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Autoimmunity , the consistency ’s immune system fight down off its own intelligent cells and tissue paper , is bear on to the say the least . Add to that the 80 plus autoimmune diseases that can occur as a result and we ’ve reached in high spirits alert . So what ’s stimulate these diseases and is there anything we can do to prevent them ?
The following excerption is fromVaccines , Autoimmunity , and the Changing Nature of Childhood Illnessby Thomas Cowan , MD . It has been adapted for the web .
WhatIsAutoimmunity?
In conventional practice of medicine , autoimmune diseases — which include such diverse conditions as rheumatoid arthritis , lupus , Hashimoto ’s thyroiditis , eczema , asthma , Graves ’ disease , pemphigus , and multiple induration ( MS)—are look at idiopathic , meaning that we do n’t know the campaign . That being articulate , even in conventional circles , there are some aspects of autoimmunity that are considered settled scientific discipline : There is an “ overstimulation ” of the immune organisation such that it produces an excessive amount of antibodies . These antibodies , for understanding unknown , begin to scotch - oppose with one ’s own tissues . This grumpy - response mean your humoral ( antibody - establish ) resistant system recognizes your own tissues as “ strange ” and direct a destructive , incitive response at them . It is as if the immune system “ thinks ” your thyroid ( in Hashimoto ’s or Graves ’ disease ) , or myelin case ( in MS ) , or lung tissue ( in bronchial asthma ) is an invading microorganism or foreign toxin and make for the force of its destructive office to bear against this tissue to neutralize and excrete it . This is an incredible “ strategy ” against an invading virus or environmental toxin . It is devastating when directed , for lesson , against the torso ’s own thyroid gland gland .
As the violation proceeds , symptoms related to ignition or disfunction of the target tissue manifest . For example , if the disease is creaky arthritis , the point tissue is the cartilage in the joints . As the disease progresses , the patient receive progressive inflammation , heat , red , bump , joint pain , and possible disability . If the inflammatory flack is directed against the myelin sheaths , eventually there will be miserable nerve impulse transmission and disfunction of the areas prey by these nerves . If the nerves to the bladder are involved , there will be urinary symptom . If it ’s the nerves to the pegleg , trouble with the gait will emerge . In Hashimoto ’s thyroiditis , the fire is against the thyroid secretory organ , finally leave in the gland ’s inability to produce thyroid hormones . Once this happens , all the classic symptoms of hypothyroidism will emerge .
This is the simple , conventional explanation for an autoimmune disease . The idiopathic part is that there is broadly no explanation for why the humoral resistant system creates an excessive amount of antibody , nor why these antibodies thwartwise - react and target our own tissues .

Back when I was in medical school , I noticed strange inconsistencies in the path autoimmune disease is conventionally treated . weigh , for illustration , two vulgar autoimmune diseases : rheumatoid arthritis and Hashimoto ’s thyroiditis . Both are antibody - intermediate inflammatory attacks on the body ’s own tissue paper .
When a patient role is name with Hashimoto ’s thyroiditis , she ’s told she has an underfunctioning thyroid and is typically relate to an endocrinologist , a doctor specializing in hormonal diseases . The endocrinologist may prescribe a man-made hormone — usually levothyroxine , which is sell under the barter name Synthroid — to put back the thyroid gland hormone and aid manage the low - function thyroid secretor , which will never function usually again . Some patients will have diagnostic relief , but many will experience little or no difference . An overall feeling of being sickly may hold on . I have seen scores of patients in this situation : They experience unwell , they are told it ’s because of small thyroid endocrine levels , they are give a synthetic internal secretion , and they sense only marginally better . Why ? They are being treated as if they have a thyroid gland disease . Nothing has been done to slow or halt the nonadaptive resistant response that is at the source of the underfunctioning thyroid gland gland .
With rheumatic arthritis , conventional treatment gets a degree close to right treatment by trying to identify the underlie immune response , though its methodologies are still misguided . That is , a patient who is diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis will more often than not be concern to a rheumatologist , an autoimmune specializer , rather than an orthopaedic doctor who specializes in the handling of castanets and joints . The focus is not primarily on the patient ’s joints . He is not given joint medicine , joint mucilage , or joint usage , except perhaps to relieve the symptoms of joint nuisance , stiffness , and piercing inflammation . He is prescribed medication to forestall his body from cause anti- bodies . Unlike Hashimoto ’s thyroiditis , in which the focus of treatment is on the targeted organ , in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis , little attention is paid to the targeted organ , or , in this case , the joints , except perhaps in the unretentive - full term acute accent treatment of symptoms to relieve pain and discomfort .
