What Causes Autoimmune Disease?

Up until 25 years ago most doctors had never heard of auto-immune disease. Today it is becoming as common as a cold. Steroid drugs like Prednisone and more are used to try to stymie the immune system and slow the auto-antibody reaction. This therapy is fraught with frightening side effects. And since it never addresses the cause of the problem, it is usually ineffective as a treatment but for merely slowing down the progression of the disease.

Misunderstood by most clinicians and doctors, the brunt of all auto-immune disease begins with starvation of organs or glands. The organs become damaged and begin to develop lesions and necrotic(dead) spots. This leads to premature death of the organ cells. Part of this process is the leaking of genetically marked (specific to that organ) proteins in the blood. The response of the body is to create antibodies by the immune system to target the specific proteins in the blood.

Because the same proteins exist in the host organ or gland (for example the thyroid), these same antibodies will also attack the source organ or gland as well. This leads to inflammation of the organ or gland, which in turn leads to more premature cell death and more genetically marked proteins escaping into the blood. The cycle of auto-allergy or auto-immune disease continues---in this case in the form of thyroiditis.

Naturally, as with all things in the body, auto-immune disease occurs rarely in well-nourished individuals. These people have organs and glands that are resistant to infection and attack. The condition rarely gets far enough along to elicit an auto-immune response. The objections to this rule are overwhelming viral infection and other infections that are auto-induced (as in drugs, injections, poisons, etc.). Even in these cases, the therapy is the same. On occasion it is necessary to use a synthetic adrenal hormone drug like Prednisone just to shut things down temporarily to save the patient’s life. But this should always be short-term therapy.

The take home message here is that understanding the development and progression of auto-immune disease allows a skilled practitioner to treat people with an auto-immune factor. Using phytonutrients and specific glandular therapies can be an integral part of successful treatment.

For more information or to schedule an
appointment, please call St Johns Health Center:
503.286.4400