I am often asked if there is a way to deal with autoimmune disease — the most common chronic disease – the most common question being “Is there any way to deal with this without taking powerful anti-inflammatory drugs that often have serious side effects?”
Autoimmune diseases are a huge problem in this country. As a whole, autoimmune diseases affect over 80 million Americans and five percent of the population in Western countries.
They include type 1 diabetes, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, colitis, Crohn’s disease, and dozens of others, but they all have one thing in common: The body attacks itself.
Autoimmune diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis or RA, often include challenging symptoms such as pain, swelling, fatigue, and disability.
At their root, one central biochemical process connects these seemingly disparate diseases: A runaway immune response, called systemicinflammation, inevitably results in your body attacking its own tissues.
Your immune system’s job is to defend you against invaders or foreign microbes, toxins, or abnormal cells like cancer or foreign food proteins (allergens). Imagine your immune system as an army that must clearly distinguish friend from foe.
Autoimmunity occurs when your immune system gets confused and your own tissue gets caught in the crossfire. Your body is designed to fight off harmful things like infections, toxins, allergens, or a stress response. Sometimes and for reasons not fully known, that immune army directs its hostile attack on your joints, brain, skin, and sometimes your whole body.
Conventional medicine accepts this problem, but stops there, without LOOKING for what might be causing the body to be out of balance and attacking itself.
Instead, conventional medicine invents pharmaceutical drugs to inhibit, block, or anti-something, and fails to answer one simple question: Why is the body out of balance to begin with, and how do we help it regain the proper balance?
Isabel’s Story
Isabel, a cute 10-year-old girl from Texas who loved riding horses, walked into my office several years ago with one of the most severe cases of autoimmune disease I had ever seen. Her face and joints were swollen and her immune system was attacking her entire body including her muscles, skin, joints, blood vessels, liver, and white and red blood cells.
Isabel couldn’t squeeze her hand or make a fist. The tips of her fingers and toes were perpetually cold from Raynaud’s disease. She had been suffering from rashes that burned and irritated her skin for years. She felt tired and miserable and was losing her hair.
Isabel was on elephantine doses of intravenous steroids every three weeks just to keep her alive, and she was taking prednisone, aspirin, acid blockers, and methotrexate, a chemotherapy drug used to shut down the immune system daily.
Despite these mega-doses of medication, she still wasn’t getting any better, and her lab tests were still abnormal.
Her doctors wanted to add another powerful immune suppressing drug (a TNF alpha blocker) to the regimen of medication she was already taking. This drug increases the risk of cancer and death from overwhelming infection, because it prevents the immune system from fighting infections normally. The inflammation slows down, thus the autoimmune symptoms may abate, but at a cost: Increased risk for cancer and infection.
Disturbed by these possibilities and disgusted with conventional approaches that weren’t working, her parents brought her to see me.
Two months after I first saw Isabel, when I discovered and then treated the underlying causes of her inflammation — after, as she says, she “stopped eating gluten, dairy, and sugar and took some supplements” – she was symptom free. In less than a year, she was completely healthy, her blood tests were normal, and she was off all her medication.
A Functional Medicine Perspective to Autoimmune Disease
Isabel’s story is a perfect example of the power of Functional Medicine, which provides a map to find the root cause of inflammation, which underlies autoimmune disease.
Functional Medicine asks why that inflammation exists. When we identify the underlying sources, we can heal the body. Those causes include stress, hidden infections, food allergies or sensitivities, toxic exposure, genetic predisposition, nutrient deficiencies, and leaky gut.
In fact, there are just five root causes of all disease:
- Allergens
- Microbes or imbalance of the bugs in your gut
- Toxins
- Poor diet
- Stress
All of these can trigger symptoms and create thousands of diseases, including autoimmune diseases.
If you want to cool off inflammation in the body, you must find the source. Physicians are mostly taught to diagnose disease by symptoms, NOT by their underlying cause.
Functional Medicine approaches diagnosing and treating disease differently. It focuses on causes not symptoms, one that is based on an understanding of the dynamic way our genes interact with environment, one that goes beyond simply treating diseases based on their label.
Functional Medicine teaches practitioners to understand the body as a system; to seek the causes of illness; to understand the body’s basic functional systems, where they go awry, and how to restore balance; to understand the interconnections between symptoms and organs rather than segregate diseases into specialties.
