Achlorhydra Autoimmune Active Chronic Hepatitis

Addison's Disease

Alopecia Areata

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, Lou Gehrig's Disease)

Ankylosing Spondylitis

Anti-GBM Nephritis or anti-TBM Nephritis

Antiphospholipid Syndrome

Aplastic Anemia

Arthritis

Asthma

Atopic Allergy

Atopic Dermatitis

Autoimmune Inner Ear Disease (AIED)

Autoimmune Lymphoproliferative Syndrome (ALPS)

Balo Disease

Behcet's Disease

Berger's Disease (IgA Nephropathy)

Bullous Pemphigoid

Cardiomyopathy

Celiac Disease

Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS)

Churg Strauss Syndrome

Cicatricial Pemphigoid

Cogan's Syndrome

Cold Agglutunin Disease

Colitis

Cranial Arteritis

CREST Syndrome

Crohn's Disease

Cushing's Syndrome

Dego's Disease

Dermatitis

Dermatomyositis

Devic Disease

Diabetes, Type 1

Diabetes, Type 2

Dressler's Syndrome

Discoid Lupus

 

Eczema

Essential Mixed Cryoglobulinemia

Eosinophilic Fasciitis

Epidermolysis Bullosa Acquisita

Evan's Syndrome

Fibromyalgia

Fibromyositis

Fibrosing Alveolitis

Gastritis

Giant Cell Artertis

Glomerulonephritis

Goodpasture's Disease

Grave's Disease

Guillian-Barre Syndrome

Hashimoto's Thyroiditis

Hemolytic Anemia

Henoch-Schonlein Purpura

Hepatitis

Hughes Syndrome

Idiopathic Adrenal Atrophy

Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura

Inflammatory Demylinating Polyneuropathy

Irritable Bowel Syndrome

 

Kawasaki's Disease

Lichen Planus
 
Lou Gehrig's Disease

Lupoid Hepatitis

Lupus
 
Lyme Disease

Meniere's Disease

 

Mixed Connective Tissue Disease

Multiple Myeloma

Multiple Sclerosis

Myasthenia Gravis

Myositis

Ocular Cicatricial Pemphigoid

Osteoporosis

Pars Planitis

 

Pemphigus Vulgaris

Polyglandular Autoimmune Syndromes

Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR)

Polymyositis

Primary Biliary Cirrhois

Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis

Psoriasis

Raynaud's Phenomenon

Reiter's Syndrome

Rheumatic Fever
 
Rheumatoid Arthritis

Sarcoidosis

Scleritis

Scleroderma

Sjogren's Syndrome

Sticky Blood Syndrome

Still's Disease

Stiff Man Syndrome

Sydenham Chorea

Systemic Lupus Erythmatosis (SLE)

Takayasu's Arteritis

Temporal Arteritis

Ulcerative Colitis

Vasculitis

 

Vitiligo

Wegener's Granulomatosis

Wilson's Syndrome

The most common description of autoimmune disease is that it is a condition that occurs when the "body attacks itself". This definition doesn't even begin to encompass what autoimmunity really is. This disease is much more than inflammation caused by body "attacking itself".

The fact is that an autoimmune condition doesn't just "happen" to you. It is both passively and actively created by your lifestyle and the greedy practices of food manufacturers, who lace your meals with toxins. You eat, drink, and expose your way to immune dysfunction. With little exception, everything you put into your mouth, your surroundings, and even the air you breathe is either making you healthier or sicker.

How much control can you actually have over immune dysfunction?

Let's consider "the sunburn analogy"

When was the last time that you had a sunburn? At that time, did you consider your sunburn a terrible disease over which you had no control? Of course not! Most likely you accepted the sunburn as a natural consequence to prolonged sun exposure.

Although painful, the burn was not a mysterious malady of unknown origin, but your body doing exactly what it was designed to do under those particular circumstances.

I am sure you realize that the answer to not walking through life with red, irritated, or blistered skin is protecting yourself from the sun's damaging rays. Keep your skin in a safe environment and you will avoid the pain that a sunburn brings.

Autoimmunity is a lot like a sunburn. It is also a natural consequence brought about by certain conditions in the environment. Only in this case, I am referring to the internal environment of the body.

The often painful result is the immune system turning against the body's own tissue. Controlling those circumstances is more complicated than simply avoiding prolonged sun exposure, but they can be controlled. The goal is to change the internal environment and by doing so, avoid the pain caused by the immune system turning against the body.

A Natural Occurance

What you may or may not realize is that autoimmunity occurs naturally in everyone to some degree. In an ideal environment, the cells that are capable of attacking the body's own tissue are kept under control by the body itself.

If the body's environment falls out of balance, it can cause dsyfunction and breakdown of its internal safety mechanisms; causing the body to mistake itself as an enemy.

Just as your genetic make-up can cause greater susceptibility to burning in the sun, your genes can make you more susceptible to autoimmunity. However, genetics do not guarantee that you will develop any type of autoimmune disease.

