Oct 24, 2026 · 1 hr 2 min · 13 segments
What happens when the experience you never wanted becomes the reason you discover a completely different path in life? Dr. Steve McGough’s journey into recovery and wellness began with a deeply…
Steve McGoughGuestFayeHostSo my next question is that your work now focuses heavily on nervous system regulation and recovery.
You often explain that people can be sleeping, exercising, eating well, and doing what they believe they should be doing, yet they struggle to recover because their body remains under stress.
What is happening in the body when someone understands that they need to be next and recover but can't seem to get relaxed or get there? How can prolonged stress show up in everyday life even when a person doesn't feel anxious?
Well, to understand that, it's good to, and I know I tend to give long answers on, but it's good to get a quick overview of what's going on in our nervous system.
We have the fight or flight aspect that literally prepares us to run or fight.
It causes all sorts of changes that gives us the energy, basically, to be able to survive.
The big thing with the fight or flight process is when you get to the final result, especially if it stays there chronically, the cells actually shift their metabolism so that they focus on energy production.
That was originally, you know, ideally you'd only have a stressful event once and then it would stop because in the old days, if you survived whatever it was, then you could relax.
The challenge is, and then when you're in the rest, digest, reproduce phase, the cells focus on cleaning things up and healing.
They're things in the distance, work, bills, projects, and they're not immediate stresses that we do a physical thing for and then it's over.
Plus, we have lights that shine bright at night that activate our nervous system to make us think it's daytime.
And we look at phones and computers that the algorithms are optimized to keep us excited and stimulated.
And That basically causes us to stay in a stressed state mentally, and that results in physical tension.
That's a manifestation result of that to the point that we don't even realize how stressed we are.
Everybody listening to this, I strongly believe that you are quite stressed, but it's just that feels natural to you.
And if you do some techniques to be able to relax, you'd be shocked at how much muscle tension you are carrying in your body just as your normal default level.
Now, where that causes trouble is Well, you can see it in several areas, but one study was done a few years ago, over five years, where people would go in periodically and wear a heart monitor for a week or more at a time, 24 hours a day.
So my next question is that your work now focuses heavily on nervous system regulation and recovery.
You often explain that people can be sleeping, exercising, eating well, and doing what they believe they should be doing, yet they struggle to recover because their body remains under stress.
What is happening in the body when someone understands that they need to be next and recover but can't seem to get relaxed or get there? How can prolonged stress show up in everyday life even when a person doesn't feel anxious?
Well, to understand that, it's good to, and I know I tend to give long answers on, but it's good to get a quick overview of what's going on in our nervous system.
We have the fight or flight aspect that literally prepares us to run or fight.
It causes all sorts of changes that gives us the energy, basically, to be able to survive.
The big thing with the fight or flight process is when you get to the final result, especially if it stays there chronically, the cells actually shift their metabolism so that they focus on energy production.
That was originally, you know, ideally you'd only have a stressful event once and then it would stop because in the old days, if you survived whatever it was, then you could relax.
The challenge is, and then when you're in the rest, digest, reproduce phase, the cells focus on cleaning things up and healing.
They're things in the distance, work, bills, projects, and they're not immediate stresses that we do a physical thing for and then it's over.
Plus, we have lights that shine bright at night that activate our nervous system to make us think it's daytime.
And we look at phones and computers that the algorithms are optimized to keep us excited and stimulated.
And That basically causes us to stay in a stressed state mentally, and that results in physical tension.
That's a manifestation result of that to the point that we don't even realize how stressed we are.
Everybody listening to this, I strongly believe that you are quite stressed, but it's just that feels natural to you.
And if you do some techniques to be able to relax, you'd be shocked at how much muscle tension you are carrying in your body just as your normal default level.
Now, where that causes trouble is Well, you can see it in several areas, but one study was done a few years ago, over five years, where people would go in periodically and wear a heart monitor for a week or more at a time, 24 hours a day.
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