What Is Autoimmunity?

Autoimmunity occurs when the immune system begins attacking other cells and tissues in your body. “Auto” means “self” and “immunity” (obviously) refers to the immune system. It is estimated that at least 50 million Americans have one or more autoimmune diseases. Unfortunately, this number is not decreasing year-by-year. Autoimmune conditions are becoming more and more common each year. While all autoimmune diseases vary slightly in symptoms and location of symptoms, they all have this one thing in common: an imbalanced immune system.

The immune system is a very complex part of our body as it plays important roles in nervous system functioning, endocrine functioning (hormones), inflammation and so much more. A healthy immune system is balanced and only attacks invaders like infections or toxins that don’t belong there. With every autoimmune condition, however, the immune system is imbalanced and unstable.

It is essential to understand that the immune system does not just sporadically decide to become unstable. There is ALWAYS a driver that causes an imbalanced immune system — as you’ll see in the next section. In order to truly reverse and heal from ANY autoimmune condition, you have to find and address the driver of the immune system imbalance and rebalance the immune system.

What Causes Autoimmunity?

1. Infections

Infections? Yes, infections. With the “typical” infection, we’re generally talking about sinus infections, respiratory infections, and so on. Here, however, we aren’t talking about your common cold. Just like how our sinuses can get infected, we can also get infections in any organ in the body and even in our blood. Because these infections don’t usually present with a fever, a stuffy nose, or feeling under the weather, we refer to them as “sub-clinical” infections. Signs and symptoms of sub-clinical infections are things like inflammation, digestive problems, nutrient deficiencies, fatigue, anxiety, hormonal imbalances, and so on.

Parasites, viruses, bacteria, and fungus are the main types of infections. These all cause huge amounts of stress on the immune system and are almost always the main drivers in autoimmune conditions. Infections deplete us of nutrients, leave behind their toxic wastes, and overall cause massive amounts of dysfunction.

2. Inflammation / Toxicities

Inflammation is also a huge stressor to the immune system. High stress hormones, heavy metal toxicities, synthetic chemicals, and infections are the most common causes of inflammation. The more inflammation, the more the immune system will become imbalanced. Stress hormones consist of cortisol, norepinephrine, and epinephrine and become high due to increases in chemical stress (inflammation, toxicities, etc.), physical stress (fascial imbalances, injuries, etc.), and emotional stress.

Heavy metals can come from a variety of places with the most common being make-up products, amalgum (silver) tooth fillings, vaccines, deodorants, and farm-raised fish. Synthetic chemicals could be anything that has purely been made by man and not found in nature. Anything from natural flavors, to artificial sweeteners, to medications and so on. A good test to determine if something is synthetic or not is if you’re able to pronounce it fairly easily or not. All of these drive inflammation which then drives imbalances within the immune system.

3. Emotional Stress

Chronic emotional stress from a relationship (a significant other, family member, or friend), work (boss, coworkers, job itself), season of life (location, social circles, uncertainty of future), or a combination of them all can be a powerful trigger for autoimmunity. This is the category that is probably least understood in the scientific community yet can be more powerful than anything else discussed in this section. If you’re struggling with an autoimmune condition, consider your emotional health and where that stands amongst everything. It may just be the most important piece to overcome in your healing journey.

Reversing Autoimmunity

The “Common” Treatments For Autoimmunity

Common treatments for autoimmune conditions include anti-inflammatory medications, immunosuppressant medications, corticosteroid shots, and pain-killing medications. While you may see some short-term benefit in symptoms, none of these common treatment options truly address the cause of autoimmunity–an imbalanced immune system. In order to reverse autoimmune conditions, you have to (1) remove the driver and (2) rebalance the immune system.

1. Kill Infections

Infections cause massive amounts of inflammation, stress, disruption, and dysfunction to the body. If an infection is playing a part in triggering autoimmunity, killing them is going to be essential to healing. Remember, while I may mention a few examples of antimicrobial herbs here, every patient and infection is unique and usually only ONE of the herbals is going to work 100% — that is why being able to find those through a technique like SHC is so essential.

