WHY YOU?

After accepting that I was very ill with a complicated disorder, some of the first questions I asked myself were, "why me?" and "what now?" After experiencing this journey and uncovering some insights, I hope I can provide you with some structure for understanding and a perspective that helps you make better decisions about your health. Today, we know that there are over 100 diseases related to autoimmunity. Our immune system makes an error and attacks our own body. These assaults can occur on any organ, muscle, or system. What causes this? And why did autoimmunity target you?

Dr. Alessio Fasano, a world-renowned gastroenterologist and expert, says that in order for autoimmunity to occur, there must be 3 contributing factors:

1. Genes: a predisposition to some autoimmunity

2. Environment: a trigger that activates your immune system

3. Weakened intestinal permeability: a weakened interplay between genes and environment; sometimes referred to as "leaky gut"

Since all three factors have to be present for autoimmunity to develop; then theoretically if one or more of these factors can be eliminated, we may halt autoimmunity; and in the long term bring it to remission. Let's look at these 3 factors, one at a time to consider our best strategies for healing.

Genes

Are we hard-wired with an autoimmune vulnerability? The answer is yes. Our genes can indicate if we have a vulnerability to autoimmunity, as well as what system or organ is most vulnerable. Keep in mind this does not mean that those genes will ever express this autoimmunity in our lifetime. Genes do NOT solely determine your fate in life. Can we change our genes? No, at this time we cannot change our genetic vulnerabilities. If you are curious as to what genetic vulnerabilities you may have, there are tests that can bring you these answers. Cyrex Labs™ has a test, Multiple Autoimmune Reactivity Array 5, which can identify multiple autoimmune antibodies. Work with your medical provider and this lab to get this information. But remember, genetics are NOT 100% our destiny. In order to arrest the autoimmunity, we must focus on the controllable factors — he environment and intestinal function.

Environment

Are there triggers in our environment that make us more vulnerable to autoimmunity? Yes, absolutely. Food can often be a triggering component because eating is one of the main interactions between our internal bodies and our external environment. Our digestive system is the playground where these interactions play out. This is why experts are now saying that a majority of our immune system is affected by our digestive function. In this book, we focus on dietary triggers; however there can be non-dietary triggers, like chemical exposure (breathing in or touching) from a pesticide or a heavy metal that activates your immune system.

Recall that an immune system only mounts a response if there is a threat. If a threat does not exist, no immune response occurs. This means that we increase our vulnerability with exposure to certain threats, or triggers. It also means that if we can remove the threat, theoretically we can halt the autoimmune responses. Over time, we can arrest the development of further autoimmunity and begin the healing process.

A main strategy to deal with environmental triggers is to identify potential threats, and eliminate exposure to them. What if you don't know what your triggers could be? Then you can try to identify them through a basic elimination diet and monitoring your progress. A diet that is free of gluten, dairy, and refined sugar is recommended as a starting point. This guide explains this diet in more detail later; but the idea is to start somewhere. Whether it is a diet free of gluten only, or dairy only, or both gluten and dairy; the point is you must start somewhere and follow through. The cookbook section includes tasty recipes for you to get started immediately by adding clean foods into your daily diet.

Weakened Intestinal Permeability

According to Dr. Fasano our gut functions beyond digestion and absorption; it also regulates traffic (at a macromolecule level) between the external environment and the internal body through its barrier mechanism. When this traffic doesn't get to the right destination, the intestinal function becomes faulty.

When macromolecules enter the bloodstream before the right time, this is sometimes referred to as "leaky gut." Why does intestinal permeability weaken? Some studies suggest that certain foods, namely gluten, could be encouraging this. But even if one has leaky gut, if you don't have a genetic predisposition or other environmental trigger, you will not develop autoimmunity. This helps to explain why someone who shares your meals and environment may not get sick, when you do. It also helps to understand that autoimmunity requires a perfect storm of 3 simultaneous factors.

Known Autoimmune Disorders

Currently, there are over 100 known autoimmune or autoimmune-related disorders on a list maintained by the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association, Inc (AARDA). They add more diseases to this list as more evidence connects autoimmunity to an illness. Current known autoimmune disorders are listed in the appendix along with links for more information on each flavor of autoimmunity, but there are always more being investigated. For more complete and current information, consult the AARDA.

WHAT NOW?

Understanding the triad of factors that led to this perfect storm of autoimmunity may help you come to terms with why you are in the position you are. Basically you are in a boat trying to sail over this perfect storm of raging waters; but it doesn't help you understand what actions to take or what your resources are – where is your life jacket? What is your safest path? Is it possible to calm the raging waters around you? Because autoimmunity is a relatively new subject of research, and many trials are still underway, we are learning more each day about environmental triggers and gut healing supplements. The statistics of people with autoimmunity is ever-increasing, so the world may soon be overwhelmed with news about autoimmunity, chronic inflammation, and super foods for managing this disorder; but for now the main take-away message remains that autoimmunity IS recoverable.

Is it quick and easy? No and no. It may have taken you decades to get to the predicament you are now in; so it may take several months of work to begin seeing progress. It may take several years to find remission. But...