This approach provides a fundamentally different way of solving medical problems, one that allows us to decipher the origins of illness and identify the disturbances in biology that lead to symptoms. And that leads me back to Isabel’s story.
From Conventional Illness to Functional Health
For Isabel, the only response physicians had to her life-threatening illness was to shut down her immune system, leaving her at risk for cancer, infection, osteoporosis, muscle wasting, and psychiatric illness. But there was another way.
I simply asked the question “WHY?” I didn’t focus on WHAT the name of her disease was, but WHY she was inflamed, WHERE this inflammation originated from, and HOW we could locate the causes and restore balance to her overactive immune system that was attacking her own body?
The immune system usually responds to some insult such as an allergen, a microbe, or a toxin, and then runs out of control. Finding and removing that trigger is essential.
In a review in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers acknowledged that “even in a genetically predisposed person, some trigger, an environmental exposure, or change in the internal environment – is usually required for [autoimmunity].”
When I initially talked to Isabel, I discovered many potential triggers for her inflammation. She was being exposed to a toxic mold, Stachybotrys, in her house. Her mother worked in limestone pits exposing her to excessive amounts of fluoride while pregnant. Isabel had all her immunizations before 1999 when thimerosal was removed from vaccines. She also had a thimerosal-containing flu shot every year.
Thimerosal contains mercury, a known immune toxin. This problem became compounded by her diet, which included large amounts of tuna and sushi she loved and ate regularly (and which exposed her to even more mercury), and loads of dairy and sugar. In the year before she got sick, she also had many courses of antibiotics.
Mold, mercury, antibiotics, sugar, gluten, and dairy all become potential immune irritants.
Isabel’s lab tests were frightening. Her muscle enzymes and liver function tests showed severe damage. She had many autoimmune antibodies (anti-nuclear antibodies, rheumatoid factor, anti-SSA, anti-DNA, anti-RNP, lupus anticoagulant), a sign that the levels at which the body was attacking itself were extremely elevated.
Other markers of inflammation were extremely high as well. Her white blood count and red blood cell count were low. Her vitamin D was also low. She had elevated levels of antibodies to gluten, which is a common cause of autoimmune disease and triggers significant intestinal inflammation. And her mercury level was extremely high in her urine after a provocation test (the only way to assess total body burden of metals). Normal is less than three. Hers was 33.
At the first visit, I simply put Isabel on an anti-inflammatory elimination diet to remove possible triggers of inflammation from food allergens. She stopped eating sugar, dairy, and gluten (from wheat). I gave her a multivitamin; vitamins D, B12, and B9 (folate); fish oil; and evening primrose oil all of which are anti-inflammatory.
I also gave her nystatin (a non-absorbed anti-fungal) to treat suspected yeast overgrowth due to the multiple courses of antibiotics. I gave her N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) to support her liver, and told her parents to take her off of the acid blocker, the calcium channel blocker that she used for her Raynaud’s, and the intravenous steroids she had been taking.
Two months later, at her second visit, Isabel reported the rash was totally gone. She had no joint pain and her hair was growing back. Her autoimmune markers had dramatically improved. Her muscle enzymes, liver function, and level of inflammation were all normal.
I added probiotics to support healthy digestive function and reduce gut inflammation. I also started her on DMSA (a chelating agent) to help bind the mercury from her tissues and cells and help her excrete it. To help her get off the prednisone, I gave her herbs to support her adrenal gland function.
Seven months later, her tests were normal, including her white blood count. Her mercury came down from 33 to 16. After 11 months, her mercury was down to 11 and her gut inflammation was gone. She was off all her medications and feeling happy, normal, and was able to ride and show her horse again.
Isabel’s experience is not rare, and I take a similar approach (though not always as comprehensive) with autoimmune disease. Considering these and other amazing results, wouldn’t you say Functional Medicine should be expanded and made available to more patients? Shouldn’t we see more case studies and success stories like Isabel’s?
10 Steps to Reverse Autoimmune Disease
Functional Medicine removes the bad stuff, but it also replenishes with good stuff. What are the ingredients for great health? They include fresh food, light, air, water, movement, love, sleep, connection, balanced hormones,meaning,love, andpurpose.
If you have an autoimmune disease, I encourage you to work with a Functional Medicine practitioner. These are among the strategies I take to reverse RA and other autoimmune diseases:
- Get tested for hidden infections.Work with your doctor to check for hidden infections like yeast, viruses, bacteria, and Lyme or other tick borne illnesses.
