May 3rd, 2010 | Posted in Basics
I am fighting for health from 1996. No – I am not shooting, not kicking… Nothing of this sort.
But I know I MUST do something to overcome my uninvited guest – Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
Tricky thing – official medicine, claiming to be on top of health keeping, can’t help me. It can’t help millions of other seriously ill with ALL sorts of chronic degenerative diseases.
So I decided to be responsible for my own health. And I succeeded ! I am not alone. There are lots of others, who succeeded fighting for their own health, too.
* * *
It wouldn’t be possible keeping own health in good shape, being alone. That’s really interactive process – learning from others and applying to yourself.
In so long time I discovered many superior teachers. Some of them are doctors, some – not. But all of them are teaching personal responsibility – and are naturalistic (not synthetic medication based).
One of my top teachers is a journalist (health ranger) Mike Adams. I like his articles very much. Some my articles are based on his most valuable and interesting writings: Faulty medicine?, MS, cancer and FUD, MS – name ambiguity.
I came across his article Good health is no accident recently. I was excited – again. The author put all the aspects every carrying about a personal health should know, into a logical and elegant unit.
Anybody interested should read whole article. I’ll present some pieces I like the best. You’ll see the power of these wise words:
- Those who seek answers for their health outside the realm of their own decisions are looking in the wrong place… Lasting health can only appear as the result of a lifetime of informed, deliberate decisions aligned with nature’s principles of health, not the distorted version of health promoted by our backward system of mainstream medicine
- … The cure for cancer is already programmed within. Each person is born with a highly-advanced cellular nanotechnology that already knows how to cure cancer. Activating this inner healing potential is all that’s necessary to prevent and cure cancer …
- … masses continue to eat cancer-causing foods and pursue cancer-causing lifestyles even while blindly handing over their money in the form of donations to organizations that they naively hope will come along and “save them” someday
- Obesity is what happens when a person spends each day imagining how much they’re going to start exercising tomorrow.
- Cancer is what happens when a person spends each day eating cancer-causing foods… rather than just getting some sunshine to boost their own vitamin D.
Disease is what happens when people believe they have no role in their own health outcome. So they eat for entertainment rather than for nourishment, and they live for product-induced external stimulation rather than internal fulfillment
- Cancer can never be “cured” through any external, artificial means, regardless of how many billions of dollars are thrown at it. Trying to cure cancer with synthetic medications makes about as much sense as trying to cure illiteracy by feeding children “reading pills”
- Health, like learning to read, is something that must be pursued through dedicated self-advancement. Neither literacy nor health can be endowed upon you with the flick of a magic (medication) wand. They cannot be injected into you through a needle. They can only be achieved by teaching each person how to own their results
If you wish to learn how to read, for example, you must first accept responsibility that no one else can read for you. YOU must go through the learning and advancement curve if you wish to experience the positive results of being literate
If you have read this piece up to this point, it’s rather safe to assume, that you agree with health ranger Mike Adams, and me – a folk, who is living after multiple sclerosis (MS):
Good health is no accident !
.
April 10th, 2010 | Posted in Triggers
Today (April 10, 2010) I came across MS related news, published April 8, 2010. Being actively involved in everything MS-related, I started reading at once.
As an example, www.sciencedaily. com in article Does Smoking Compound Other Multiple Sclerosis Risk Factors? presented results of newest investigations:
“…study shows that smoking may increase the risk of multiple sclerosis (MS) in people who also have specific established risk factors for MS. The research is found in the April 7, 2010, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology…”
Later some details are presented: number of participants – MS sufferers and in control group, etc. Finally researchers explain influence of a specific gene… Leader of research group explains:
“The consistency of an association between MS, smoking and the body’s immune response… suggests this finding is not due to chance”, said study author Claire Simon, ScD, with Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. “This relationship may provide clues as to why certain individuals develop MS while others do not.”
Some more specifically scientific information has been included…
* * *
Earlier scientific discoveries are rather controversial:
So perhaps humanity arrived at a threshold of a giant discovery?
