What are Autoimmune Diseases? | Let’s Discuss!
Autoimmune diseases are generally defined as a condition in which your immune system mistakenly attacks your own body! But why does it happen? What could be the cause that makes the immune system attack the body?
Let’s Discuss!
How does the immune system work?
The immune system normally guards against germs like bacteria and viruses. When it senses these foreign invaders, it sends out an army of fighter cells to attack them.
Normally, the immune system can tell the difference between foreign cells and your own cells.
Autoimmune diseases include rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Hashimoto’s (thyroiditis) multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, celiac disease, thyroid disease, and the many other hard-to-classify syndromes in the 21st century. Your immune system is your defence against invaders. It is your internal army and has to clearly distinguish friend from foe — to know you from others. Autoimmunity occurs when your immune system gets confused and your own tissues get caught in friendly cross-fire!
Why does the immune system attack the body?
At the heart of the autoimmune disease problem, lies a simple issue: ‘The Leaky Gut’
As explained in our blog on ‘Leaky Gut’, it means that when the lining of your digestive tract gets damaged, it is identified as a leaky gut, which causes even bigger holes to develop in your net, so things that normally can’t pass through, are now able to. These include proteins like gluten, bacteria and undigested foods particles. Once these food particles are out into the blood stream, the body starts producing antibodies to tackle the issue and get rid of all those particles
Now, various organs in the body that have similar bacteria in them or have similar structure are also attacked by these antibodies causing an adverse reaction in them. The effects of these actions causes autoimmune diseases! So, depending on what bacteria of the gut flora gets released into the blood stream, the corresponding organ gets effected!
But why does leaky gut happen?
Leaky gut can happen due to multiple reasons. The main culprits are foods, infections, and toxins. Gluten is the number one cause of leaky gut. Other inflammatory foods like dairy or toxic foods, such sugar and excessive alcohol, are suspected as well. The most common infectious causes are candida overgrowth, intestinal parasites, and small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). Toxins come in the form of medications, like Motrin, Advil, steroids, antibiotics, and acid-reducing drugs, and environmental toxins like mercury, pesticides and BPA from plastics. Stress and age also contribute to a leaky gut!
How to work on Autoimmune Diseases?
Reversing symptoms of autoimmune disease depends on healing the lining of the gastrointestinal tract and restoring gut bacteria balance. It looks at the entire body to find the root cause of your disease and treats it as one, not unattached symptoms. Most of medical science fail to understand autoimmune diseases because of their disjointed approach towards various symptoms presented in the case of autoimmune diseases. In the Aarogyahaar approach, we take the functional medicine way and understand the root cause of the problem. In other words, we understand the ‘why’ of your problem!
The next step is to build a mindset of healing! To change your body, you need to change your mind. By building a stronger mindset, you’re changing your brain with a process called self-directed neuroplasticity. As Dr. Rick Hanson, a neuroscientist with a focus on happiness, puts it, “The brain takes its shape from what the mind rests upon,” so, if you do the mental work first, you’ll meet life changes with less resistance and more resilience!
Some of the best results in healing the gut flora in the body have been observed by us using 2 ingredients:
- Coconut Oil: As mentioned in our blog post about Coconut oil, it is an excellent disinfectant that excels in getting rid of bad bacteria and cleansing the body.
- Desi Ghee: Another critical component that helps in restoring gut flora is Desi Ghee, which helps by helping the gut produce more good bacteria.
In the correct quantities, coconut oil and ghee in moderation can help tremendously in restoring the gut bacterial balance and healing a ‘leaky gut’
The last and final step is by completely avoiding nonessential antibiotics and synthetic drugs! That’s because antibiotics, steroids, over-the-counter meds, and anti-inflammatory drugs like aspirin and ibuprofen can break down the gut lining! Antibiotics cause a microbial imbalance and wipe out good microbes. This study states that “a single antibiotic treatment in healthy individuals contributes to the risk of resistance development and leads to long-lasting detrimental shifts in the gut microbiome.”