Nutritional Therapies for Immune System,
Inflammatory, Digestive and Related Disorders
AUTOIMMUNE AND CHRONIC INFLAMMATORY DISORDERS
The Immune system's job is to protect your body from foreign "invaders" likes bacteria, viruses and even cancer. An Autoimmune disorder is when the Immune system begins attacking your own body tissues. This would be like an Army beginning to attack the citizens and infrastructure in its own country. This shouldn't happen.
These conditions can be life threatening with disorders such as Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus or Myasthenia Gravis. But they can also be in the form of very common conditions such as Eczema, Psoriasis, PCOS or Rheumatic Arthritis. This abnormal attack by the immune system can target and impact literally any tissue in the body. The severity and impact of the condition is dependent on the function and role of the tissue being targeted.
Conventional medicine considers many of these conditions to be "Idiopathic" in origin, which is a Latin term which translates to "of unknown origin" of unknown cause. Often this gets described as the immune system begins going hyperactive and it starts attacking your tissues for that reason.
White blood cells (which are the key instigator behind "self attack") are mechanically controlled by combinations of receptors, allergens and hormones. These cells don't "think". They don't come into contact with the same tissues in the body, day after day and not attack those tissues, and then one day “decide” to begin attacking them. There has to be a specific mechanism or trigger to initiate this immune attack against the tissue. In other words, there has to be a root cause.
Diet (Food Sensitivities) can be a "root cause" for the initiation of Autoimmune diseases. We don't have to look very far for a definitive and medically accepted example of this. Celiac Disease is an autoimmune disorder with a known dietary trigger for it, Gluten (Gliadin) The mechanism is known and very simple to explain.
-
A person eats gluten (gliadin) which is a protein found in many wheat products. If they are allergic to it, they will produce an antibody (a "soldier") designed to seek out and "attack" anything that looks like gluten in the body (much the same way they would produce an antibody to a bacteria or virus).
-
Patients with celiac disease have an allergy to gluten and produce antibodies to it, but they also have tissue proteins in their body (the bowel) that look similar to gluten.
-
These anti-gluten antibodies produced to "attack" gluten then attack the tissue proteins in the bowel that look like gluten. This causes the inflammation in the bowel associated with celiac disease.
-
When doctors do blood tests for celiac they look for the antibody to gluten in the blood. When they do biopsies in the bowel for celiac, they are looking for the proteins that look similar to gluten that the antibodies may be attacking.
For a more detailed explanation read the article
Can Food Allergies can cause Autoimmune Disease?
This concept is called Molecular Mimicry, and it's really quite simple to understand. The patient eats a protein they are allergic to and produce an antibody or "soldier" designed to attack anything in the body that looks like that protein. Celiac patients have a protein in the bowel that Mimics or "looks like" gluten, and the soldiers attack the bowel.
There are other medically validated examples of molecular mimicry causing autoimmune disorders. This model has been used to explain the autoimmune concerns with certain vaccines. (H1N1 Vaccine and Guillain Barre-Syndrome for example)
Now if someone could have a gene that makes them allergic to gluten and produces antibodies to it. And they also have a tissue which look similar to gluten in the bowel, and the antibody attack this protein in the bowel and causes celiac disease... Why couldn't a different person with different genes and DNA, be allergic to and produce antibodies to a DIFFERENT food protein and it attack a DIFFERENT protein in the body.
This is logical and makes perfect sense. Unfortunately the only test available in the conventional medical system for this type of response is for gluten/gliadin antibodies and mimicking tissue proteins. They don't have tests for different food protein allergies and tissue biopsies for these antibody attacks. This does not mean that they don't exist though.
The KEY to managing your Autoimmune Disease is to identify what food(s) may be triggering an antibody cross reaction with the tissue affected by your condition. This is the cornerstone of Dr. Woodworths work with his patients.
The process of how autoimmunity affects the body is often the same for most autoimmune conditions. The key variables are the food protein(s) (or allergens) that initiate the antibody response, the tissue proteins in the body which mimic those foods and finally where these mimicking tissue proteins are located in the body. These factors determine where in the body the autoimmune condition will present and what the triggers for the immune are that produce the antibodies. These variables are patient specific and not condition specific.
We can have two people with the same food allergy (produce antibodies to the same food) but they can be affected in completely different parts of the body and therefore have completely different conditions. You can also have two people with the exact same tissue affected (same autoimmune condition) but can have completely different food allergens leading to the attack on the tissue.
We have to identify each individual persons unique allergenic food profile and remove these. Once we identify the trigger(s) for the condition, then supplementation can be used to help repair damage caused by the condition. Supplements can be used to restore hormonal imbalances, boost metabolic systems that have been drained by the chronic inflammation (adrenaline and thyroid) , boost the immune system, improve energy and focus, repair the digestive tract and improve digestive function, improve skin health, and improve mental health and functioning (anxiety and depression).