Can i reverse autoimmune disease

Types of autoimmune disorders Immune system malfunction Risk factors for autoimmune disorders Diagnosis of autoimmune disorders Treatment for autoimmune disorders Where to get help. Types of autoimmune disorders Autoimmune disorders can affect nearly every organ and system of the body. Some autoimmune disorders include: Diabetes Type I — affects the pancreas. Symptoms include thirst, frequent urination, weight loss and an increased susceptibility to infection.

Graves' disease — affects the thyroid gland. Symptoms include weight loss, elevated heart rate, anxiety and diarrhoea. Inflammatory bowel disease — includes ulcerative colitis and possibly, Crohn's disease.

Symptoms include diarrhoea and abdominal pain. Multiple sclerosis — affects the nervous system. Depending on which part of the nervous system is affected, symptoms can include numbness, paralysis and vision impairment.

Psoriasis — affects the skin. Features include the development of thick, reddened skin scales. Rheumatoid arthritis — affects the joints.

Symptoms include swollen and deformed joints. The eyes, lungs and heart may also be targeted. Scleroderma — affects the skin and other structures, causing the formation of scar tissue. Features include thickening of the skin, skin ulcers and stiff joints.

Systemic lupus erythematosus — affects connective tissue and can strike any organ system of the body. Your autoimmune disease didn't happen overnight. Sure, you may have a genetic predisposition towards autoimmunity. However, we now know about epigenetics and that our genes are not static and they can be both turned on and turned off by environmental and lifestyle factors.

As a functional medicine physician, I work with my patients to find the root cause of their autoimmunity by uncovering these environmental and lifestyle factors that turned on these genes. After treating thousands of patients with autoimmunity and other chronic health conditions, I have found that by addressing five common environmental and lifestyle factors we can help restore the balance of your immune system and often reverse your autoimmune disease. Here are the five strategies I use personally, and with my all of my patients, to address the root causes of autoimmune disease, restore balance to the immune system, help get people off medications, get symptom free, and reverse their disease.

Heal Your Gut Your gut is your gateway to health. It houses 80 percent of your immune system , and without a healthy gut it is nearly impossible to have a healthy immune system. In fact, we now know that having a leaky gut is one of the primary causes, and probably even a prerequisite, for developing an autoimmune disease.

If your gut has become leaky it means the the tight junctions that usually hold the walls of your intestines together have become loose, allowing undigested food particles, microbes, toxins, and more to escape your gut and enter your bloodstream, causing a huge rise in inflammation that triggers or worsens any autoimmune condition.

Fortunately, the cells in your gut turn over very quickly, so you can heal your gut in as little as thirty days, by following functional medicine's 4R Program :. Reinoculate with Healthy Bacteria -- Make sure you have plenty of friendly bacteria to support your immune system. Optimize Your Diet The foods you eat play a major role in two key components of autoimmune disease -- gut health and inflammation. Unfortunately, our modern diets are full of foods that have a negative impact on the two.

This includes the usual suspects of processed food and junk food, as well as pseudo health foods such as low-fat and gluten-free packaged foods, which are often loaded with sugar, additives, and preservatives.

But even foods that we typically think of as cornerstones in a healthy diet, such as grains, dairy, legumes, eggs, corn, and soy, can contribute to leaky gut and inflammation.

Gluten, in particular, is a primary culprit because it triggers the release of a chemical called zonulin, which tells the walls of your intestines to open up and is highly inflammatory. Go for walks with your friends or family. Go out and do some gardening. Play Frisbee in the park with your kids. Pick up a tennis racket and just knock a tennis ball around.

Anything you can do to get out and move your body can be considered exercise. Just use your body more. Practice deep relaxation. Stress worsens your immune response. Calming techniques including yoga, deep breathing, biofeedback, massage, or my UltraCalm CD can reduce stress and anxiety to promote relaxation.

Sleep for 8 hours every night. The research is clear: Lack of sleep or poor sleep damages your metabolism, causes cravings for sugar and carbs, makes you eat more, and drives up your risk of numerous conditions from diabesity to autoimmune disease. Getting enough sleep and sleeping well are essential for vibrant health and reversing inflammation.

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Something happened to cause your body to go into this abnormal state of hyperimmunity. That is the focus of functional medicine. The functional medicine approach is not as concerned with the symptoms of a particular disease as much as it is with the underlying cause of the disease.

When the body functions properly, symptoms diminish, and illness is no longer present. Functional medicine and traditional medicine might seem to be at odds with one another. But the reality is, they do not need to be. An autoimmune disorder, by definition, is when your immune system mistakes healthy cells as a threat and responds by attacking them. While traditional medicine may treat different autoimmune disorders as separate and distinct, the functional medicine approach views them on a continuum.

There are many, many disorders caused by autoimmunity. Some of the most prevalent include the following:. These are all conditions where the immune system is attacking otherwise healthy cells.

The science of functional medicine has uncovered a handful of common reasons that may cause the body to go into a hyperimmune state. Why is that? Digest that for a moment yes, pun intended. There is a myriad of reasons why you may develop sensitivities to particular foods, and it can be difficult to know which foods cause problems for you.

When your body is constantly reacting to a food to which you have a sensitivity, you are damaging your GI tract. A properly functioning GI tract, or gut, must be somewhat permeable in order to absorb the nutrients from our food. It can also prevent the absorption of essential vitamins and minerals.

This can cause inflammation within the body which, in turn, can result in autoimmune disease. Once contracted, they can stay with you for the rest of your life, going in and out of dormant states. Chickenpox is a classic example.