Autoimmune diseases
Autoimmune diseases pose a particular challenge in practice.
They actually seem to be a contradiction of nature, because normally the body does not attack its own cells.
Patients with autoimmune tendencies must be treated completely differently, because different rules apply to this disease.
Autoimmune diseases is an umbrella term for all diseases caused by an excessive reaction of the immune system against the body’s own tissue.
This leads to severe inflammatory reactions and thus to damage to the affected organs, because the immune system mistakenly regards the body’s own tissue as a foreign body that must be fought.
Causes of autoimmune diseases
Despite intensive research, the exact cause of autoimmune diseases is still unclear.
Probable causes include:
- A genetic predisposition
- Promotes the development of autoimmune processes due to insufficient exposure to bacteria in the environment (hygiene hypothesis)
- Faulty processes in the thymus gland during the selection of T cells
- A pathogen that closely resembles the structure of the body’s own tissue causes the onset of an autoimmune disease (molecular mimicry)
Classification of autoimmune diseases
There are hundreds of known autoimmune diseases. It must be assumed that virtually any organ or tissue can be the target of an autoimmune disease.
Here are some examples of diseases and the tissue affected:
- Alopecia areata – hair
- Ulcerative colitis – large intestine or rectum
- Type I diabetes mellitus – beta cells of the pancreas
- Hashimoto’s thyroiditis – thyroid gland
- Lupus erythematosus – internal organs and skin
- Crohn’s disease – digestive tract
- Ankylosing spondylitis – spine, iris
- Multiple sclerosis – myelin sheaths in the central nervous system
- Psoriasis – Skin
- Rheumatoid arthritis – connective tissue of the joints, tendons
- Sarcoidosis (Boeck’s disease) – lymph nodes, lungs, connective tissue
- Scleroderma – connective tissue beneath the skin
- Vitiligo – Melanocytes
Conventional medical treatment for autoimmune diseases
Since the causes of autoimmune diseases are unknown, causal treatment is not possible. Autoimmune diseases can therefore only be treated symptomatically, i.e. with anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive drugs.
The basic principle of symptomatic treatment is to suppress the activity of the immune system by administering immunosuppressants, such as cortisone. However, this usually leads to undesirable and sometimes severe side effects.
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Treatment of autoimmune diseases in practice
Of course, we cannot influence any genetic predisposition. But we can take effective action against all other probable causes:
- Since approximately 80% of the immune system is located in the gut, improving gut health is an important prerequisite for healing.
- Experience shows that a key factor for success is detoxification and therapy of the thymus gland so that it can once again perform its role in the maturation of T cells without restriction.
- The allergy to certain pathogens must be treated and, in addition, the pathogens must be decoupled from the affected organ.
- Last but not least, it is essential to eliminate as many physical and psychological stress factors as possible. In practice, we can treat physical stressors (allergies, heavy metals, environmental toxins); however, it is just as important that you address psychological stress triggers (e.g., sleep patterns, nutrition, exposure to electromagnetic fields, lack of grounding, learning relaxation techniques, etc.).
The treatment of autoimmune diseases is therefore a lengthy process that definitely requires your cooperation.
But it is a very worthwhile treatment, because without eliminating the negative conditions (especially in the intestines and thymus gland) and supporting the affected organs, the immune system is unable to regenerate itself.