For parasites, there are ~10 different herbals that we test for in our office. We also check for the presence of biofilms and what is needed to destroy those. A few common parasitic herbs are Wormwood, Black Walnut, and Morinda. For bacterial infections, we check ~25-30 different anti-bacterial herbs. Astragalus, Illicium, and Melia are common ones here. For fungal infections, we also check ~25-30 different anti-fungal herbs here. Golden thread, Schisandra, and Reishi are common anti-fungal herbs. For viral infections, we check ~15-20 different anti-viral herbs. Elderberry, Scutellaria, and Houttuynia are common anti-viral herbs.

2. Decrease Inflammation

Stress hormones, heavy metal toxicities, synthetic chemicals, physical stresses, and emotional stresses all play their part in the inflammatory process and each needs to be addressed. For stress hormones, practice proper diaphragmatic breathing to increase the “calm and healing” part of your nervous system (parasympathetics) and to reintegrate the diaphragm. Its also essential to support the body chemically with a whole form of Vitamin C like Camu (NOT Ascorbic Acid!), or with an adaptogenic herb like Ashwagahda or Rhodiola.

For heavy metals or synthetic chemicals of any kind, you’ll need a specific vitamin or mineral for those. Usually selenium, zinc, or alpha lipoic acid will work to detox heavy metals and niacinamide (B3) or dandelion root will help detoxing synthetic chemicals. With a very specific technique like Systems Health Care, however, we will often need to check 10-20 different nutrients before finding the one nutrient that is needed to break down the synthetic chemical.

For physical stresses, you have to balance the fascial system through manual therapies. This will balance the nervous system, improve lymphatic flow, and decrease inflammation overall. Systems Health Care is perfect for this, however, I recommend daily use of a massage ball roller as well.

When it comes to inflammatory problems directly affecting the immune system such as high NF-Kappa B levels, consider anti-inflammatories such as curcumin or resveratrol.

Side note: As much as an NSAID like Ibuprofen or Acetominophen is thought to decrease inflammation, it doesn’t actually address ANY of the main causes of inflammation. In fact, NSAIDS are very harmful to our gut health and should really be replaced by a good EPA fish oil supplement (more effective and no side effects). Read more about pain and why NSAIDS are never a good idea here.

3. Heal Emotionally

Healing emotionally can be a frustrating thing and can sometimes take weeks to months to years. While I do not claim to be a therapist, counselor, or pastor, I do understand the importance of emotional health in regards to autoimmune conditions. Amazingly enough, with a technique like Systems Health Care, one can actually determine if emotional stress is driving the autoimmune condition (or not) AND how to reverse it. In the case that it is, its essential to treat specific reflexes to rebalance the immune system and nervous system.

Just how our words and thoughts have huge power on our entire body, it is essential to watch how you’re speaking to yourself and those around you. Are you speaking life? Or are you speaking down to, harshly, or negatively, to yourself or others? Every thought and word matters. Be encouraged that YOU can control the thoughts in your mind and words from your mouth and use them to speak life and goodness over yourself and those around you.

Lastly, and most powerfully, knowing the power of Jesus and him dying on the cross for us can set you free from any emotional challenges. Through Him we have freedom and life. Through Him you can be 100% healed and made new from any emotional stress, no matter how deep.

4. Rebalance The Immune System

When addressing the causes of an imbalanced immune system (infections, inflammation, toxicities, emotional health, etc.), you are removing the driver of dysfunction. At the same time, it’s essential to support the rebalancing of the immune system.

Do this through focusing on supporting the T-regulatory cells (T-reg) and Interleukin-10 cells (IL-10). These powerful immune system cells are anti-inflammatory in nature and help control and regulate the other immune system cells. Support T-reg cells with things like Vitamin A, Vitamin D, proper fatty acid balance, adequate iron levels, and adequate antioxidant levels (glutathione and precursors). Support IL-10 cells through things like resveratrol, curcumin (tumeric), priobiotics, Vitamin A, and CoQ10.

It’s important to note, however, that there are at least 20-30 different nutrients that help T-reg support and IL-10 support and most people only actually need 2 or 3 of them. So if you can imagine, this process can be very tedious and that is why I use Systems Health Care to figure out exactly what nutrients are needed in every patient’s specific case. By supporting these key components of your immune system, and addressing the key drivers of dysfunction, the body is then able to gain control again of it’s immune system and thereby reverse the autoimmune process.

Suffering From an Autoimmune Condition?

At Freedom Health and Wellness, we address all of these things and more through a personalized and functional approach. We help people with chronic diseases and illnesses regain their health by getting to the source of their health concerns.