1 in 5 of us in the US or UK have one. From psoriasis in the skin to multiple sclerosis in the nerves, there is no part of the body exempt from autoimmune conditions.
These conditions are treated under different specialities by doctors. However they all have one thing in common: they are not caused by a contagious infection. They are type of Non-Communicable Disease (‘NCD’) which means that they can’t be transferred from one person to another.
They are something that we develop one day that gradually gets worse, and that we may have to live with for the rest of our lives.
But there’s another thing autoimmune conditions have in common: they all originate in the gut!
This is all relatively new science and it hasn’t yet filtered through to the medical mainstream. As things stand, if you develop an autoimmune condition, you’ll be sent to a specialist who will look at the specific, isolated, part of your body.
Your doctor may describe the condition with clever and detailed medical jargon while not actually getting to the root of the problem.
The principle strategy for treating autoimmune conditions in mainstream medicine is to use drugs to dampen down the immune system. These drugs come with unpleasant side effects and further weaken your resilience to illness. This makes it more likely you’ll need antibiotics in the future, which will further damage your friendly bacteria.
However there are other safer and more effective strategies for tackling these conditions, which we dive into in Four Powerful Steps to Reverse Autoimmune
Weird Science!
Friendly bacteria are the heroes of this tale.
As our knowledge of human biology has advanced since the turn of the century, we have made a huge discovery: the bacteria inside are not just along for the ride but are actually doing vital work for us.
Without enough of these friendly microbes our body breaks down, we get sick and we feel like crap.
The community of bacteria that lives inside us is called our microbiome. It’s sometimes called our forgotten organ, because it does so much important stuff for us but gets little recognition!
Confused Immune System
If you imagine our immune system like central heating with a thermostat, it needs to be set at just the right level. If it’s set too high or too low we feel uncomfortable.
When our immune system is set too ‘hot’ it will react to harmless stuff like pollen or peanuts as if they were threats.
This leads to flu-like symptoms in the middle of the summer or extreme allergic reactions that can kill us.
If the immune system is set too ‘cold’, it won’t react properly to a real threat, like a dangerous bacterial pathogen.
In the case of autoimmune conditions the thermostat is clearly set too high. Our immune system is attacking the organs of our own body.
What’s really strange is that our immune system needs help in finding the best level for the thermostat and this where the friendly bacteria come in. Certain species of bacteria are in communication with the cells of our immune system, guiding our cells on when to react and when not to.
Without those friendly bacteria our immune system tends to overheat. What happens then? We develop, in increasing order of severity:
- food intolerances
- allergies to foods or other substances like pollen
- autoimmune conditions
Leaky Gut and Autoimmunity
There’s another important part to this equation: leaky gut.
Sometimes our gut wall springs a leak. This can happen with bad diet, too much stress, alcohol or drugs for example.
This leads to tiny undigested food particles passing into the body where they don’t belong. Our immune system then has too much work to do. It becomes overloaded and confused, and eventually starts attacking the organs of our body.
If you’d like to find out your probability of having leaky gut, take our quiz.
Bacteria Are Not The Enemy
How could this have come about? Why didn’t we humans just evolve to have an immune system that works nicely without help from outsiders.
We don’t yet have answers to all these questions but using bacteria as a kind of ‘plug-in’ probably gave us more flexibility and an evolutionary advantage.
Anyway it’s kinda confusing! We’ve been told all our lives that bacteria are most definitely NOT our friends and that we should wipe them out whenever possible with antibiotics and antibacterial cleaning products.
Now it’s like: oh sorry bacteria, you were doing all this important work for me and I never knew! Come back, all is forgiven!
This is why children raised with pets or on farms – exposed to a much greater amount of bacteria – have fewer immune system problems. These children have a richer, more diverse microbiome with hundreds of different strains of bacteria living together in harmony, like a coral reef or a rainforest.
These bacteria help our immune system to calibrate itself to the ‘goldilocks zone’: not too hot, not cold.
This means fewer allergies, fewer coughs and colds, fewer courses of antibiotics and lower risk of obesity (yes, those friendly bacteria are heavily involved in our metabolism too).
Vicious Cycle
For those of us raised with less exposure to bacteria, particularly the RIGHT bacteria, we end up taking more antibiotics, thereby destroying more of our friends and setting ourselves up for a life of obesity and autoimmune conditions – urgh!
This is why it’s very common to have more than one autoimmune condition. Once the body gets in this state, our immune system attacks one organ after another.
Supercharge Your Body and Immune System
What we need is to supercharge our body and immune system. To supercharge in this sense means to boost up the health of our microbiome so it’s full of friendly bacteria talking to and guiding our immune system.
This enables us to tune our immune reaction to exactly the right level, so it focuses its formidable energy on the right targets.
This means that our immune system will be humming along exactly as it should: kicking out any deadly pathogens while being all aloof and cool when pollen and peanuts come by.
