regulation with Jacqui Raadschelders

·47 min·3 clips

Jacqueline says a mold exposure can train the amygdala to react faster and bigger each time.

1. Histamine Well Podcast episode 29 focuses on healing chronic illness through nervous system regulation with Jacqueline Radshelders. 2. Joanne Kennedy is the host, naturopath, author, and educator, and Jacqueline Radshelders is a physiotherapist and neuro rehabilitation specialist whose clinical and personal experience anchors the discussion. 3. The episode asks how nervous system dysregulation, limbic system changes, and brain retraining fit into chronic illness recovery. 4. Jacqueline describes starting as a standard physiotherapist, later becoming a clinical lead physio for neurology in the hospital system, then shifting into a holistic approach after her own health journey. 5. She says that after cleaning up her diet and lifestyle and doing nervous system regulation work, her gut symptoms disappeared and she no longer needed thyroid medication. 6. Joanne and Jacqueline discuss how Jacqueline now offers an online course on nervous system regulation and one-on-one support. 7. Jacqueline says the autonomic nervous system includes parasympathetic, sympathetic, and shutdown states, and that healthy regulation supports digestion, inflammation control, and healing. 8. She says dysregulation often leaves people stuck in a sympathetic dominant state, which can interfere with the body’s ability to maintain health. 9. Joanne and Jacqueline connect this to mold illness, gut infections, placebo effects, and the many patients who improve only when nervous system work is added. 10. Jacqueline lists stress, toxins such as mold, tick-borne infection, environmental chemicals, heavy metals, gut infections, and childhood trauma as major drivers of dysregulation. 11. She explains that the freeze or shutdown state can look like being unable to get off the couch and feeling hopeless or despairing. 12. She notes that shutdown can follow a long sympathetic period when the body can no longer maintain that level of activation. 13. Jacqueline breaks the limbic system into the amygdala, hippocampus, hypothalamus, and related sensory systems that ask whether a person is safe. 14. She says chronic stress and repeated exposures, including mold, can make the amygdala overreact faster and more strongly to the same trigger. 15. Joanne links that pattern to chronic dizziness, anxiety, depression, and vestibular symptoms that can persist without a clear structural cause. 16. Jacqueline defines neuroplasticity as the brain’s ability to change and rewire itself through repetition, specificity, and enough intensity. 17. She says meditation and exercise can support neuroplasticity, and she specifically names brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, as part of that process. 18. The tone is practical and explanatory, with Joanne asking clinical questions and adding personal examples while Jacqueline answers in a teaching style. 19. People dealing with mold illness, dizziness, chronic stress, or unexplained symptoms would likely value this episode. 20. Listeners looking for disease-specific lab interpretation without nervous system framing may skip it.

As heard by us

A careful case for nervous system regulation in chronic illness, with a useful focus on dizziness and gentle retraining.

Joanne Kennedy returns to familiar but important ground: supporting the nervous system may matter a great deal in chronic illness. Jacqueline Radshelders offers practical, plain-language guidance on nervous system regulation, with gentle exercises and examples that connect to…

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If dizziness and chronic illness keep colliding, start here.

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