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Simple Strategies for Recovering from Autoimmunity

Autoimmunity has become a rampant problem in the world today. There are over 80 known autoimmune diseases, which include Rheumatoid Arthritis, Hashimoto’s, Multiple Sclerosis, Chron’s Disease, psoriasis and many more. 

We live in a world like never before. There are toxins everywhere. The food we eat has been sprayed with chemicals, our household items are sprayed with chemicals, our food is devoid of nutrients due to depleted soils, stress is unavoidable and a huge contributor, not to mention infections, viruses, lyme disease, heavy metal toxicity and much more as possible causes. 

There are over 24 million Americans that now have an autoimmune disease. Most Autoimmune diseases include inflammation, pain, fatigue, and so many vague symptoms that they can be hard to pin down. 

Autoimmune diseases happen when the immune system gets overrun or confused and begins to attack the body’s own tissues and organs instead. 

Our immune system loves us and is always battling infections, stress, viruses, toxins etc. When these things get too much for the immune system to handle your brain, joints, endocrine glands, nervous system get attacked. 

Conventional medicine accepts that the immune system is attacking your body, but they do not look for the root cause to what is happening. They are very quick to write a prescription without really finding the source for the problem. 

It’s not their fault really, as they were never trained to look past the medications that have been provided for them. 

But Functional Medicine takes the whole body into account. There could be a number of reasons that a person’s immune system has gone awry. Some of those Things a Functional Medicine practitioner looks for are Heavy Metals, toxins, hormonal imbalances, infections such as bacteria and viruses in the body, nutrient deficiencies, leaky gut, a stressful lifestyle and even food intolerances. Because Autoimmunity causes inflammation, we need to look for the source of inflammation and cool it off. 

Functional Medicine practitioners understand the body as a whole and look for the cause of illness and help to restore the balance in the body. They use state of the art Laboratory testing to get to the root of your symptoms, so that there is no guess work involved and use a dynamic nutritional and supplement approach to helping you recover. They understand the connection between your symptoms and your body and treat the body as a whole.

There are some things you can do to get started on your path to wellness today.

1. Eat a clean gut diet, which focuses on anti-inflammatory foods. This includes a diet that is high in good healthy fats such as Fish and coconut oil, a plethora of vegetables and especially your leafy greens, nuts and lean proteins. This diet also eliminates sugar in all forms, other than low glycemic fruits such as berries and apples, no dairy, no grains other than Quinoa, no starch other than yams or sweet potatoes, and no alcohol. A clean gut also goes as far as removing hidden infections, parasites and fungus in the digestive tract that could be leading to a leaky gut, and causing your immune system to be overburdened. 

2. It is also important to make sure you are getting 8 hours of sleep per night. It is a great idea to get to bed by 10 p.m. each night, as the body does its most healing and regenerating in the early hours of the night. Lack of sleep is a good way to damage your metabolism, and increase your risk for autoimmunity. 

3. It is so important to de-stress your life. High levels of cortisol not only damages your gut and weakens the immune system, it also accelerates aging and increases belly fat. Meditation and deep breathing are excellent techniques to calm the stress response and has proven results at improving immune system response. 

Regular exercise is also so important for preventing disease in the body. It regulates blood sugar response in the body, improves mood, is good for the heart and improved mood means less stress. Exercise, even a gentle walk in nature will help to de-stress and get your body moving. 

So there are a few things you can do to begin on your path to wellness. A functional Medicine practitioner will help you uncover the hidden infections, yeasts, heavy metals etc. It is so important to remove the cause to get well while focusing on the above suggestions. 

What do you do to stay healthy and keep in balance?