the autoimmune professor

The really sucky part about having an autoimmune disease is that it has become acceptable to believe that they cannot be prevented or reversed, only managed. This causes people to feel completely dependent on their doctors and the medications they prescribe along with the fear and the pain. In the grand scheme of things, there are more than 100 recognized autoimmune conditions along with a lot of them not being medically understood.

What happens is exactly like what happened with me… the symptoms do not match a diagnosis or even the tests that are supposed to diagnose do not match up with the symptoms. Additionally, there are different types of doctors for different types of autoimmune diseases, so if you match with a couple different ones, it can make it extremely difficult for your practitioner to find out exactly what is wrong with you. However, regardless of what you have or what organ or system is being distressed, it all stems from one thing… your immune system has gone rogue!

So, what causes an autoimmune… I do not think that anyone knows. There does seem to be a genetic component and the family history could play a role in whether you get an autoimmune disorder or not, but it has also been found that there could be an environmental role as well. The most believed reasoning behind getting an autoimmune is that you have the genetics that play a role in developing the autoimmunity and then you are exposed to a trigger such as food sensitivities, leaky gut, toxins, stress, or infections and the symptoms appear and progress. For me, the doctor believes that I was slowly manifesting symptoms for years, but got a very big push with my Covid-19 vaccine and then actually having Covid-19.

There are many warning signs of being at risk for an autoimmune. These include, but are not limited to:

• acid reflux
• acne
• ADHD
• allergies
• anxiety
• arthritis
• asthma
• brain fog
• depression
• digestive issues
• dry eyes
• eczema
• fatigue
• fibrocystic breasts
• gallstones
• hair loss
• headaches
• infertility
• joint pain
• muscle pain
• obesity or excess weight gain around the middle
• sleep problems
• swollen, reddened, or painful joints
• uterine fibroids

I know when I first saw these types of lists that all showed similar symptoms of an autoimmune disease, I was shocked. I had half of these symptoms, literally 12 of the 24 I had written down to talk to the doctor about.

Now, all of these symptoms are different and all autoimmune diseases are different, but they all result from digestive and/or immune balances. The digestive system plays a large role because approximately 80% of our immune system is in our gut and if our gut isn’t healthy then it would be reasonable to believe that our immune system isn’t either. This is the main reasoning behind using diet to reverse autoimmune diseases and their symptoms.