According to the researchers at the University of Utah, genetics aren't everything. In the case of identical twins, when one twin develops Multiple Sclerosis, there is only a 30% chance of the other (genetically identical) twin also being diagnosed with the disease. A separate study showed the incidence of lupus between identical twins even lower at 24%. With Rheumatoid Arthritis, there is a 1 in 4 chance.

Why does one twin get sick and not the other the majority of the time? It is the same as one redheaded, fair-skinned twin who went out in the sun and got a sunburn, while the other avoided sun exposure and did not get burned. The answer is the environment. The twins with MS, lupus, and arthritis had allowed an internal environment that was conducive to autoimmunity.

According to immunologist, Dr. Jesse Stoff, there are four key things that damage the body's internal environment (terrain). They are:

-poor eating habits and nutrition
-man-made toxins in our environment
-disease causing organisms and the toxins they produce
-trauma on the immune system from things like x-ray radiation and cross country flights, and stress.

The immune system, like most of the body, requires balance to function properly. T-helper 1 (Th1) cells and T-helper 2 cells (Th2) help regulate the body's response to foreign invaders.

Th1 uses white blood cells to go after viruses and cancer cells. Th2 immune cells use antibodies to go after bacteria.

Normally, the body strikes a balance by switching back and forth between Th1 and Th2. In a person with an autoimmune disorder, one dominates and suppresses the other.

Trans fats, mercury and other heavy metals, sugar and processed foods, alcohol, lack of sleep, lack of exercise, and stress are part of a modern lifestyle that can disrupt the Th1/Th2 balance.

Autoimmune Disease and Women

Th1 dominance in women is associated with autoimmunity and recurrent miscarriage in the first trimester of pregnancy. Additionally, children in the autism spectrum tend to be Th1 dominant.

Besides autoimmunity, Th2 dominance is characterized by a tendency toward allergies, frequent colds and viral infections, and cancer.

Both Th1 and Th2 cells make a protein substance known as cytokines. Cytokines cause inflammation.

Cytokines are a necessary part of our immunity. Inflammation should be a temporary response to injury or infection. It is the over-production (too many) of certain small cytokine molecules that leads to the invasion and inflammation of an organ or body system.

Changes in the Brain

In the brain, cytokines can cause behavioral changes. They can either prompt or worsen depression, anxiety, or anorexia. They may cause a person to become withdrawn.

Cytokines create fatigue and interfere with sleep patterns. They are one thing responsible for what has been termed "brain fog."

Autoimmune conditions are named or categorized according to where in the body cytokines are being overproduced and how the disease manifests itself.

For example, an overproduction of these cytokines in the joints causing pain and swelling is called Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). It may go by different names and occur in different places in the body, but ultimately, autoimmunity is one disease with many different faces.

Because immune system cytokines are the culprit, the most common conventional treatment for autoimmune disease is immunosuppressive drugs, like steroids. Steroids are used because they are able to suppress the over-productive cytokines.

Unfortunately, the steroids don't just stop the over-active part of the immune system, they also suppress the already under-active segment of the immune system.

This practice is not unlike the use of chemotherapy, which poisons the good and the bad cells of cancer patients. Steroids can also affect your mood and cause depression, muscle weakness, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, and diabetes.

Is Your Diet to Blame?

Your diet plays a major role in activating or suppressing cytokines. I can't stress this enough. Just about anything you put into your mouth will have a negative or positive consequence on your autoimmune condition.

It is as if everything that you swallow is sending a signal to your immune system to either cause more cytokines or less.

"AUTOIMMUNITY: It's Time for Truth; It's Time to Heal" ~ 286 pages, 8"x11" softcover. ~ $22.00 (plus shipping)
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Autoimmune sufferers from all walks of life have been inspired by my story and wanted to know exactly what changed my life so dramatically. I have shared these secrets in "AUTOIMMUNITY: It's Time for Truth; It's Time to Heal".

Now it is YOUR turn. I am willing and anxious to pass on these hard to find facts to you.

• Learn the many simple steps you can take to make your immune system less likely to attack your own cells.
• Learn practical tips to decreasing pain with your diet .
• Learn which silent disease accompanies autoimmunity 80% of the time, robbing your body of oxygen and what you can do about it.
• Learn the vitamin, mineral, and hormonal deficiencies associated with Fibromyalgia, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Asthma, MS, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and more...
• Learn what daily activity builds up toxins in your body and what you can do about it.
• Learn what you must do to help your immune system fight off viral invasions.
• Learn the secrets to eating so that you suppress, instead of promote swelling and inflammation.

If you want to take control of your health, you must learn the secrets of diet and nutrition's effect upon the immune system.

 

Through my FREE newsletter, NEW FREE fibromyalgia blog, seminars, BRAND NEW FREE support forum, speaking engagements, private coaching, FREE eCourse, emotional support kits, NEW FREE work from home choices blog and books, I have helped countless people find the hope and the help that they need.