Autoimmune diseases what you should know
Autoimmune Diseases are homegrown terrorists in our immune system.
Over 50 million Americans have an autoimmune disease. It’s one of the top 10 causes of death in women over the age of 65. The 2nd highest cause of chronic illness in women in the United States. There is more than 100 different autoimmune diseases identified. In 2001 the treatment for autoimmune diseases was greater than $100 billion. However that only included 7 of the 100 autoimmune diseases.
What are autoimmune diseases?
An autoimmune disease is a state of your immune system that is sensitized to your own body. In Hashimoto’s disease your immune system is sensitized, attacks, your thyroid gland. In rheumatoid arthritis your immune system attacks your joints and connective tissue. Other autoimmune diseases are Crohn’s, Ulcerative Colitis, Lupus, MS, Psoriasis, and Scleroderma. You might be surprised that some of these diseases are classified as autoimmune.
What causes autoimmune diseases?
Conventional medicine concludes that environmental factors such as stress, viruses, bacteria, medications, hormones and toxins can trigger autoimmunity in genetically susceptible people.
Recent research has also indicated that chronic stress of all forms is a major factor in autoimmune diseases. Your internal environment meaning your thoughts feelings and emotions have great impact on your immune system as well as the external environment which is everything except yourself.
Triggers of Autoimmune Disease
- Chronic emotional and cognitive stress.
- Unhealthy coping patterns.
- Poor nutrition, Frankenfoods, GMO, individual sensitivities, food allergies
- Gastrointestinal Stress- Leaky Gut- Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)
- Adrenal Stress
- Hormonal imbalance
- Inflammatory and infectious diseases
- Toxic environmental stress.
The one trigger that is not included on this list is genetic sensitivity. There are very few diseases that are caused by 1 or 2 gene mutations or traits. All of the triggers listed above impact the expression of your genes. It matters how many triggers you have as well is the intensity and duration that results in any chronic disease.
How Do You Treat Autoimmune Diseases
Conventional medicine blocks the immune system from functioning with pharmaceuticals thereby causing a decrease in symptoms. These immunosuppressant drugs, you know the drugs that have more side effects than the disease it is treating. They are very dangerous, but very profitable. The drug Humira in 2013 delivered a stronger-than-expected 23.1% increase in quarterly sales estimated at $27 billion.
From the functional medical standpoint, YOU DON’T TREAT THE DISEASE. That sounds pretty strange I know. With a detailed history, examination and communication we treat the underlying cause. Remember the triggers are the underlying cause. Chronic emotional stress can be the result of financial situations, divorce or death in the family. This can take quite a while to resolve and most likely not in the functional medical office. But all of the triggers can be addressed decrease in the intensity of the autoimmune disease and often a cure of autoimmune diseases. That’s right, all the standard tests are negative as well symptomatology. If there is tissue destruction caused by an autoimmune disease that will remain permanent.
Both the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic have functional medical physicians. The future is very bright for healthcare, conventional medicine is seeing the value of Functional Medicine. The World Health Association is very interested with the functional medical approach to autoimmune diseases.
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