Autoimmune disorders (lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, Multiple Sclerosis, Psoriasis, Celiac’s and Thyroiditis) are, when combined, the the 3rd most common chronic disease affecting Americans, only being beat out by heart disease and cancer.
It is estimated that 80% of people who consume a prescription drug for any condition actually have an autoimmune disorder at the root, simply because most chronic disease can be traced to the body attacking itself at various spots and in various capacities.
- If the joints are attacked = arthritis.
- If the brain is attacked = MS, Parkinson’s, Alzheimers, etc.
- If the bowel is attacked = Celiac/IBS/IBD.
- If the pancreas is attacked = Diabetes.
- If the thyroid is attacked = Thyroiditis.
You can imagine I can keep going, so for sake of space I’ll let you fill in the rest.
The cause of autoimmune conditions can be combined to a three-legged stool. That is to say, there are three specific factors that cause and irritate. They are:
- Genetic: 2% of the population will have a true, inborn genetic cause at birth. Example: Type I Diabetes is a known autoimmune condition present from birth. (Yet even still, this can be helped through natural work.)
- Leaky Gut: Damage to the intestinal cells allows proteins to get into the bloodstream creating an immune-antibody response that, over time, can cause an enhanced and prolonged immune response to the body’s tissue cells. Imagine this scenario: You have a leaky gut and you eat a chicken wing. Alongside the meat and skin from the chicken wing, you get joint tissue. Through the leaky gut, this joint tissue leaks into your bloodstream and your body attacks it. After this continues to happen over a period of time, your body continues to attack joint tissue until it notices that the tissue in your joints looks suspiciously like what it’s been fighting for so long. That’s when you get rheumatoid arthritis.
- Traumatic Trigger: Either physical (car accident) or emotional (divorce, death, relationship challenge, etc) stress can overwhelm the body’s immune system creating an autoimmune reaction.
Chances are you either have, or know someone who has, a degree of autoimmunity going on in the body somewhere or another. Below you will find a few simple methods to decrease and/or perhaps eliminate the condition all together!
- Chew Your Food More: Large solid food items place additional stress on your digestive system and decrease the amount of nutrition absorbed. Its best to chew each bite 40-50 times before swallowing to ensure it is pulverized and “pre-digested” by the enzymes in your mouth.
- Begin Intermittent Fasting: Skipping a meal daily and entering a state of Ketosis (ketone bodies in the blood) has scientifically been shown to normalize immune function (including calming an overactive immune system), keeping your fasting period to an 8 hour window, your eating window another 8 hours and sleeping for the last 8 hours of the day. For me, this looks like replacing solid breakfast with Ketone Coffee (coffee + butter and MCT oil) or Bone Broth, then eating lunch at 12 or 1 pm and finishing dinner by 8pm daily.
- Raise Your Vitamin D: When is the last time you were tested? To date, approximately 90% of people I test have low Vitamin D in their blood. The desirable range is 60-100ng/dl due to immune system modulation. Vitamin D helps to regulate your immune system’s ability to identify self vs non-self. This is HUGE with any health condition, especially autoimmune.
- Increase Magnesium & B-Vitamins: This can be done with supplements or simply by focusing on foods high in Mg and B’s (pumpkin seeds, seaweed, nutritional yeast, raw cacao (chocolate), dark green leafy vegetables and raw dairy (butter and cheese). These vitamins are essential for methylation and energy pathways in the body.
- Prebiotic & Probiotic Support: Leaky gut can be soothed simply by eliminating triggers (grain, sugar, processed foods and fats) and adding healthy bacteria. Prebiotics are foods that support the bacteria themselves (asparagus, leeks, artichokes, radish, jicama, onions and garlic). Probiotics help to maintain the delicate balance of all bacteria in the bowels (microbiome). Rather than consuming a pill with limited strains, use fermented foods (sauerkraut, kimchi, beet slaw, coconut water, kombucha, kevita etc).
- Move your bowels often: Constipation is a big issue for lots of people. You should be having 2-3 solid bowel movements daily. If you’re having difficulty you can try a high dose vitamin C/Magnesium flush: Take 1.5 grams of Vitamin C along with 500 mg of Magnesium every hour on the hour until things begin moving! Remember, your bowels hold 80% of the immune system and keeping them moving and clean will ensure your immune system is clean and moving normally as well.
These tips will help if you are currently suffering from an autoimmune condition, or if you simply want to prevent developing one. Take care out there!