Or maybe not?
What’s in cigarette smoke?
Being neither a smoker, nor cigarette smoke researcher I had no idea, what makes this smoke so poisonous. Consequently I went to Google and typed a phrase: ” cigarette smoke pollutant ” – and I was provided with over 300,000 articles.
Immediately I entered an article Have You Ever Wondered What’s In a Cigarette? It provides plenty of required information.
Just look:
- Nicotine is highly addictive. Smoke containing nicotine is inhaled into the lungs, and the nicotine reaches brain in as little as 6 seconds
- Cigarette smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, including 43 known carcinogenic (cancer-causing) compounds and 400 other toxins -nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide, and formaldehyde, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, arsenic, DDT etc
- Nicotine in small doses acts as a stimulant to the brain. In large doses, it’s a depressant, inhibiting the flow of signals between nerve cells. In even larger doses, it’s a lethal poison, affecting the heart, blood vessels, and hormones
- Most of the chemicals inhaled in cigarette smoke stay in the lungs. The more you inhale, the better it feels—and the greater the damage to lungs . . .
Cigarette Maker Now Lists Ingredients
For the first time, an American tobacco company has begun listing long-secret ingredients contained in its cigarettes directly on the label… List includes:
“…high fructose corn syrup, sugar, natural and artificial licorice flavor, menthol, artificial milk chocolate and natural chocolate flavor, valerian root extract, molasses and vanilla extracts, and cedarwood oil. Less familiar additives include glycerol, propylene glycol, isovaleric acid, hexanoic acid and 3-methylpentanoic acid…”
What researchers say
“…not all of the chemicals in your cigarettes are there for taste enhancement. For example, a chemical very similar to rocket fuel helps keep the tip of the cigarette burning at an extremely hot temperature. This allows the nicotine in tobacco to turn into a vapor so your lungs can absorb it more easily.”
“Toilet Bowl Cleaner? Most people prefer to use ammonia for things such as cleaning windows and toilet bowls. You may be surprised to learn that the tobacco industry has found some additional uses for this household product. By adding ammonia to your cigarettes, nicotine in its vapor form can be absorbed through your lungs more quickly. This, in turn, means your brain can get a higher dose of nicotine with each puff.”
The complete list of chemicals added to your cigarettes is too long to list here. Here are some examples that will surprise you:
- Fungicides and pesticides — Cause many types of cancers and birth defects
- Cadmium — Linked to lung and prostate cancer
- Benzene — Linked to leukemia
- Formaldehyde — Linked to lung cancer
- Nickel — Causes increased susceptibility to lung infections
If you are angry that so many things have been added to the cigarettes you enjoy so much, you should be. Many of these chemicals were added to make you better able to tolerate toxic amounts of cigarette smoke. They were added without regard to your health and with the intent to keep you addicted.
As the tobacco industry saying goes:
An addicted customer is a customer for life,
no matter how short that life is
More information – in article.
Smoking and MS – conclusions
I have started analysing possible triggers of MS in 2006 – just when I’ve started my website Beyond MS.
Key idea beyond all listed triggers is rather simple:
There are so many ways to worsen one’s health
and to deregulate immune system…
Just look at all these triggers – you’ll see regularities.
But why some so-called MS researchers refuse to see results of other researchers?
Why they exclude a common sense?
Or is it political correctness?
February 20th, 2010 | Posted in MS enigma
These are results of 3-rd my brain MRI scan, performed in early 2007.
- First MRI scan was performed during the procedure of my disease diagnosis in 1996. It revealed lots of lesions and heavy inflammation over my brain
- Second MRI scan, performed in 2002, confirmed MS-style lesions, but no inflammation. Something unusual for MS!
Definitely, included information is technical, so complicated for a lay men.
However, it is possible to see all the drama of somebody, afflicted by degenerative process of Central Nervous System, i.e. multiple sclerosis (MS).
