AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE / I have really good news for you. Autoimmune disease is NOT some scary freak out of your body where it begins attacking itself - nope - there is a cause, a trigger if you will. AND even better, where there is a trigger, there is relief.
Today we are talking about what autoimmune disease IS and IS NOT and we are busting some myths about autoimmune conditions.
Let me know in the comments below - are you suffering from an autoimmune disease?
RESOURCES AND LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO:
YouTube Presentation Autoimmune Disease:
https://youtu.be/wAfS-SNQtFM
Prednisone Side Effects
https://youtu.be/aIwAEq6vzyQ
Complimentary Case Review:
https://audreychristie.com/work-with-audrey/
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Autoimmune Disease: Myth Busting
Antacids, SSRI, Diuretics, Metformin
We are diving into the topic we have been building towards for a couple of weeks now, autoimmune disease.
Did you know that autoimmune disease has now exceeded the 10th leading cause of death in women under the age of 65? Yeah, so tune in, this is important. This is NOT something that gets you when you get old and even though there are some countries with better statistics than the US - this is not just a problem here stateside. It’s also a growing source of chronic disease world-wide.
Today we will be talking about what autoimmune disease is not, what it is, and some of the why it happens. In this blog/podcast we will not be focusing on nutrition, because there is so much more to it than that, we really have to have a solid foundation in place before you can make nutritional changes last.
What Autoimmune Disease Is NOT
Before we talk about what autoimmune disease is, let’s talk a little bit about what autoimmune disease is NOT. You may have heard that it is a disease that comes out of nowhere, and the body just starts attacking itself.
Let’s bust that myth, because it really is a myth. I think this myth stemmed from and oversimplification of what is actually happening. Then it changed and morphed into this scary urban legend where the urban myth is that autoimmune disease just sneak attacks you without warning or cause. It's kind of like the telephone game, right?
This goes hand in hand with another myth I’d like to bust. The image that if you suffer from an autoimmune condition your body is weak and vulnerable. Also sometimes viewed as having an autoimmune disease is evidence of a weak body. It's simply not true.
The body is strong, resilient, with incredible anatomy physiological mechanisms, and even a little magic too. It’s a brilliant machine, breathed to life with that magical Soul of yours.
Framing your body as weak because you suffer from an autoimmune disease deeply affects your mindset. We know, science demonstrates to us, our mindset and attitude about our ability to heal, the strength of our body is very important in actually being able to heal our body.
I’m here to tell you, and for you to tell and share with others - that the body is not weak and you do not get an autoimmune disease by the body just suddenly going all wack-a-doo and sending the immune system off to attack random body parts.
So if you are suffering from an autoimmune disease you NOW know your body is strong .
The good news, like REALLY good news about these disease processes not being a randomness or weak bodied thing, is that where there is a cause there is a path way to heal.
So now that we no for sure what autoimmune disease is NOT. Let’s talk about what it is.
What is autoimmune disease in general?
Autoimmune disease is a disconnect.
Autoimmune disease is a disconnect between how the body is designed to run in terms of the immune system, and all of the different exposures in the environment, many of which are under each person's direct control and many of which are not, and some of which depend on the person as to whether or not it is under their control.
Let’s think for a minute, what an ideal life looks like, right? From a physiological aspect.
It looks like our body functioning in a certain way right? It looks like feeling freaking awesome, it looks like really high energy, it looks like great bowel movements, and a positive mindset, it looks like amazing sex, and getting pregnant whenever we want, and having perfect skin, it looks and feels eneregtic and full of vitality. Would you agree that these are all things that we want?
The problem is, we want it, we want and expect this ideal life but we want it even though we are super stressed, and consuming food that is nutrient depleted at best and lacking in bioavailable nutrients completely at the worst. We want this ideal situation physiologically but we don’t prioritize sleep, we slather ourselves with all sorts of chemicals in our homes in the name of cleanliness and on our skin in the name of beauty - without consideration to the ingredients.
This is what I mean by disconnected. There is a gap between how we do the things, how we behave, and the experience that we want to have in our human suits.
I’m curious, is the message that you are sending your body a message that you want to be thriving?
Overstressed
An example of one message we are certainly communicating to our body and experiencing in our life is one that we may die any moment. No, I'm not being dramatic here, but your body is.
You are, I am frequently too, this is common place for all people and all ages, but we collectively are stressed out. This communicated to our body that we might die at any moment. Our body, the biology and cells the hormones and neurotransmitters, the immune system doesn’t know that we are stressed by a deadline at work - or the traffic from a commute, the response in the body is the same as if we were literally running for our lives. We get upset and frustrated and stew for hours, days, weeks, months even years about really stupid things. But the body doesn’t know the difference.
Are you stressed? Are you living in a fight or flight state day in and day out? I don’t meet many people who aren’t.
Being in that chronically stressed and overall depleted state activates the cascades of internal messengers and pathways that are different than when we are nourishing our body’s and at ease and secure. One creates chaos and many times an active chronic autoimmune state and one creates vitality, healing, and reproduction.
