Autoimmunity: Is There a Cure?

Our work together is aimed at supporting you get into “remission”.  Remission means free of active disease and symptoms with bloodwork showing more normal values.  I am constantly amazed and heartened by the body’s own healing abilities.  To see people transform from worried and struggling to strong, resilient and enjoying life is the greatest joy…

A few well-known autoimmune diseases are:

• Addison’s disease
• Autoimmune vasculitis
• Coeliac Disease
• Hypothyroidism (90% of hypothyroidism is autoimmune)
• Inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s
• Grave’s disease (hyperactive thyroid)
• Myasthenia gravis
• MS
• Pernicious anaemia
• Psoriasis/psoriatic arthritis
• Scleroderma
• Sjogren’s syndrome (a dry eye/mouth condition)
• Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE)
• Type I (and recently type II) Diabetes
• Uveitis

But what happens if your immune system gets out of control?

Autoimmune disease is where you lose self-tolerance.  Your immune system mistakenly attacks the cells that make up you.  If your immune system attacks your joints, it’s called rheumatoid arthritis.  If it attacks your thyroid it’s called hypo or hyperthyroidism.  If it’s your liver being attacked it’s autoimmune hepatitis.

But why?  Enter molecular mimicry….

This is where a foreign protein (e.g., part of a bacteria, virus or food) has some similarities to proteins in certain type of body cell belonging to you.  The concept of molecular mimicry in autoimmune disease was supported by research as early as the 1980’s [1] but now an avalanche of research supports this.

Here’s an example:

Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) infection is linked to hypothyroidism (Hashimoto’s) [2].  Proteins (antigens) in the virus have similarities to proteins in your thyroid.  Your body attacks the virus but also starts to attack your thyroid.  It may be years after you had the illness and you recovered.  But viruses ALWAYS stay in your system.  A healthy immune systems keep viruses suppressed (latent), until there is a trigger.

Your trigger might an infection, exposure to a toxin, emotional upheaval or injury.  It could be a course of medication such as antibiotics [3] (which destroy good gut bacteria needed for healthy immunity).  Or frequent use of anti-inflammatories destroy the places where friendly bacteria latch on to and form colonies.  If you already have poor diet or digestive issues you are weakened long before the trigger comes along.  The trigger is the straw that breaks the camel’s back.  It is not the sole cause of autoimmunity.

Is it all genetic?

There are genetic predispositions to autoimmune disease BUT this isn’t the full story.  You are given your genes, your physical genetic material (made of DNA), at the moment of conception.  Out of approximately 23,000 genes that make up your genetic information, about 1,000 are in abnormal forms.  Some give a disadvantage and some give an advantage. Your environment and behaviour control how your genes behave.

The internal environment that bathes your genes causes switches to activate some genes and suppress others.  Nutrition, lifestyle, habitual behaviours and even feelings flip these switches.   You are the master controller of these genetic switches.  This is why lifestyle and nutritional changes are so powerful.