Report of my MRI scan
Very extensive changes characteristic of MS are present bilaterally, predominantly in the supratentorial brain. Several dozen lesions are noted in the peri ventricular region of both cerebral hemispheres. There is a subtle lesion in the posterior right corpus callosum. There is a 1.2 cm lesion in the left basal ganglia bridging the posterior limb of the internal capsule and lateral aspect of the thalamus. Several lesions are present in the periventricular deep white matter of both temporal lobes. There is a subtle lesion at the junction of the mid brain and pons. There is diffuse increased signal throughout the posterior lower pons and upper medulla. Subtle possible lesions are present in both cerebellar peduncles. Neither of these lesions is confidently identified on axial imaging however.
Diffusion weighted imaging demonstrates that the left thalamic/internal capsule lesion shows a little increased signal, as do several of the posterior parietal lesions bilaterally, which would suggest that these are relatively more active and therefore likely to be more recent.
Impression:
Severe changes characteristic of multiple sclerosis with several lesions including left thalamus/basal ganglia showing slight increase in diffusion restriction suggesting these are more recent.
Follow-up report by neurologist
Essentially he had a severe acute brain disorder about 10 years ago. At the time an MRI was compatible with severe central nervous system demyelination… Since then the patient denies any major fluctuation of symptoms and definitely denies the presence of what may be regarded as MS attacks. His main residual symptoms are ataxia involving four limbs and also the head, and so fatique and insomnia. As mentioned above, the patient seems to have adapted his own way to the condition and is very unkeen on any further diagnostic procedures or medication.
Performed MRI scan confirmed innumerable lesions of central nervous system demyelination… Therefore there is no evidence either clinically or from diagnostic tests to suspect that this patient may have an active phase of disease.
Assessment:
I still think that central nervous system demyelination with acute initial phase is the most likely explanation and this could have been in the form of relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis or perhaps ADEM. Other hypotheses such as a post encephalitic syndrome or toxic white matter lesions syndrome can only be speculated but not confirmed…
We parted on good terms with the agreement that very likely there is little else I can do at this stage that may have any major impact on his lifestyle and therefore I have not arranged regular follow-up in this clinic.
It is unlikely that his condition will change in a considerable way in the future but of course should there be clear signs of acute inflammatory activation of disease with new neurological deficits I am happy to review this patient when needed in the future.
Final words
I live well.
OK, I know my brain is heavily damaged. But is it so important? I mean – it’s personal, what one do with any bit of information.
Look, it’s entirely personal, whether one will be scared or start acting. Usually big fear paralyses. So what? How long one can do nothing?
I don’t know. Really.
I started acting (mostly studying) and seeking solutions shortly after MS diagnosis (1996). Now I rule my MS and do not care, how many lesions over my brain doctors are seeing.
Advice by Bobby McFerrin “Don’t worry – be happy” could help !
February 18th, 2010 | Posted in Holistic - Allopathic
Several years ago in article Orthodox MS symptoms treatment I described widely promoted by Big Pharma and so heavily used so-called multiple sclerosis (MS) medications and reported side effects.
Anybody interested can find heaps of explanations, why it is so. For example MS Treatment Market will Reach $11.9 Billion by 2011 or News from MS market ’07.
No doubt, MS drugs are a group of very profitable medications. Because of that almost nobody speaks about most serious problems, connected with their usage. Unfortunately, there are some serious underlying reasons, resulting in production of so terribly poisonous medications. Anybody interested can find more information in article Faulty medicine?.
More warnings
Just now I want you to see something essential. This piece of information is arguably the most important for anyone dealing with Multiple Sclerosis. It arrives to you from the most popular world’s natural health website www.mercola.com:
The usual prescription for MS is a cartload of highly toxic medications.
It is my strong recommendation to not accept these drugs, and if you’re already on them, to wean yourself off, as they are some of the most toxic drugs used in the field of medicine. These drugs include:
Fortunately, there are many alternatives to these toxic treatment methods offered by conventional medicine
February 16th, 2010 | Posted in MS enigma
New year arrived with fresh news in area of so-called multiple sclerosis drugs.