What happens when we are in an active chronic autoimmune state?
When you have an active and chronic autoimmune state, the body’s immune system is directing antibodies to a tissue in your body, sometimes towards a process but sometimes towards a tissue itself which over time damages the tissue (think like thyroid disease).
What is happening is the body is sending immune fighters to the thyroid, which generates inflammation in the thyroid, which over time (because the thyroid doesn’t go away) the inflammation stays and creates oxidative damage, and that creates more inflammation - and you end up in this downward spiral - ultimately damaging the thyroid.
It’s important to know that this doesn’t happen, like I mentioned at the beginning of the episode/article because the body is weak, or crazy, it happens for very specific reasons, reasons that are most of the time reversible.
Sometimes the amount of damage that has been done can require conventional intervention. Continuing the thyroid example, sometimes the tissue required to be removed or requires medication. Even if that is the case, it is still critically important to get to that root cause. It is very likely a secondary autoimmune disease will develop within 5 years, even if the thyroid is being treated only with traditional medical interventions.
Why?
I'm so glad you asked - thyorid disease of any kind is not a disease of the thyroid.For that matter, no autoimmune disease is. Multiple sclerosis is ultimately not a disease of the brain and rheumatoid arthritis is not a disease of the joints. All autoimmune diseases are diseases of the immune system, that happen to settle in the pathway of the organ or organ system.
So what happens when we treat the end result, so we treat the thyroid or we treat the joints or we treat the skin - we aren’t doing enough it is incomplete medicine. Conventional medicine may be necessary for rapid relief of symptoms but that is it. It’s not thorough. It is critical to get to the root cause and put out the fire rather than just fan the smoke. It is the only way to stop find true relief from the autoimmune disease and prevent a secondary condition from taking hold.
Conventional Treatment for Autoimmune Disease
Conventional medicine generally believes and would have us believe that autoimmune disease isn’t improvable or reversible, and that at best you will need long-term medication. Which, hey, sometimes is the case, but not very often.
In the majority of cases, with commitment from the patient or client to make progressive lifestyle changes, autoimmune disease, can be significantly reduced, and even reversed.
Conventional medicine generally reaches for chronic immunosuppression drugs, like prednisone for autoimmune disease (or other low-dose chemotherapeutic drugs) When you take immunosuppressive drugs, you are grinding the immune system to a halt. People unfortunately die from simple things like strep and flu viruses or underlying infectious issues when they are prescribed prednisone long term for chronic illness.
That’s why it's important to take a functional approach to consider the holistic picture and not just a singular organ system before consenting to start a particular intervention. And frankly that goes for natural interventions as well.
I won’t harp on the subject too long - but it's like using Lemon Essential Oil in your water to detox the liver every morning. Does lemon detox the liver? Sure. But that is taking a natural remedy and applying it to a particular organ, a conventional medical approach, without considering the holistic and functional view. If you zoom out from the liver - you are damaging many other organs in the body for that micro liver detox!
Medications like prednisone can be necessary and even life saving, but at the very least they are overprescribed. And we have to be realistic about the consequences of the use and overuse of these medications. I see this happening frequently as a first choice when the situation is either non-critical, chronic, and/or lifestyle changes haven't even been tried.
Additionally, Prednisone, when used only for a few days causes breakdown in bone tissue. It also takes months for the adrenal glands to return to normal just after a short usage and I will often see a disease process start to creep up or be fueled that results in all sorts of symptoms. We need to be realistic and acknowledge the consequences of that, so that we can be on top of it and understand the consequences. You can check out the video linked in the description about prednisone for more information.
In short, we absolutely may need immunosuppressive drugs to counter the inflammatory surge that is literally eating at a patients joints who has rheumatoid arthritis for example. But it is also reducing the inflammatory system that protects many aspects of your human suit. This is important to keep in mind that every immunosuppressant, every course of prednisone comes iwht a price. And sometimes its worth it, but know that it is not the only option available.
So let’s do a quick recap.
I want you to know a few things for sure about autoimmune disease as we kick off the autoimmune series...
- Autoimmune disease does not sneak attack you and suddenly your body starts attacking itself and it is not the result of or a sign of a weak body. It's not random, there are root causes.
- Where there is a root cause, there is a pathway for relief and remission.
- Autoimmune disease is not a disease of the organ that is affected. That is an end result or a downstream effect.
- Using medication alone to treat an autoimmune condition significantly increases the risk that a second or third autoimmune dynamic will take hold.
This is so important and it's important to have your entire holistic basket of systems and symptoms addressed to ensure that you are addressing the root cause.
As always if you need more help? Be sure to schedule a complimentary Mini-Case Review here.
And thank you so much for reading and listening, if you would like to contribute, be sure to subscribe and leave a rating on your favorite podcast provider, on YouTube, or share this with your friends and family! I would be so grateful!
Be well,