Autoimmune Diseases
Being the youngest of six children, Mark had to be tough just to keep up with the others. He was a healthy little guy who loved any- thing that had to do with playing ball and a good bit of competition. He was involved in several sports, but soccer was his all-time favorite.
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- One day when Mark was twelve years old, he was aggressively running the ball in soccer practice when he started cramping up.
- Soon he was doubled over with severe stomach pains. The cramps continued to mount over the next few days with both diarrhea and vomiting.
- When Mark didn’t respond to any over-the-counter medications, his parents finally took him to the emergency room where he was diagnosed with appendicitis.
Read And Learn More: Nutrition Medicine Physicians Defense Notes
- After a brief surgery and recovery, Mark was released from the hospital. He wasn’t home for long. He returned to the hospital within twenty-four hours due to increasing abdominal pain, bloody diarrhea, and vomiting.
- Mark was now much sicker than he was before the operation. The young boy was readmitted to the hospital; however, the local doctors were puzzled.
- They referred Mark to the pediatric gastroenterology department at Loma Linda University Medical Center; there doctors placed him immediately in the pediatric intensive care unit.
- They performed a colonoscopy the next day and took several biopsies of his small bowel and colon. What his parents saw during the procedure on the video display made them stare in disbelief.
- Later they described to me how the entire lining of Mark’s bowel looked like a cobblestone street. The Loma Linda physicians diagnosed Mark as having an autoimmune disorder called Crohn’s disease, as well as a secondary bacterial infection called C. difficile.
- Mark was in severe pain and discomfort, as you might imagine a pretty tough haul for a kid! His physicians immediately prescribed 200 mg of prednisone as well as antibiotics and narcotic pain medication.
They consulted surgeons, and a daily debate began as to whether they should remove a large portion of Mark’s bowels. But they opted to wait and watch Mark’s progress over the next few weeks.
- Mark slowly improved, and a repeat colonoscopy showed that the infection had cleared. This made the typical ulcerative appearance of Crohn’s disease all the more evident.
- The doctors met with the parents and informed them that this was an incurable autoimmune disease. They explained that for some reason, Mark’s immune system had started to attack his own bowels, which created tremendous inflammation and destruction.
- The team of physicians wanted to place Mark on a chemotherapeutic drug called Imuran, even though he was still taking very high doses of prednisone and narcotic pain medication.
- Mark started on Imuran, and after a total of six weeks of hospitalization, the boy was delighted to be discharged. Again, his homestay was a brief one, and within a week Mark was in so much abdominal pain he had to be readmitted to the hospital.
- Physicians generally treat patients with autoimmune diseases with drugs that suppress the immune system. Since the body’s own immune system is attacking it, it is logical to aggressively quell its activity.
- But one of the major side effects of these potent drugs is that they wipe out the natural antioxidant defense too. Mark’s Crohn’s disease was finally coming under control, but his depressed immune system left him vulnerable to all kinds of infections.
- A cold would turn into serious pneumonia, and the common flu would put him down for weeks. In fact, during the first year after his initial attack on the soccer field, Mark had to be admitted seven times as a result of serious infections.
It was about this time that I became involved with the young boy. Mark’s father approached me for my medical advice following a meeting 1 was speaking at in San Diego and asked what I would recommend.
- I told him that I’d put Mark on a potent antioxidant and mineral tablet along with high doses of grape seed extract and CoQ10.
- I also encouraged his parents to be sure he was getting adequate amounts of the essential fatty acids in his diet or to supplement with a flaxseed oil or fish oil. All of these would restimulate Mark’s natural antioxidant defense system.
Mark slowly began to improve but still struggled with abdominal pain and side effects from the drugs. Gradually his doctors took him off prednisone but not Imuran.
- Mark’s mom and dad consulted me again, and I recommended that they seek a second opinion from a private pediatric gastroenterologist.
- After seeing how well Mark was doing aside from Imuran’s side effects, the private gastroenterologist felt that it would be well worth trying to get Mark off of all drugs, including the pain medication and Imuran.
- He was gradually taken off the Imuran, and with the help of a psychologist who taught Mark some relaxation techniques, he was finally able to stop taking all pain medication as well.
- At last, Mark was medication free and felt better than he had since the day of his first attack. Mark is now doing great and eating a normal diet. I was delighted to see the active fifteen-year-old again recently.
- What a frightening and painful experience he and his parents endured. A disease that for many offers little hope is manageable for Mark. He is now pain-free without having even a flare-up of Crohn’s for more than two and a half years.
