Weekly Well-Being Deep Dive: Autoimmune

I recently presented a workshop at a women’s health event and almost everyone I met there had been diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder. Meeting people with autoimmune disorders used to be so rare. I couldn’t believe all the lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia that was in that room. It was truly an autoimmune epidemic!

So what is an autoimmune disorder? It is a set of symptoms that get so overwhelming that the body’s immune system can’t handle the stress and starts attacking itself. It results in lots of things going wrong: joint pain, fatigue, skin disorders, nerve disorders, fatigue, loose joints, digestive problems and more. But why does this happen and why does it seem to be happening more and more and more?

This is one of my favorite things about reading bloodwork and teaching people to find what really happening in their own bloodwork… the causes of these things are all neatly laid out. I recently read some bloodwork for someone who had been diagnosed with lupus and definitely did not want to take the recommended medications. One of the diagnostic criteria for lupus and several other autoimmune disorders is the anti-nuclear antibody. It’s not supposed to be found in the blood, but in lots of autoimmune cases it is. So, it’s an antibody. What do antibodies do? They fight infections. When I looked into what this woman’s white blood cells were doing (white blood cells’ job is to fight infections), they were fighting hard. The ones that fight bacteria and fungi were high. The ones the fight viruses were high. And the ones that fight parasites were high. Is it surprising that she had some abnormal antibody production? Some weird symptoms? That her body was way overwhelmed? I don’t think so.

So what happens when we support the body in clearing the infections rather that medicating to mask the symptoms? Any guesses? The infections clear and the symptoms go away. So the “uncurable” autoimmune disorder is gone!

I see the same infection pattern with almost everyone who has been diagnosed with something autoimmune. If you’ve read anything from me or watched any of my instagram or youtube videos, you know I’m not a big believer in diagnosis, because it just puts a name on a collection of symptoms making it easier to medicate. I believe in finding and clearing the underlying cause which is often infection related. If you want to learn more, get in touch! You can schedule a consult with me and even learn how to find the hidden information in your bloodwork using my online course.