On 22 January 2010 FDA (USA) approved a new drug “Ampyra”, that improves walking abilities in many MS patients.
Almost three out of four MS sufferers admit that walking appears to be the most frustrating aspect of their life. So any improvement of their life is welcomed.
Ampyra specifics (important):
- it should be taken with other MS drugs and
- it does not keep MS from getting worse
Main advantage of this multiple sclerosis drug: although Ampyra does not change the course of disease, it most probably enhances nerve function.
These are good points of a new drug. However, by no means it is safe. You see
Originally this chemical was used as a bird poison !
Known side effects:
- multiple sclerosis relapse
- urinary tract infection
- balance disorder
- insomnia
- loss of muscle strength
- dizziness
- headache
- tingling or numbness in the extremities
- nose or throat inflammation
- upset stomach
- throat pain
- nausea
- constipation
- back pain
Everybody MS-er should think carefully, if using this drug isn’t too high price. Even if walking abilities improve for a while.
My major question is:
How long walking improvement lasts, before one or another life quality worsening side effect appear?
You can read full article here.
January 4th, 2010 | Posted in Holistic - Allopathic
Many autoimmune diseases, including myasthenia gravis, Lambert-Eaton syndrome, Guillain-Barré syndrome etc, are caused by a so-called autoimmune processes.
Some of the special cells involved in autoimmune process can attack host body organs or tissues directly, while others could produce autoantibodies – substances, circulating in the blood and accomplish the attack.
Antibodies, acting against the body’s own organs or tissues are known as autoantibodies.
Allopathic medicine solutions
Drugs-based treatment usually suppresses activity of deregulated immune system and sometimes additionally reduces inflammation of attacked tissues. That’s the most common approach to autoimmune disease for nlmost 50 years. Many newly introduced immunosuppressants are regularly becoming available, but all the synthetic medications used for autoimmune diseases treatment have serious side effects – especially when taken in high doses for years…
In the 1970s a new approach of autoimmune diseases treatment was developed. Medications that suppress the immune system or reduce inflammation are often combined with this new treatment, but they usually can be used in reduced doses.
Idea behind this new treatment was really simple: instead of changing to suppress the immune system only with powerful medication, it could be possible to mechanically remove autoantibodies from the blood during a process similar to dialysis treatment. The procedure later became known as plasmapheresis or plasma separation. It’s also known as plasma exchange.
Basics of all plasmapheresis procedure can be find in articles:
Plasmapheresis side effects
Plasmapheresis is a sort of invasive procedure, so it’s sometimes named “Blood surgery”
As any kind of surgery, this one also possesses some dangers:
- The most common problem is a drop in blood pressure, which can be experienced as dizziness, blurred vision, faintness, coldness, sweating or abdominal cramps. A drop in blood pressure can be remedied by giving intravenous fluid and adjusting patient’s position
- As medications to keep the blood from clotting during the procedure are usually used, bleeding can occasionally occur. Some of used medications can cause other adverse reactions, which, if allowed to progress, can lead to an irregular heartbeat or seizures
- An allergic reaction (begins with itching, wheezing or a rash) to the solutions used to replace the plasma or to the sterilizing agents used for the tubing can be a true emergency. Procedure must be stopped and the person treated with intravenous medications
- Increased suppression of the immune system can temporarily occur because of plasmapheresis, as during the procedure all sorts of antibodies are removed. In time, the body can replenish its supply of needed antibodies, but sometimes these are given intravenously after each plasmapheresis treatment. Special precautions against infection must be taken
- Medication dosages need to be adjusted carefully for patients during plasmapheresis because some drugs can be removed from the blood or changed by the procedure…
Holistic approach – enzymes
Therapeutic doses of proteases (protein digesting enzymes) act as an all-natural blood enhancer!
They break down all sorts of protein-based invaders in the blood supply, leaving them vulnerable to destruction by the immune system.
