Autoimmunity

According to NY’s American Institute of Stress 90% of all American adults experience high stress levels one or two times a week and a fourth of all American adults are subject to crushing levels of stress nearly every day!

Emotional Stress 

• Keeps the body in chronic fight or flight and will exacerbate inflammatory conditions

• Examples of Emotional stress:

  Death

  Divorce, separation, break up

  Loss of pet

  PTSD

  Lack of fun

  Moving

  Problems with kids/family

  Loss of job…

Cognitive Stress

• Is the way we think about or asses our traumas and experiences. It's our Inner dialogue
• Examples of Cognitive Stress: 

  I'm not good enough

  I will never get better

  I will always be this way

  My life sucks

  I’m worthless

  I don’t deserve love...

How we respond toward stress. 

• Sugar
• Carbs
• Caffeine
• Nicotine
• Alcohol
• Drugs
• Overspending
• Overworking
• Procrastination
• Binge/Purge

Epigenetics & Nutrigenomincs

• Epigenetics explores how your environment which includes the food you eat can affect how your DNA is able or unable to express itself optimally in your body.
• The food you eat is literally telling your DNA how to behave.

Unfortunately the Standard American Diet(SAD) is filled with bad building blocks in the form of saturaed and trans fats, refined sugars such as HFCS, refined carbohydrates, toxic additives, and hormones.

The cumulative results of our poor dietary habits are evident in the epidemics of cancer, diabetes, heart and autoimmune conditions that now afflict westenized countries.

Poor nutrition leads to multiple deficiencies in the many vitamins and minerals we need for optimal health.

Gross nutritional deficiencies underlie many autoimmune conditions.

Common deficiencies include important antioxidants such as Glutathione, Polyphenols, beta-carotene and other carotenoids, Vitamin C, E, Zinc, and Selenium as well as amino acids and important minerals.

Frankenfoods(GMOs)

• Over 61 countries require GMO labeling-the US is not one of them.
• Genetic modification can make a food more allergenic-a known trigger for AI
• Our bodies have not adapted to these foods yet, inducing inflammation and allergies

Food Reactions

• There are 3 types of food reactions:
• Allergies-IgE
• Sensitivities-IgG
• Food Intolerance

A food allergy is a reaction or hypersensitivity that is mediated by the immune system.  A true allergy is an IgE immune response

These reactions can be either immediate and life threatening or delayed, but just as harmful.

Food Sensitivities is a reaction to food that may be associated with increased levels of certain IgG antibodies.  People with food sensitivities can go a lifetime without ever knowing they have one due to delayed reaction times and vague symptoms like bloating, migraines, and diarrhea.

A food intolerance is an abnormal physiological response to a food not caused by an antibody/antigen reaction.

Some food intolerances are caused by poor function of the digestive tract or sensitivity to a natural or synthetic chemical.

Lectins is a great example of this:

Lectins are a protein on many foods as a natural defense against pests and fungus. 

Lectins stick to the walls of the small intestine causing inflammation and obstruct the natural healing process of the GI wall, leading to cell death and contributing to Leaky Gut Syndrome

Lectin foods can contribute directly to AI responses, particularly RA

• Foods that contain the most Lectins:
• Grains
• Legumes
• Nightshades
• Dairy
• Nuts
• Seeds

Gluten: The Big AI Splinter

Gluten is a  major trigger form many autoimmune conditions because of something called molecular mimicry.

Scientists postulate that the genetic profile of the gluten protein is molecularly similar to many of the tissues in the human body.

When the immune system tags gluten proteins as antigens, it can mistake the Thryoid or other tissues for gluten and tag them as well, resulting in an autoimmune attack.

Wheat, barley, rye and other grains containing gluten can aggravate inflammation and immune responses in people with leaky gut. (More on this in the GI stress trigger tab.)

Symptoms related to poor nutrition, individual sensitivities and allergic foods can show up all over the body-from minor irritations to major health conditions

Research shows a clear connection between intestinal dysbiosis, leaky gut and AI conditions!

• The gut is the barrier between the outside world and the inside world
• Up to 80% of the immune cells live here
• Houses over 100 trillion bacteria, yeast, and other microbes
• Healthy balance of these organisms is important for the cells of your immune system and overall health
• When GI microbes are out of balance=dysbiosis
• Tight junctions in intestinal walls become loose and allow undigested proteins, bacteria and toxins from gut into blood stream this is called leaky gut
• Leaky Gut is Common to all AI conditions
• Leaky Gut means Increased intestinal permeability
• This means materials that are not suppose to be in the blood stream, now are in the body.  Foreign materials such as Viruses, Bacteria, Parasites, Fungus, Gluten, undigested food, all eliciting an immune reaction.
• Our immune system goes crazy! It starts “shooting” everything in site to defend the body and kill off this new threat
• Since the gut is now leaking and there is a never ending stream of enemies entering your system your immune system stops differentiating between the “bad bug” and itself!

The fight or flight response can save our lives when we are in danger.  but as you've learned, stress becomes chronic when the stressful situations don't end, and we are foced to sustain an unnatural fight or flight response.

Over time our adrenals can become overworked and exhausted, which can cause us to feel fatigued, depressed and sick.

If the stress goes on for too long we can experience a condition called "burnout", which makes our bodies begin to break down on a cellular level.

Chronic stress in all of its forms can cause chronically increased levels of the adrenal hormones adrenalin and cortisol, which have an impact on all your body functions.