I ’ve never heard an account for this inconsistency . Why is one autoimmune disease — which is solidly tell apart as an autoimmune disease — treated like an remainder - organ disease , while another autoimmune disease is plow as if it ’s a disease of the resistant arrangement ?
My guess is that it is a issue of practicality ; certain approaching are practical or airy depending on a given situation . If the immune system is demolish the thyroid gland , but wait until the thyroid gland is more or less destroy and then take synthetic hormones ( or so conventional medicine allege ) to replace the thyroid ’s function . If the resistant system is destroying the joint , it is n’t possible to hold off until the joints are destroyed and then replace them . We have to stop the immune system ’s rape on the articulation . What this inconsistency tells me , however , is that ceremonious medicine has n’t advanced far enough to identify effective treatments that speak the underlying immune reply — which is at the etymon of both disease .
Rheumatoid arthritis may be more squarely treat as an autoimmune disease , but of class the trouble with using immune - suppress medications to barricade the assault on the joints — besides the many awful and often serious side effects of these drug — is that suppressing the resistant response does n’t heal the underlying autoimmune disease any more than synthetic internal secretion bring around the fundamental autoimmune disease that launched the assault on the thyroid in Hashimoto ’s thyroiditis in the first place . The resistant answer is not the cause of the disease . It is the “ pus ” trying to get the “ sliver ” out . The intellectual therapy for any autoimmune disease is to identify the “ sliver ” and somehow pull it out .
If there is an ongoing resistant response , the crucial questions are what antigen(s ) is make the body ’s excessive antibody response and how did the antigen end up in the blood stream ? Consider celiac disease , in which the sequence of events has been fairly well established : There is damage to the catgut ( and its microbiome ) , including to the microvilli , the hairlike cellular structures that protrude from the intestine rampart to soak up food and forbid leakage . The gut wall becomes fire up and , over metre , muscular and mucosal layers deteriorate , leading to leaky gut . Large gluten molecules are then able to pull in access code to the bloodstream , where the body tries to liquidate them by make antibody to identify and tag them for destruction . These antibody may react with the body ’s tissue paper , let in the pearl , head , and joints , creating a myriad of both penetrating and continuing symptom .
While it ’s true that antibodies are negative to our own tissue paper , they are not the source of the problem . The source of the problem is the outflow of unwelcome protein into the bloodstream , leave from damage microvilli , which are triggered by a compromised microbiome . There may be many reason for a compromised microbiome , including exposure to a poorly tolerated substance — such as gluten .
Treating autoimmune disease , and specifically coeliac disease , with pharmaceuticals is an ineffective approach to break off the tissue destruction and lessen antibody levels . The medications , which require to be give in huge quantities to have any impingement , create a slew of other problems that can admit lymphoma , pneumonia , cataract , and diabetes . They also cover the reaction , not the cause , of the disease .
Once food contain problematical ingredients ( such as gluten , heated dairy protein , or soy sauce ) are eliminated from the diet , the microbiome can heal , the villus can be touch on , gluten will stop shew up in the rip , and the consistency will stop bring forth antibody . This scheme faithfully breaks the cycle of coeliac disease and it should be the modeling for the discussion of all autoimmune disease .
There are other explanations for the presence of exuberant antibodies in the bloodstream ; antibody product is , after all , the end of inoculation . We now be intimate that rush an antibody response without prior electric cell - mediated activity does not grow the correct case of antibody reception . It ’s not as longlived and it has the endangerment of being under- or overactive .
What we are doing when we immunize — overstimulating immune response and chevy antibody formation — is what the body is doing in autoimmune disease . We are literally interject antigens into human existence to stimulate immune response and antibody yield and then inquire why so many the great unwashed have forever shake up immune response and antibody production . There is a heavy dispute between this pass naturally in the linguistic context of a cell - mediated response and enkindle it intentionally while attempt to fudge the cellphone - mediated response .
It ’s also worth noting that when the antibodies destroy ( or tag for death ) certain tissues , nuclear textile ( DNA preponderantly ) from the cells that make up the affected tissues spill into the bloodstream . This post also stimulates the body to make antibodies to point the DNA and other nuclear and cellular material , which accentuates the antibody assault on the affected tissue paper — for representative , the thyroid in Hashimoto ’s thyroiditis . Thus , we see a brutal Hz of antibody - mediate tissue paper death , leading to increased cellular DNA in the bloodstream , leading to increased product of antibodies , moderate to more tissue paper destruction , and so on . Autoimmune diseases are not usually ego - healing due to this cycle . Something must be done to unwrap the rhythm .
Vaccines, Autoimmunity, and the Changing Nature of Childhood Illness
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