- Try The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet.My plan is designed to eliminate most food allergens and reduce inflammatory foods.
- Get tested for celiac disease. This is a blood test any doctor can do.
- Get checked for heavy metal toxicity. Mercury and other metals can cause autoimmunity.
- Fix your gut. Leaky gut and other gut issues such as overgrowth of bad bugs (yeast, bacteria, and parasites) fuel the flames of inflammation, exacerbating autoimmune diseases. Functional Medicine practitioners can test your stool and employ the 5R program (remove, replace, re-inoculate, repair and renew)
- Use anti-inflammatory nutrients. Great anti-inflammatory nutrients that help calm your immune system include fish oil, vitamin C, vitamin D, and probiotics. You can find them all on my online store.
- Try anti-inflammatory herbs. Curcumin, Boswellia extract, ginger, etc. can work well. I often use Zyflamend, also known as Inflamasyn with my patients.
- Exercise regularly. Regular, consistent exercise is a natural anti-inflammatory. Click here to find a simple, effective plan no matter what your fitness level is.
- Practice deep relaxation. Stress worsens the immune response. Relaxation for you might includeyoga, deep breathing, biofeedback, or massage. You might also try my UltraCalm CD.
- Get 8 hours’ sleep every night.You can get 19 of my top sleep tips here.
Even though autoimmune diseases now affect over 80 million people, conventional strategies like powerful immune-suppressing medication fail to address the underlying cause. That’s like taking a lot of aspirin while you are standing on a tack. The treatment is not to take more aspirin or a strong immune suppressant; it is to remove the tack.
In conventional medicine, most of us were taught to diagnose disease by symptoms, NOT by their underlying cause.
No matter what autoimmune disease you struggle with – and remember, they are just labels – I encourage you to dig deeper and address underlying causes. Again, I strongly encourage working with a Functional Medicine practitioner. To provide a richer arsenal of techniques to heal, I also strongly recommend my ebook The 10-Day Detox Autoimmune Solution.
If you’ve ever struggled with rheumatoid arthritis or another autoimmune disease, did you take the conventional medicine route or work with a Functional Medicine practitioner who helped you dig deeper regarding the underlying source? I would love to hear your story below or on my Facebook page.
References
Mackay, I. and Rosen, F. 2001. Autoimmune diseases. New Engl J Med. 345(5): 340–350.
FAQs
Can autoimmune conditions be reversed? ›
Autoimmune disorders in general cannot be cured, but the condition can be controlled in many cases. Historically, treatments include: anti-inflammatory drugs – to reduce inflammation and pain. corticosteroids – to reduce inflammation.
Can vitamin D reverse autoimmune disease? ›Rheumatoid arthritis, polymyalgia rheumatica, and psoriasis were the most common conditions. No single autoimmune disease was reliably prevented by vitamin D supplementation. Only when the numbers of all the autoimmune diseases were combined did researchers see a benefit.
What foods to stay away from if you have autoimmune disease? ›Avoiding foods such as red meat, eggs, vegetable oils fried foods, sugar, dairy products, refined carbs, gluten, alcohol, and caffeine might be necessary to limit such flare-ups. Nightshade vegetables, such as tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, and peppers, can also be problematic.
What is the root cause of autoimmune disease? ›The exact cause of autoimmune disorders is unknown. One theory is that some microorganisms (such as bacteria or viruses) or drugs may trigger changes that confuse the immune system. This may happen more often in people who have genes that make them more prone to autoimmune disorders.
What toxins cause autoimmune disease? ›Substances such as mercury, aluminum, dioxin, pesticides, asbestos, trichlorethylene, and many other industrial and environmental toxins have been associated with autoimmunity in both animal and human models.
How can autoimmune diseases be cured permanently? ›There are no cures for autoimmune diseases, but symptoms can be managed. Everyone's immune system, genetics and environment are different. That means that your treatment must be unique.
What herbs should autoimmune patients avoid? ›Be on the look-out for a more sluggish feeling or lingering illness. This would be an indicator that your body may not respond well to this. Adaptogen spices- these include Black pepper, Cumin, nutmeg, Turmeric (some Th2 people don't do well with this), Cinnamon, ginger.
How do you reset an overactive immune system? ›- Rest and Restore. ...
- Choose Calming Foods. ...
- Commit to Quit. ...
- Turn on Workout Tunes. ...
- Take Care of Your Smile. ...
- Avoid Inflammatory Foods. ...
