There are so many autoimmune diseases that they are close to reaching an epidemic level. On medical lists, you can find anywhere between 80 and 100 different types of autoimmune disorders or diseases – and it’s a growing classification list. Some of the most common ones include Hashimoto’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Lupus, and Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA).
Did you know that there are several methods that you can utilize in order to reverse some autoimmune diseases naturally? There’s new research out all the time, but people have developed specialized immune support supplementation, discovered that changing your diet can contribute to minimizing symptoms, and reducing the stress levels can also have a big effect on the course of an autoimmune disease. But can you really reverse it? Read on:
What Is an Autoimmune Disease?
Before we go further, let’s just briefly talk about what autoimmune diseases actually are. To put it simply, whenever you have an autoimmune condition, your immune system cannot tell the difference between your own cells and foreign cells, resulting in your body attacking the normal cells by mistake.
Although, as we already mentioned, there are several types of autoimmune diseases, many of them share similar symptoms, which include:
- skin problems
- fatigue
- joint pain and swelling
- digestive issues
- pain in the abdomen area
Diagnosing an autoimmune disorder can be hard, especially since there are many different illnesses that have the same symptoms – this is why going to the doctor when you start experiencing any of those symptoms is very important.
Fortunately, an autoimmune disease can be reversed. How exactly? Well, there are a few things you need to do in order for it to happen. Here is everything you need to know about it.
Heal Your Gut
Your gut houses almost 80% of your immune system – so, if you don’t have a healthy gut, it’s almost impossible for you to have a healthy immune system.
One of the primary causes of developing some autoimmune disorders is having a leaky gut. What does it mean exactly? Well, it means that the tight junctions, which usually hold the walls of your intestines together, have become loose. This allows the undigested food particles, toxins, and so on to leave your gut and enter your blood, which can either trigger or worsen the autoimmune disease.
Thankfully, as long as you are following some rules, it shouldn’t take you long to heal your gut. Here is what you should do:
- Remove the bad – inflammatory foods, toxins, stress – all this needs to go. You should also heal all infections, no matter what they are caused by.
- Restore the good – restore all the acids and enzymes needed for proper digestion.
- Make sure you have plenty of good bacteria in your gut.
- Provide your gut with all the necessary nutrients and amino acids to build a healthy gut lining.
Optimize Your Diet
What you eat has a major effect on your gut’s health, as well as inflammation. Unfortunately, today, the diet of most people consists of foods that negatively affect those two – and we’re not talking only about processed or junk food.
This also includes foods that seem healthy but actually aren’t, such as gluten-free and low-fat packaged food, which are usually full of preservatives, sugar, and additives. Interestingly, even the foods that we consider as cornerstones in a healthy diet (such as egg or soy) can contribute to inflammation and leaky gut.
Removing the inflammatory foods can not only reduce inflammatory markers but also ease or even completely eliminate symptoms of an autoimmune disorder.
Try the elimination diet. Remove all toxic and inflammatory foods from your diet for 30 days. Once your gut has healed, add them one at a time so that you can establish which ones contribute to your symptoms and you should not consume, and which ones you are fine with having in your diet.
Reduce the Toxic Burden
Every day, we are exposed to a high amount of toxic chemicals – air pollution, contaminants in the water, and pesticides in the food are just a few examples. Unfortunately, those toxins aren’t magically rinsed away or washed off our body – quite the opposite. They are absorbed by it.
Researchers from the Centers of Disease Control studied a group of people for over five years. In the said group, they found traces of over 200 chemicals – and these were only the ones they tested for. There could be many, many more.
Although we don’t know yet what effect each chemical has on a human body (there are thousands of them, and the research is still in early stages), we do know that the more toxins there are in your organism, the higher chance you have of developing an autoimmune disease. What we also know is that if you reduce the toxins, you can reverse the disease.
When it comes to reducing the toxic burden, your two main goals should be prevention and detoxification. To achieve the first one, try eating organic foods, use as little plastic as possible, filter the air and water, and use products that are toxin-free.
The second goal can be reached by getting plenty of vitamins and nutrients your liver needs (as the detoxification happens there), staying hydrated and doing exercises that make you sweat (or, if you don’t like to work out, you can try going to the sauna regularly).
The Bottom Line
Autoimmune disorders happen when your body starts to attack your healthy cells thinking that they are the enemy. Although there are several types of autoimmune conditions, most of them share similar symptoms. Whenever you notice them happening to you, schedule a doctor appointment.
Thankfully, autoimmune conditions are not something you have to live with – there are plenty of ways in which you can reverse them naturally. Healing your gut, optimizing your diet, and reducing the toxic burden are just a few examples of what you can do.
No matter what you do, keep in mind that reversing autoimmune condition will not happen overnight. It takes time, as your immune system needs to restore the balance. Sometimes it might even take a few months, which is why you need to be patient and follow the doctor’s guidelines. Good luck!