- Needless to say, we are all optimistic about Mark’s future. The lingering question is: How could Mark’s immune system turn on him like that? Isn’t our immune system supposed to help us? Let’s start by looking at how our immune system should work.
The Immune System: Our Great Protector
- Our immune system guards us against viruses, bacteria, fungi, foreign proteins, and abnormal cancer cells. It is a sophisticated interplay of many different kinds of immune cells.
- Even though the scope of this book does not allow me to go into much detail about the intricate workings of the immune system, I still believe it is important for you to know who the basic players are. Here is a brief job description of each.
The Different Players In Our Immune System
Macrophages (or phagocytes) are the Pac-Manlike white cells that are the first line of defense. They can quickly attack any foreign invader (virus, bacteria) and actually gobble it up. But sometimes macrophages are not sure if they have attached themselves to a foreign invader or not. They definitely do not want to destroy something that is part of the body (as in Mark’s case). This is when they call for help from the T-helper cells.
- T-helper cells are from a group of white cells called lymphocytes. A T-helper cell comes along and attaches itself to the macrophage and tries to help it determine if the particle the macrophage has in its grasp is friend or foe.
- If the T-helper cell determines that it is an enemy, it will secrete hormones called cytokines (they stimulate the inflammatory reaction), which literally signal the immune system to kick itself into high gear.
- This stimulates the B-cells into action and attracts more macrophages and T-helper cells to come to the rescue. B-cells have the ability to shoot down the intruder with enzymes that destroy it by creating oxidative stress.
- Some of the B-cells will return to the lymph nodes to create antibodies against these intruders. If this intruder ever shows up again, our immune system is ready for it because of these antibodies.
- Natural killer cells can destroy anything in their path. They flood infected cells with toxins and destructive enzymes, which effectively destroy all foreign invaders or cells that are growing abnormally, such as cancer cells.
- T-suppressor cells are the riot police that comes along after the foreign invader has been destroyed and tries to calm down this tremendous immune response. They are critical for the control of collateral damage.
- If this highly reactive response goes unchecked, tremendous damage to the surrounding normal tissue could occur. This is what makes the inflammatory response so dangerous.
Though it is absolutely necessary to control potential infectious intruders, if the inflammatory response gets out of control, it can cause great harm.
- You have already learned that nutritional supplements can significantly enhance the body’s natural antioxidant defense. In this chapter, you will also begin to realize that these same nutritional supplements can significantly enhance our body’s own immune system.
- Dr. Karlheinz Schmidt stated, “The optimal function of the host defense system depends upon an adequate supply of antioxidant micronutrients.”
- It only makes common sense that if our immune system is going to be able to protect us as God intended, we need to have all the nutrients present at optimal levels.
Nutrients And Our Immune System
Again let’s examine the medical literature and see how each of these individual nutrients actually affects our immune response.
Nutrients And Our Immune System Vitamin E
Macrophages that are deficient in vitamin E release more free radicals and do not live as long. Our immune system uses this production of free radicals to destroy these foreign invaders by actually creating oxidative stress.
- This is the “good” side of oxidative stress as long as it remains under control. Vitamin E deficiency also affects the differentiation of our T-cells in the thymus; this leads to an imbalance of T-helper to T-suppressor cells.
- The poor production of T-suppressor cells is one of the main reasons that the inflammatory response can get out of hand. Remember that the T-suppressor cells are the riot police that is essential to cooling the immune reaction and so limit collateral damage.
- Some researchers believe that poor T-suppressor cell function is at the heart of the autoimmune response. Studies show that supplementation with vitamin E corrects these deficiencies in our immune system and helps clear infections.
- Clinical studies have also demonstrated that the immune-enhancing effect of vitamin E supplementation was even greater in the elderly and in individuals who had malabsorption syndromes.
- ‘ Mark’s disease, for instance, involved both the small bowel and colon, which essentially created malabsorption of these nutrients.
- Vitamin E supplementation can also protect against the immunosuppressive effects of cortisol, which is released in great quantities during a stress reaction.
Nutrients And Our Immune System Carotenoids
- A well-known property of carotenoids is the fact that they are capable of protecting the surrounding normal tissue from potential damage created by the inflammatory response of the immune system.
- Supplementation of the carotenoids can increase the number and effectiveness of the T-helper cells and the natural killer cells, which, as you have already learned, constitutes an important part of our defense system against cancer cells.
- This greatly improves the tumor surveillance of our immune system.
Nutrients And Our Immune System Vitamin C
- Dr. Linus Pauling has been influential in making everyone aware of the importance of supplemental vitamin C and its ability to enhance the immune system.
- Although we are still arguing whether massive doses of vitamin C are helpful for the common cold, the enhancing effects on the immune system are fairly well established.
