Autoimmune is one of the buzzwords of the moment in contemporary wellness care and even in conventional “sick care”.
There is a lot of talk of “autoimmune epidemic” and all kinds of new refined testing procedures just confirm the phenomenon.
But have you ever asked yourself what is the real source of the autoimmune process, and how does it work? And most of all are you at risk of ending up with one?
In conventional, allopathic medicine (sick care), and sometimes even with naturopaths and functional medicine doctors, an autoimmune process is explained as malfunctioning of the immune system.
That is why immune suppressing drugs are liberally prescribed when dealing with auto-immunity, or at best immune suppressing or stimulating supplements for certain pathways.
Unfortunately his is a sad and incomplete perception of the situation, leading to the kind of treatment that causes lots more damage than healing.
The scary party of this situation is that, at different degrees, we are all at risk for an autoimmune condition!
Let me explain why!
What is an autoimmune disease?
Autoimmune diseases are nothing but a phase of the progression of disease in a specific organ or system in the body, for example the thyroid or the heart.
Let’s see how this process works:
The death of a cell.
Let’s say we have a perfectly healthy gland, like a thyroid. Over time as our diets lack nutrients, we ingest plenty of toxins, we are subject to trauma and infections (bacterial and viral) and we do nothing to help, the thyroid starts slowly breaking down. That means that the thyroid’s own cells start dying of necrosis (premature death due to any of the reasons above) instead of apoptosis (natural cell death caused by oxidative process – perfectly healthy and natural).
Necrosis causes the cell to leak DNA parts into the surrounding tissues. As the DNA might attach to different organs and tissues sending messages to build the wrong kind of cell, the body needs to remove it asap. Normally the body’s immune system would be able to clean up this mess just fine, through a normal process of antigen creation and antibody removal.
But what happens when many organs and glands are compromised and spill that dangerous DNA everywhere?
The immune system becomes overwhelmed!
A question of quantity!
We commonly think all auto antibodies are bad!
Wait! What are auto antibodies?
Auto antibodies are immune system cells generated by the body in response to an attacker, in this case one of the body’s own nucleic proteins (a spilled piece of DNA), so that it can be neutralized – it’s a perfectly normal immune process!
What we did not know is that a low level of auto antibodies is not only perfectly normal it is necessary!
How would the body clean up occasional messes and prevent contamination with that spilled DNA otherwise??
The real issue here is when cell necrosis gets overwhelming and the immune system can not keep up with it anymore.
At this point cell DNA starts leaking in to the blood stream and getting transported to all kinds of places in the body.
Places where it does NOT belong!
This is where autoimmune diseases are created: The body starts forming high levels of auto antigens, which are now forced to clean up the constant mess from the sick organ’s cells dying in billions.
Eventually the antibodies clean up all the spillage and slowly track it back to the source.
That is when they start attacking the originating organ!
Now the autoimmune attack of the body to an organ has begun!
Some of the causes that lead to cell degeneration -> Autoimmune!
- Radiation (uhmmm remember Fukushima??)
- Nutritional Deficiencies
- Diverting the immune attack (through specific supplements)
- Providing the right nutrients (supplements and diet)
- Removing stressors (detoxing and lowering inflammation)
- Supporting the body’s innate immunity (thymus support and low allergen diet)
- Repairing the gut (with proper supplementation and diet)
- Clearing infections
- Regulating the autoimmune process (immune regulating herbs)