Protease is also known to act as a scavenger of oxidized and damaged proteins, is active in helping to eliminate blood toxins, modulate the immune system, addresses hormonal imbalances, speeds wound and tissue repair, helps to arrest and remove heavy metals and removes their toxins.
Benefits of proteases therapeutic doses (when taken on an empty stomach):
- efficiently removes blood toxins and clots
- presents a powerful immune-strengthening effect
- hormonal imbalances may be helped by oral protease supplementation
- enzymes capable of degrading immune complexes can ameliorate impaired kidney function
- oral protease supplementation leads to the formation of activated production of collagen and matrix proteins and then returns to its pre-injury structure
- clinical observations have noted that upon high intake of proteases, heavy metal concentrations have been significantly decreased in the blood. This may be due to the binding of these toxic substances with the supplemental protease enzymes, facilitating their removal
- oxidative reactions generate free radical damage to various molecules including proteins. Free radicals have been implicated in accelerating the aging process as well as several diseases, including arteriosclerosis, diabetes, and neurodegenerative conditions
- proteases may help hydrolyze and remove extracellular proteins damaged by free radicals
Protease side effects:
- therapeutic doses of protease can cause a burning sensation if a person has any of the following conditions: Gastritis, Gastric Ulcer, Duodenal Ulcers, Esophage Ulcers
Resume
Even superficial survey shows clear advantage of proteolytic enzyme (protease) therapy over traditional plasmapheresis.
Nevertheless, no officially trained doctor will advice an autoimmune patient enzyme treatment. There exist many different reasons (based mainly on pharmaceutical business aspects) for that:
Anyhow, it’s good to know different available options for dealing with all autoimmune diseases, including Multiple Sclerosis.
.
PS Just reminder – I managed to stop MS exacerbations and stay on a permanent remission from 1997, using therapeutic doses of protease enzymes for over 18 months.
August 4th, 2009 | Posted in MS enigma
Good question, isn’t it?
Official medicine is speaking about MS everyday. But still – what are they speaking about?
I went to Google and asked for definition of Multiple Sclerosis. You can see the result of my inquiry in article On MS definition. All 26 definitions are more or less incorrect. In reality it’s a completely useless mess. Yeah.
I’ve written another article MS – name ambiguity on the subject. It starts with MS description by National Multiple Sclerosis Society (USA). I analyzed it carefully and find it to be completely misleading.
One more MS definition can be found in article of Wikipedia.org:
Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease in which the body’s immune response attacks a person’s central nervous system (brain and spinal cord), leading to demyelination… The name multiple sclerosis refers to scars (scleroses—better known as plaques or lesions) in the white matter of the brain and spinal cord, which is mainly composed of myelin.
Almost any neurological symptom can appear with the disease…
Although much is known about the mechanisms involved in the disease process, the cause remains unknown. Theories include genetics or infections. Different environmental risk factors have also been found.
That’s better – MS really is an autoimmune disorder. Unfortunately, I still have no idea, what is a key difference between ‘immune response’ and ‘immune system’. Isn’t this explanation perfect: “Almost any neurological symptom can appear with the disease”. Please remember – we are speaking about CNS damage! MS triggers have been mentioned only, without ANY further explanation. However, you can find some information in a chapter Triggers of my website.
* * *
According to National MS Society (USA) description , in order to make a diagnosis of MS, the physician must:
- Find evidence of damage in at least two separate areas of the central nervous system (CNS), which includes the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves AND
- Find evidence that the damage occurred at least one month apart AND
- Rule out all other possible diagnoses
According to the Criteria all a neurologist has to do to diagnose MS is to determine position and level of CNS damage according to strict regulations. Regretfully, they have chosen to keep silent about possible triggers etc.
* * *
Looking closely, it’s easy to see the complexity of the degenerative process.