- Practice Relaxation. ...
- Eat Several Small Meals.
The new, long-term clinical study has now found that vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids, or both reduce the risk of developing an autoimmune disease.
How much vitamin D should I take for autoimmune? ›For autoimmune management, doses of vitamin D can range from 5,000 to 10,000 IU per day. Some people take higher doses if their genetics hamper absorption. It's best to test your levels every three to six months.
Can you take zinc if you have an autoimmune disease? ›
Fortunately, therapeutic zinc supplementation is able to re-establish a normal immune function. The influence of zinc on autoimmune diseases is proven in the finding that dietary zinc deficiency or increased zinc uptake are associated with the risk of multiple sclerosis (MS) in men.
Why are eggs not good for autoimmune disease? ›Abstain from Eggs
To a person with autoimmune, they can cause havoc that probably wouldn't happen in a healthy person. Eggs can allow proteins (usually lysozyme, from the egg white) to cross the gut barrier where they don't belong and contribute to molecular mimicry.
While everyone's trigger foods will be different depending on their autoimmune disorders, Favela says there are certain foods to avoid with autoimmune disease, such as grains, gluten, dairy, refined and added sugars, alcohol, coffee, and nightshades for a period of time and then reintroducing them slowly when symptoms ...
Can turmeric cure autoimmune disease? ›Turmeric. Studies show that curcumin is beneficial in the treatment of several autoimmune conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis and ulcerative colitis. This compound, which is most easily found in the root-based spice turmeric, is commonly used in Indian and Asian cooking.
Does magnesium help autoimmune disease? ›Research indicates a strong link between low magnesium levels and a number of autoimmune diseases ranging from Alzheimer's to Diabetes. In fact, there is a significant correlation between increasing dietary magnesium to reduce the severity of rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis.
What are the 2 general causes of autoimmune diseases? ›BOTTOM LINE: Researchers don't know exactly what causes autoimmune diseases. Genetics, diet, infections, and exposure to chemicals might be involved.
Who is most likely to develop an autoimmune disease? ›Autoimmune disease affects 23.5 million Americans, and nearly 80 percent of those are women. If you're one of the millions of women affected by this group of diseases, which includes lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and thyroid disease, you may be wondering why your immune system is attacking itself.
What climate is best for autoimmune diseases? ›Another brief response from a different physician (not a study, just clinical advice) advises that in most cases the best weather for autoimmune patients is warm and dry, such as in the Southwest.
Can mold in house cause autoimmune disease? ›Can mold cause autoimmune disorders? No. While there has been concern raised that mold in the environment could be a trigger for autoimmunity, there is currently no scientific evidence that mold can cause AIDs.
Does autoimmune disease start in the gut? ›As around 80% of your immune cells are located in the gastrointestinal tract, gut health is closely linked to immune function. Research shows that the digestive condition known as leaky gut (or intestinal permeability), is a common factor in the biological mechanism that leads to the onset of autoimmune disease.
What are the 7 autoimmune diseases? ›
- Rheumatoid arthritis. ...
- Systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus). ...
- Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). ...
- Multiple sclerosis (MS). ...
- Type 1 diabetes mellitus. ...
- Guillain-Barre syndrome. ...
- Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy. ...
- Psoriasis.
Autoimmune diseases cannot be cured, but their symptoms may be managed. The AIP diet aims to help you do so by helping you identify which foods may be triggering your specific symptoms. Evidence regarding the efficacy of this diet is currently limited to people with IBD and Hashimoto's disease.
Are there any curable autoimmune diseases? ›And although there are more than 80 different types of autoimmune diseases, they all have three things in common: The immune system is attacking healthy cells. The cause of the disease is unknown. There is no cure.
Can Ashwagandha help autoimmune disease? ›Why is ashwagandha not advisable for people with autoimmune disorders? In people with autoimmune disorders, the immune system is already overactive. Because ashwagandha can stimulate the immune system, it can rev up your immune system even more, and that can be harmful.
Is Ginger good for autoimmune disorders? ›Studies by a team at the University of Michigan now suggest that 6-gingerol, the main bioactive compound in ginger root, has therapeutic effects against certain autoimmune diseases, including lupus and antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), in mice, by countering the release of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs).
Can Ashwagandha cause autoimmune disease? ›While this may be beneficial for some, it can be detrimental to others, especially people suffering from autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and rheumatoid arthritis (MedlinePlus, 2020). By activating the immune system, this ayurvedic herb may worsen autoimmune symptoms.
