Are You Suffering From "Shameflammation?" Will Cole Says Too Many of Us Are—and Offers Surprising Advice on How to Tame It

When it comes to what we eat and do to stay optimally healthy, so many of us are confused—and frustrated. After all, there are endless eat-this-not-that lists, different takes on what exercise habits are best, and countless experts sharing their (often contradictory) advice.

Functional Medicine Practitioner, Will Cole, says it’s time to stop focusing on what, when, and how to eat and exercise and instead, focus on the relationship between our physical and emotional health. “True health isn’t just about what you eat, but how you feel,” says Cole. “Too often, we separate mental health from physical health. I’m passionate about showing people that both sides of the coin are important.”

In his new book, Gut Feelings: Healing the Shame-Fueled Relationship Between What You Eat and How You Feel, Cole sets out to help all of us understand the connection between what we eat, how we move, and how we feel—and to heal inflammation caused by stress, trauma, and shame. The Sunday Paper sat down with Cole to talk about the important link between the physical and the emotional, why “shameflammation” is at the root cause of so much of what ails us, and what all of us can do to find more vibrant, lasting health.

A CONVERSATION WITH WILL COLE

In your new book, you write that “shameflammation” is at the root of many of our physical and emotional ailments. Can you explain what this is—and how we can start to notice it in our own lives?

Shameflammation is a concept I’ve talked about with my telehealth patients for the past 13-plus years. It’s my way of explaining how the mental, emotional, and spiritual things impact our physical health. We can be so fixated on foods we eat, the things we’re drinking, and how we’re exercising—and not enough on what we’re feeding our heads and our hearts. Shameflammation considers how things like shame drive inflammation in the body.

There are a couple areas where shameflammation rears its head. First, unresolved trauma. There’s a lot of shame around trauma, and unresolved trauma is stored in the body. The body is this wonderful cellular library, and our words, emotions, thoughts, and experiences are the books that fill up that cellular library. Second, chronic stress. This is a less obvious, but ubiquitous phenomenon. We’re in this hustle culture, where burnout is a badge of honor. I think many people have a lot of shame because they aren’t able to do the things they’re supposed to do for their wellness, and shame around that further perpetuates health problems.

As for how to notice where shameflammation may be present in our lives, I think a great place to start is to look at these areas and ask: Could my emotional health be impacting my physical health? Do you feel wired and tired? Anxious and exhausted? Have you been diagnosed with a health condition? There is likely a mental-emotional component going on.

I think many of us have heard that our gut is like a second brain. Can you explain this? And how can understanding this improve our health?

People hear about this connection, but I think for many people the focus is still about gut health. People think: Well, I go to the bathroom alright, and digestion isn’t a massive problem for me. A lot of people can’t make the connection between the gut and the brain because they don’t have extreme digestive symptoms.

However, the gut and brain are formed from the same fetal tissue, and they’re inextricably linked for the rest of our life via the gut-brain axis. Think about it: 95 percent of serotonin is made in the gut; 50 percent of dopamine is made there, too. There’s bidirectional cross-talk between the gut and brain, brain and gut. They both influence each other.

I think it’s also important to note that the microbiome isn’t made up of human cells. We have upwards of 100 trillion bacteria in the gut, and only 30 trillion human cells. We are more bacteria than human! When you think about it, we’re really a sophisticated host for the microbiome. We need the microbiome more than it needs us, and it influences our brain. Research shows lower levels of certain bacteria may lead to conditions like anxiety and depression.

You write that chronic stress is the “ultimate junk food for the body.” Can you explain how stress messes with our gut health and overall health?

Stress is part of the human landscape. It’s nothing new. Humans wouldn’t be here if we couldn’t handle some stress and grit; our ancestors have gone through a lot. There’s a phenom known as hormesis: essentially, doses of stressful things are good for us. They make our bodies and us more resilient. Intermittent fasting, cold plunging, sauna—those are all hormetic stresses.

But chronic stress is like always fasting or exposing yourself to too much cold or hot. Many of us are constantly putting our body under stress, and there’s no reprieve. What’s worse, stress is so insidious in our society, it’s normalized. And that keeps the body’s nervous system in a hypervigilant state.

Ultimately, it’s not good for any human to be chronically under that kind of stress.

In your new book, you provide a two-pronged approach to treating shameflammation that involves feeding your gut and your brain a nutrient-dense diet and feeding your heart and mind self-compassion and mindfulness. Can you talk about why both of these approaches are critical?

I think in our culture, we separate mental health from physical health. With this book I really wanted to show people both sides of the coin are important.

Our culture is filled with so many wonderful things—and wonderfully distracting and numbing things, which take us away from nourishing our gut and our feelings. I hope my book is a reckoning—a time for each of us to ask ourselves: Am I eating foods that love me back? Am I doing things that love me back? Or am I eating and doing things that distract from that? The goal is to find your center. Because when you find your center, all the noise becomes background. When you know what makes you feel great, lights you up, and elevates your life, the rest of the stuff is superfluous. You’ll be less reactive, judgmental, or rattled by the world because you have a resilience you’ve built for yourself.

What do you say for people who say that finding their center and listening to their gut feelings is difficult?

Look, there’s a reason why these things are called practices: None of us are actually good at these things at first. So, give yourself some grace. You’re not the freak who’s really bad at this. Most of us need to flex our mindfulness muscles because they are weak.

Getting out in nature and moving your body are both great entry points. Or maybe it’s dancing, drumming, yoga, tai chi—anything to get you out of your head and into your body is a great place to start. The best form of mediation is the one you can stay consistent with. All of these practices ask you to ground yourself in the present moment. Then, the goal is to stay consistent with them.

Rather than distract yourself with some FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)-inducing content, you can embrace what I call JOMO (Joy of Missing Out), which can help you cultivate and strengthen the habits that love you back.

I love your suggestion to have multiple “metaphysical meals” throughout the day. What are these, and how can they be transformative?

A metaphysical meal is my way of saying: What are you feeding your head and heart? How are you taking time to really savor the present moment?

It can be tempting to want to hear very prescriptive advice when you’re trying to get healthier. Eat this, supplement with that. At first, metaphysical meals can seem like a waste of time. You might think, Really? This can’t be that much of a needle mover. I’ve heard so many patients say some version of this to me. But then they start having metaphysical meals and staying consistent with them and they see it’s a massive needle mover.

Will Cole is a leading functional medicine expert who consults people around the world via webcam, having started one of the first functional medicine telehealth centers in the world. He is also the host of The Art of Being Well podcast and bestselling author of Ketotarian, The Inflammation Spectrum, and the New York Times bestseller Intuitive Fasting.

Question from the Editor: What are some of the ways your emotional health is impacting your physical health right now?