They aren’t always an option but two powerful ways of giving our children the right bacteria are through:
- Vaginal rather than Caesarean birth
- Breastfeeding rather than bottle feeding
Another huge way we can supercharge our immune system is through diet. For our recommendations of gut-friendly foods check out:
If you think you’ve already done a lot of damage to your gut bugs, don’t despair! The good news is that our microbiome is very responsive to positive changes with the right food, supplements and lifestyle. Whatever our age, there are ways of rebuilding our community of fabulous friends.
Even if we’ve had one or more autoimmune conditions for years, we can reverse them, even completely cure them!
36 thoughts on “Supercharge Your Body to Beat Autoimmune Conditions”
Awesome information, I always learn something new every time I visit the site. Weird science is great science!
Learned a lot from this post. Thank you for all the informative health insights, very helpful!
I believe like you that we need to be exposed to bacteria. It can really help boost our bodies defences.
Autoimmune disorders are on the increase! Such great info!
This is why I always find myself curious. I’ve never heard of autoimmune diseases before so I researched more about them. This is a very helpful post to everyone. Keep posting informative posts like this.
I believe in exposing ourselves to dirt and bacteria can help our body to get used to it. It builds our immunity system to adapt and evolve. Same with Covid vaccine, which i just had last january this year.. This is Dead COVID Virus injected in my system.
Thanks for sharing this as caring for gut is so important and tied to everything we do.
This was super informative and i had less difficulty reading this even if i have no medical background. We really should be more careful of what we eat and stay healthy. Haha
great tips! I value your opinion a lot, you made me learn a lot more and be generally healthier
I love this blog because it always share useful information about gut health and I always think it’s really important to our general well being, thanks for another useful lesson and I hope it helps a lot of people – Knycx Journeying
The connotation about the word bacteria can make people stay away from the good ones. Thank you for the concise information, will share.
We drink buttermilk a lot. This actually helps!
I’m keeping my gut healthy by drinking gallons of buttermilk.
I have read the Keystone Approach which is a fascinating look at the link between autoimmunity and gut health. I agree with you that gut health is key to getting the immune system in proper order.
As someone nearing senior years, maintaining good autoimmune system is a must. This is a way to avoid infection, especially now that we are fighting the spread of the corona virus.
I would never have thought that auto-immune concerns can actually come from gut issues as well. I will definitely go back to clean eating and stocking on superfoods at home. Thanks a lot!
this is very insightful and informative. I did Food science, we had a module about autoimmune conditions
The exact cause of autoimmunity is unknown but theory suggest that they came from microorganisms or drugs may trigger changes that confuse the immune system. Though other theory suggest it’s genetic. Sadly, it cannot be cured, but the condition can be controlled in many cases (like diabetes mellitus, type 1, rheumatic fever, and pernicious anemia). What they can do is to be careful with what they eat and drugs that they take. Thanks for this insightful article!
Amazing information about our body and the immune system.
I’ve heard of leaky gut before but never really understood it, this was enlightening
What informative posts about autoimmune diseases. I never knew about what they are from (I knew there were good bacteria, we always have it on us);.
Such useful information. I know that there are some bacteria that is good for our body, but I was not aware of such detailed information.
Thanks for these great tips.
I’ve being drinking some herbal to boost my immunity,they work greatly
Arghhhh — it seems like a hit a certain age, and then all these autoimmune and gut things kicked in. Appreciate the helpful info.
As someone who has acquired some autoimmune conditions through radiation treatment for cancer (which fortunately worked), I found this post very interesting. As my treatment is ongoing at the moment, I am interested in this whole topic and associated lifestyle information for better health. Appreciate your article and what you have shared here.
Thank you for such an informative post! I haven’t a post so comprehensive and interesting on gut health and autoimmune disease. Thanks!
Very insightful. I’ve always believed kids raised to play in dirt had better immune systems. I know I did.
I’m now learning about autoimmunity and microbiome health after having an FPIES baby. I was a Cesarean baby, ate SAD, and was fed lots of antiobiotics. It’s no wonder I have a leaky gut but the saddest part is that it’s affected my babies. Thankfully there’s hope for healing.
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and for helping others like myself.
Bless you.
Hey Gina, I agree it’s heart-breaking to think we pass this issues down to our little ones. At least there are lots of things we can do to reverse the damage! 💪
I knew our body has its own healing powers but as a layman, I wouldn’t know such terms about it or its scientific explanations. Thank you for imparting this awesome knowledge! ♥️
I have a friend with an auto immune disorder. She has to go through a daily process to make sure her system is line or she can get sick quickly.
Super insightful! I’m fighting off a cold right now and I’m sooo stressed out. Thanks for this! 🙂
Hey Alexandra glad u liked the post! 😊 Hope that cold’s better!
Fabulous post and info. Sometimes the leaky gut thing concerns me..I have way too much stress…good reminders here!
Valerie
Hey Valerie! thx for the feedback. Yeah i know, stress… 😬
This just validates my belief that gut health is tied to so many other functions in the body. Thanks for sharing ways to supercharge our immune systems, especially the tips for getting kids off to the right start.