How do you rebalance your immune system? ›- Stay up-to-date on recommended vaccines. ...
- Maintain a healthy diet. ...
- Exercise regularly. ...
- Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. ...
- Get plenty of sleep. ...
- Minimize stress. ...
- One last word on supplements.
Fasting is extremely helpful to boost the immune system, especially for autoimmune disorders and cancer.
What supplements calm immune system? ›Vitamins C & D3 – both are beneficial to regulating immune activity by supporting various cellular functions of both the innate and adaptive immune systems (4, 5). Insufficient levels of these Vitamins can lead to Immune System Dysfunction.
Is coq10 good for autoimmune disease? ›CoQ10 has shown beneficial effects in autoimmune diseases. Leukocytes from antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) patients exhibit an oxidative perturbation closely related to the prothrombotic status. In vivo ubiquinol supplementation in APS modulated the overexpression of inflammatory and thrombotic risk-markers.
Should I take vitamin D if I have an autoimmune disease? ›
In a new study, investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital found the people who took vitamin D, or vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids, had a significantly lower rate of autoimmune diseases — such as rheumatoid arthritis, polymyalgia rheumatica, autoimmune thyroid disease, and psoriasis — than people who took a ...
Does fish oil help autoimmune disorders? ›Taking daily vitamin D and fish oil supplements may help protect older adults from developing autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, thyroid diseases and polymyalgia rheumatica, an inflammatory disease that causes muscle pain and stiffness in the shoulders and hips, a new study found.
Does B12 help with autoimmune? ›In addition to those numerous functions, vitamin B12 also offers critical immune system support. Cells in a strong immune system thrive on oxygen, which is delivered via red blood cells. Vitamin B12 is integral to red blood cell production, ensuring the immune system gets the oxygen it needs.
Do probiotics help with autoimmune diseases? ›Probiotics in autoimmune diseases. Studies suggest that probiotics influence systemic immune responses, ensure the homeostasis of the healthy microbiota in the intestinal mucosa, and could, therefore, be used as adjuvant therapy to treat immune-mediated diseases [4].
Can a naturopath help with autoimmune disease? ›Naturopaths can combine nutrition, herbal and nutrient supplementation to modulate your immune system and consequently autoimmune disease.
Why is melatonin not good for autoimmune disease? ›Melatonin is also not recommended if you have an autoimmune disease or are an older adult with dementia. In some studies, melatonin has shown a tendency to stimulate inflammation in people with certain autoimmune disorders.
How do you stop your immune system from attacking itself? ›Use nutrients such as fish oil, vitamin C, vitamin D, and probiotics to help calm your immune response naturally. Exercise regularly — it's a natural anti-inflammatory. Practice deep relaxation like yoga, deep breathing, biofeedback, or massage, because stress worsens the immune response.
Is Quercetin good for autoimmune disease? ›Quercetin may be useful as a dietary supplement to prevent or treat autoimmune diseases.
Can you eat bananas on autoimmune diet? ›AIP approved fruits include: Apples. Apricots. Bananas.
Is cinnamon good for autoimmune? ›Since cinnamon and its metabolite NaB upregulate anti-autoimmune Tregs and Th2, suppress autoimmune Th17 and Th1, inhibit inflammatory infiltration, and reduce the expression of pro-inflammatory molecules, cinnamon and NaB may have therapeutic importance in different autoimmune disorders (Fig.
Are blueberries good for autoimmune disease? ›
Berries. When it comes to foods that can help you manage your autoimmune disease, all berries make the list. Adding blueberries to oatmeal or topping your next spinach salad with strawberries will provide your body with important prebiotic fiber and act as an antioxidant.
How do you reverse autoimmune disease naturally? ›- Cut out flour and sugar because these are inflammatory foods.
- Get rid of gluten from your kitchen. ...
- Eat the right fats. ...
- Eat the rainbow. ...
- Check for hidden food allergens with food sensitivity testing.
- Keep your intake of nightshades (tomato, eggplant, peppers, etc.)
Potential Health Benefits of Honey
Honey contains antioxidants, which can protect the body from inflammation. Inflammation can lead to a variety of health issues, including heart disease, cancer, and autoimmune disorders.
Consuming eggs regularly can lead to an increased amount of swelling and joint pain. The yolks contain arachidonic acid, which helps trigger inflammation in the body. Eggs also contain saturated fat which can also induce joint pain.