Effects of Elevated Stress Hormones

• Blood sugar imbalances
• Fat around the middle
• Decreased DNA repair
• Impaired cognitive function and damage to hippocampus(involved in memory)
• Inhibited conversion of T4 into T3
• Decreased bone density
• Elevated Blood pressure
• Decreased mm mass
• Feeling wired but tired, disrupted sleep-hormones wake you up at 3 am
• Premature wrinkles and aging

Symptoms of Adrenal Burnout

• Suppressed thyroid function-poor conversion of T4 to T3
• Waking up in the middle of the night and being unable to get back to sleep
• Trouble falling and staying asleep
• Difficulty waking up in the morning
• Not feeling rested
• Needing caffeine to start the day
• Being lightheaded when standing up
• Feeling wired but tired
• Lack of energy
• Cold hands and feet
• Constipation
• Panic attacks
• Craving salt/sweets
• Mental fogginess
• Memory problems
• Needing increased time to recover from illness, injury or trauma
• Feeling depressed
• Lack of interest in things that bring you joy
• Decreased sex drive
• Increased PMS
• Hitting the wall at 3-4 pm, get burst of energy 6-7pm

The causes of hormonal stress are everything we have been talking about!

• Chronic stress causes elevated stress hormones cortisol and adrenalin
• Over consumption of sugar, alcohol and carbs leads to blood sugar imbalance, dysglycemia, and insulin resistance
• Birth control, hormone replacement, and exposure to xenoestrogens can throw the internal balance of all hormones off

Xenoestrogens

 A sub-category of the endocrine disruptor group that specifically have estrogen-like effects.  

Xenoestrogens are found everywhere.  

• Lotions and sunblocks
• Pesticides
• Plastics
• Industrial household chemicals
• Conventional meat and Dairy: 

  Cattle are injected with estrogen to create weight gain and increase milk production. 

• Exposure to xenoestrogens directly linked with allergies, AI, and elevated ANA

Xenoestrogens and Women

Xenoestrogens and estrogen induced inflammation may be the reason why women account for 75 percent of all AI cases.

Women make our own natural estrogen but then we are are exposed to more in the environment.

So excess inflammation caused by estrogen is of particular concern for women under stress in perimenopause and menopause or those with high exposures to xenoestrogens. 

We have to pay particular attention to the liver when healing from AI as the liver plays a huge role in the detoxification of estrogen and it’s metabolites.

The liver is also responsible for most of the conversion of T4 into T3-the more usable form of thyroid hormone.

Chronic inflammation is present in all AI conditions from Graves and Hashimotos to RA, psoriasis, lupus and others

Causes of Inflammatory Stress:

• Stress
• Diet
• Lifestyle
• Food allergies/sensitivities
• Nutritional Deficiencies
• High WHR
• Environmental toxins
• Sedentary Lifestyle

Chronic, Low-grade and Stealth Infections:

Many times, low grade chronic infections precede an autoimmune condition.  In other cases, it's an acute infection or virus that turns out to be the "straw that breaks the camel's back", and a person experiences a full blown autoimmune attack.

The infections may not always be symptomatic.

Examples of Low grade and Stealth Infections:

• Latent virus, bacteria
  • EBV, Herpes, Hepatitis B, Parovirus B-19
  • Heliobacter pylori
  • Yersinia enterocolitica
  • Mycoplasma infections which cause pnewmonia and can linger for years after the initial exposure.
  • UTI
  • Peridontal Disease
  • Brucella, Borrelia Burgdorferi, Streptococcus, and Staphylococcus
  • Chronic Sinusitis
    • the Mayo Clinic did a study in 1999 that found fungs in the sinuses of 96% of patients with chronic sinusitis.  Since that time, many doctors have helped their patients reverse autoimmune symptoms by treating their sinusitis with anitfungal drugs along with healthy lifestyle choices.

• Mold
• Parasites
• Candida
• Infections deplete glutathione. Glutathione is the body’s master antioxidant. Low levels are linked with all AI as well as CFS

There are several theories about how infections trigger autoimmunity:

Molecular mimicry is the theory that infectious pathogens share structural, functional, or immunological similarities to host tissues.

In other words, bad bugs and viruses can sometimes "look" the same as our healthy tissue.

When we have an infection, our immune system can mistake healthy tissue(self-antigens) for the bad bugs and destroy our own cells by mistake.

Bystander Activation is the theory that indections can non-specifically stimulate the immune system in a manner that misfires in autoimmunity.

Bystander activation doesn't require a similarity of self and pathogen as in molecular mimicry.  

Additionally, during an infection, healthy cells that are in the area of the infection can be causght in the crossfire and killed as a result.

Protein changes, cryptic antigens, is the theory that infections cause an inflammatory environment that can lead to cellular dealth, oxidative stress and free radical production, which can transform "self" proteins into "non self".  

In other words, inflammation can cause your healthy cells to mutate into non-self cells.  

In addition, proteins in the cells that are ordinarily shielded from the immune system become exposed to , and subsequently attacked by the immune system.

Researchers agree that while infections play a role in many autoimmune conditions, the "host environment" or the "state of your body" is where the real story is told.

Toxic stress includes exposure to healvy metals, petrochemicals, endocrine disrupting chemicals, food additives, herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, volatile organic compounds, and compounds found in most commercial cleaning products.

Occupational Exposure

• Petroleum can cause RA and SLE, Silica dust and dry cleaning chemicals can cause systemic sclerosis

Everyday Chemical Exposure

• Chemicals that seep into our bodies and disrupt the endocrine system. The water we drink, food, the exhaust fumes from cars, our household cleaning products, Mercury fillings, all add to the toxic load on our body’s immune system. Smoking triggers RA.

Pharmaceuticals

• Many pharmaceuticals are going to have an inflammatory response on the body. There are 38 drugs linked to Lupus alone.

Fatty Liver

• If the liver is bombarded with too many toxins or is unable to filter properly due to nutritional deficiency, it begins to store the toxins.