Obviously, before MS can be diagnosed, a succession of the body damaging events must happen:
- The body is heavily polluted so one’s immune system gets detuned – that way autoimmunity starts
- Over-activated immune system starts the crusade against a new enemy – own body CNS, especially myelin
- To get to the brain, the blood brain barrier – brain safeguard – has to be damaged
- Significant damage to nerve covering (myelin) in many CNS positions has to be done
- Accumulated CNS damages lead to significant neurological symptoms
- CNS damages (lesions or scars) are clearly visible via MRI scanning etc
Hopefully, knowledge of these underlying degenerative processes could clarify some activities towards body stabilizing and healing. Obviously, these should involve mainly detoxification and immune system strengthening.
That’s my answer to a question What really Multiple Sclerosis is?
July 4th, 2009 | Posted in Autoimmunity
What happens, when some part of your car or computer etc. wears down?
Simply. You visit your car or computer etc. mechanic to get that part replaced.
Some time ago medical doctors (human body mechanics) came in with the idea of replacing some faulty body parts – heart, liver… Obviously, everything is far more complicated in a living body case. Body has own immune system – powerful versatile safeguards, that can destroy literally anything (organic) inside the host body.
Immune system is so widespread, that it seems to be much easier to name body parts that aren’t parts of immune system than conversely
That’s fine – researchers developed subsidiary idea – to weaken the safeguard. Present official synthetic pharmaceuticals, surgery and radiation based medicine has all powerful tools to demolish everything they want.
Again, nothing seems to be impossible nowadays – even living with weak immune system. But – pssst! – the patient must be silent – don’t even dare speaking about quality of life.
But what to do, when body’s own safeguard (immune system) for some reason becomes faulty?
A group of medical researchers suggested a new idea – replace the immune system! Researchers from the University – institution, once created to spread lucent humanistic ideas.
So, hmm – nice idea. But wait a moment – what about existing immune system? It’s faulty, but still – it guards the body against all environmental germs and performs lots of other highly important for body survival tasks.
More about problems and ways of immune system replacement (for some reason they call it reboot) – in articles 1. Immune System Reboot Could Treat Autoimmune Disease and 2. Stem cell transplant can grow new immune system in certain mice, Stanford researchers find.
Read, if you like. For me it’s a sort of terrible nightmare of a psychedelic person… OK, these are creations of present pharmaceutical – medical conglomerate.
But I still have some (not so) simple questions. Look:
- Our toxic reality – researchers noticed influence of industrial chemicals on spreading of all sorts of chronic degenerative disorders
- Welcome – Autoimmune Epidemic – key world researchers agree that global spreading of autoimmune disorders is mainly caused by environmental pollution
- Immunotoxins – Autoimmunity – MS – it’s clarified how man-made chemicals can trigger Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and any other autoimmune disorder
My main question remains:
Can it be that scientists are working in growing isolation? Or is it some special kind of “scientific” confusion – when one group knows nothing about results of others? Isn’t it similar to Health and wellness problems of information overload?
June 19th, 2009 | Posted in Basics
…as infectious childhood diseases like polio, smallpox, rheumatic fever, and diphtheria have largely been controlled, chronic conditions of less obvious origins have taken their place.
Asthma, autism, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders (ADD and ADHD), childhood brain cancer and acute lymphocytic leukemia have all increased over the past 30 years.
That’s introductory part of article Human health problems on the rise, published by Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-profit organization, founded in 1993 to: 1. protect the most vulnerable segments of the human population – children, babies, and infants; and 2. replace federal policies, including government subsidies that damage the environment and natural resources, with policies that invest in conservation and sustainable development.
You’ll not find neither multiple sclerosis, nor any other autoimmune disorder included in this graph. Nevertheless, it’s safe to assume that no chronic degenerative disorder is an exception. Contrarily – such an assumption would be both unrealistic or even precarious.
Take a long hard look – you’ll definitely see the trend!
Conclusions follow:
Scientists cannot fully explain these increases, but early life exposure to environmental pollutants is a leading suspect (2005)
Fetal exposures lead to adult disease
Fetal exposures cause disease in future generations
Heaps of different already discovered aspects and separate facts about toxins and pollutants influence on health could be added, but the key message remains the same – for everybody:
Pollutants = Toxins = Poisons
June 15th, 2009 | Posted in Autoimmunity
What’s all this about? New flu pandemic? No, that’s autoimmune epidemic!