Can vitamin D reverse autoimmune disease? ›Rheumatoid arthritis, polymyalgia rheumatica, and psoriasis were the most common conditions. No single autoimmune disease was reliably prevented by vitamin D supplementation. Only when the numbers of all the autoimmune diseases were combined did researchers see a benefit.
What is the best tea for autoimmune disease? ›Green Tea. Green tea can work wonders when it comes to inflammation, and it's a potent food for autoimmune diseases. This tea is high in a compound called epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), which has been shown to improve symptoms and reduce the pathology in some animal models of autoimmune diseases.
What supplements should you not take with autoimmune disease? ›Avoid high doses of vitamin C, beta carotene, cat's claw, echinacea and ginseng, among others. Why add fuel to the fire? Doing so may cause you to slip out of remission and into more misery.
Does turmeric help with autoimmune disease? ›Turmeric is especially beneficial for fighting inflammation, and research shows that it may help soothe some autoimmune or inflammation-related symptoms.
How do you calm down an autoimmune disease? ›- Eat healthy, well-balanced meals. Make sure to include fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fat-free or low-fat milk products, and lean sources of protein. ...
- Get regular physical activity. ...
- Get enough rest. ...
- Reduce stress.
Autoimmune diseases cannot be cured, but their symptoms may be managed. The AIP diet aims to help you do so by helping you identify which foods may be triggering your specific symptoms. Evidence regarding the efficacy of this diet is currently limited to people with IBD and Hashimoto's disease.
How do you reset an overactive immune system? ›
- Rest and Restore. ...
- Choose Calming Foods. ...
- Commit to Quit. ...
- Turn on Workout Tunes. ...
- Take Care of Your Smile. ...
- Avoid Inflammatory Foods. ...
- Practice Relaxation. ...
- Eat Several Small Meals.
The new, long-term clinical study has now found that vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids, or both reduce the risk of developing an autoimmune disease.
What herbs should autoimmune patients avoid? ›Be on the look-out for a more sluggish feeling or lingering illness. This would be an indicator that your body may not respond well to this. Adaptogen spices- these include Black pepper, Cumin, nutmeg, Turmeric (some Th2 people don't do well with this), Cinnamon, ginger.
What herbs help with autoimmune disease? ›Other important herbs that may have a role in decreasing both inflammation and the overzealous autoimmune response include Boswellia serrata, Green Tea, Ginger, Turmeric, White Willow, Stephania and Chinese Thunder God Vine.
Does magnesium help autoimmune disease? ›Research indicates a strong link between low magnesium levels and a number of autoimmune diseases ranging from Alzheimer's to Diabetes. In fact, there is a significant correlation between increasing dietary magnesium to reduce the severity of rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis.
Which probiotic is best for inflammation? ›In terms of probiotics, they said research indicated that Lactobacillus spp, bifidobacteria, and Akkermansia muciniphil helped produce the inflammation-reducing SCFA butyrate.
What are 5 common symptoms of an autoimmune disorder? ›- Fatigue.
- Joint pain and swelling.
- Skin problems.
- Abdominal pain or digestive issues.
- Recurring fever.
- Swollen glands.
While everyone's trigger foods will be different depending on their autoimmune disorders, Favela says there are certain foods to avoid with autoimmune disease, such as grains, gluten, dairy, refined and added sugars, alcohol, coffee, and nightshades for a period of time and then reintroducing them slowly when symptoms ...
Are eggs good for autoimmune diseases? ›Abstain from Eggs
To a person with autoimmune, they can cause havoc that probably wouldn't happen in a healthy person. Eggs can allow proteins (usually lysozyme, from the egg white) to cross the gut barrier where they don't belong and contribute to molecular mimicry.
The AIP diet does not allow you to eat: All grains (including oats, wheat, and rice) All dairy.
What are the 2 general causes of autoimmune diseases? ›
BOTTOM LINE: Researchers don't know exactly what causes autoimmune diseases. Genetics, diet, infections, and exposure to chemicals might be involved.
What are the 7 autoimmune diseases? ›- Rheumatoid arthritis. ...
- Systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus). ...
- Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). ...
- Multiple sclerosis (MS). ...
- Type 1 diabetes mellitus. ...
- Guillain-Barre syndrome. ...
- Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy. ...
- Psoriasis.
Fasting is extremely helpful to boost the immune system, especially for autoimmune disorders and cancer.