Book “The Autoimmune Epidemic: Bodies Gone Haywire in a World Out of Balance–and the Cutting-Edge Science that Promises Hope” (2008) by
Donna Jackson Nakazawa,
an autoimmune sufferer herself
Foreword to “The Autoimmune Epidemic”
by Douglas Kerr, M.D., Ph.D.:
- founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Transverse Myelitis (TM) Center, the only center in the world dedicated to developing new therapies for this paralyzing autoimmune disorder
- faculty neurologist and neuroscientist at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore Maryland, for the last decade evaluating and treating patients with autoimmune disorders of the nervous system
He explains:
- Increasingly, I see that more and more patients are being felled by this devastating disorder (Transverse Myelitis)
- Infants as young as five months old can get TM and some are left permanently paralyzed and dependent upon a ventilator to breathe. But this is supposed to be a rare disorder, reportedly affecting only one in a million people
- Prior to the 1950s, there were a grand total of four cases reported in the medical literature
- Currently, my colleagues at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and I hear about or treat hundreds of new cases every year
- In the multiple sclerosis clinic, where I also see patients, the number of cases likewise continues to climb
This really trustworthy expert is sharing his collected information:
- Autoimmune diseases have not always been this common. The prevalence of autoimmune diseases like systemic lupus erythematosus, or lupus, multiple sclerosis, and type 1 diabetes is on the rise
- In some cases, autoimmune diseases are three times more common now than they were several decades ago. These changes are not due to increased recognition of these disorders or altered diagnostic criteria
- Rather, more people are getting autoimmune disorders than ever before
Later he’s providing a short explanation about operation of immune system:
- The immune system … is charged with an amazingly complex task: to recognize and ignore all the cells and tissues within the body and – at the same time – to attack any and all “invaders”, foreign cells, viruses, bacteria, or fungi
- …wondrously complex immune system can successfully protect our bodies while recognizing and eliminating billions of distinct infections with which we come in contact. When functioning well, the immune system immediately recognizes a virus or bacteria that has gotten into our body and initiates a spirited and robust attack on the invader, allowing us to recover from a cold after only a few days
- But this precisely choreographed dance between the immune system and the tissues it is designed to protect goes badly awry in autoimmune diseases. In such diseases, the immune system mistakes friend for foe and begins to attack the very tissues it was designed to protect. The soldiers guarding the castle turn and attack it
He asks rhetoric questions and explains:
- But what triggers autoimmunity to occur? Throughout human history, our exposure to such myriad infectious agents has triggered an evolutionary arms race. Our immune system has evolved increasingly sophisticated countermeasures and recognition systems to combat the increasing diversity of the infectious agents with which we come in contact
- But this increasing sophistication comes with a cost: an increased chance of the system breaking down. We have evolved right to the edge of the immune system’s capacity…
- Now, over the last 40 years, something has been pushing that system over the edge. Something is causing the immune system to increasingly make mistakes in which the line becomes blurred, the immune system attacks the body itself, and autoimmune disease occurs
- In all likelihood, much of the reason for this often catastrophic mistake of the immune system comes from the countless environmental toxins to which we are currently exposed—toxins that interfere with the way the immune system communicates with the rest of the body
Some statistics (are you here?):
- The numbers are staggering: one in twelve Americans—and one in nine women—will develop an autoimmune disorder
- And since it is clear that not every patient with an autoimmune disease is correctly diagnosed, the prevalence is certainly higher than that…
…
Concerned about health in general or autoimmune disorder in particular? Lots of info in the book:
Final words:
- You will leave this book with no reservations about the veracity of the conclusions: put simply, there is no doubt that autoimmune diseases are on the rise and our increasing environmental exposure to toxins and chemicals is fueling this rise
- The research is sound
- The conclusions unassailable
Reading The Autoimmune Epidemic is a necessary first step Reading The Autoimmune Epidemic is a life-altering event
It needs to be