- Vitamin C has been shown to improve the function of the macrophages. This significantly improves the first line of defense against bacterial infections.
- It is wiser to take good doses of vitamin C daily rather than massive doses only when you think you are coming down with an infection.
- In one study those taking 1 g of vitamin C daily for more than two months showed a striking enhancement of several aspects of the immune system.
- Vitamin C also has the ability to regenerate vitamin E and handle the excessive free radicals within the plasma. Both of these properties further enhance vitamin C’s ability to improve the immune system.
Nutrients And Our Immune System Glutathione
Supplementation with the precursors of glutathione (N-acetyl-L-cysteine, selenium, niacin, and vitamin B2) has shown significant enhancement to the overall immune system. Even patients with HIV infections have experienced this positive effect.
Nutrients And Our Immune System Coenzyme Q10
- As we age, CoQ10 levels decline and make the mitochondria (the furnace of the cell) especially vulnerable to oxidative damage.
- CoQ10 is critical for the optimal function of the immune system because of its major role in the production of energy in the cells of the immune system.
- Supplementation of CoQ10 has been shown to reverse these problems and significantly enhance the immune system.”
Nutrients And Our Immune System Zine
- Just about every aspect of our immune system needs zinc. A deficiency actually suppresses several parts of the immune system: the number of lymphocytes decreases.
- The function of many white cells is severely reduced, and levels of thymic hormone, which is a strong stimulus of the immune system, fall.
- Many people reach for their zinc lozenges whenever they get a cold. Studies have shown that taking these lozenges every two hours can shorten the length of a cold by several days.
- Researchers believe that zinc not only boosts the immune system but also inhibits the replication of the virus.’ But a word of caution is necessary here: if a person consumes a high dose of zinc for too long, it can actually suppress the immune system.
- I am not against short-term use of high doses of zinc or even vitamin C with colds, but I believe consistent long-term use of optimal doses of these nutrients in supplementation is better for the antioxidant defense system and the immune system.
- When all of the players of our immune system are functioning at their peak capacity, our overall health is obviously the beneficiary. Children are able to optimize their immune systems via nutritional supplementation within six months.
- Aging is generally associated with an impairment of our immune responses, which leads to increased frequency and severity of infections. In fact, infections (especially of the respiratory tract) are the fourth most common cause of death in the elderly.
The British Lancet recently reported a study in which elderly patients received either optimal levels of nutritional supplements or a placebo.
- Those patients who received the nutritional supplements had significant improvements in their overall immune response and enjoyed fewer and less severe infections compared to those who received the placebo.
- It took at least a year of supplementation to optimize their immune systems, but in the end, the benefits were dramatic.
- This study, along with several others, confirms the fact that our immune system is extremely dependent on these micronutrients, as is our antioxidant defense system.
The Inflammatory Response
You have seen throughout this book that inflammation is a serious foe. You understand that heart disease is really an inflammatory disease and not a disease of cholesterol. Mark’s devastating problems were all the result of inflammation of the bowel. In chapter 11 you will read that millions of us are developing arthritis because of increased inflammation in our joints.
- And the underlying cause of asthma is essentially inflammation. Simply put, most of us just have too much inflammation in our bodies.
- We need to bring this excessive inflammation back into balance, and nutritional supplements are the key The inflammatory response is the result of a complicated chain of events involving the immune response.
- Which releases tremendous amounts of free radicals, caustic enzymes, and inflammatory cytokines. We have looked at the basic immune response.
- But we now need to look at how to handle the prolonged inflammatory (chronic inflammation) response that these cytokines create.
- Antioxidant supplements are our best tool. They improve our immune system, they help control the inflammatory response, and they build up our antioxidant defense, which in turn protects our normal cells from inflammation’s destruction.
- But there is another important aspect of this inflammatory response we need to look into: our bodies’ natural anti-inflammatory system. That’s right.
- Has it ever crossed your mind as you reach for the bottle of Advil that your body makes its own anti-inflammatory products? Let’s take a look at what those products are.
The Inflammatory Response Essential Fatty Acids
Not all fats are bad. In fact, essential fat is just that-essential to the body. The body cannot manufacture these fats and therefore must get them from food.
- The body uses fats for the production of healthy cell membranes as well as certain hormones called prostaglandins. The two most important essential fatty acids are omega-3 fatty acids, called alpha-linolenic acid, and omega-6 fatty acids, called just linoleic acid.
- Our bodies turn omega-3 fatty acids into prostaglandins which are primarily anti-inflammatories. Omega-6 fatty acids become prostaglandins that are primarily inflammatories.
- The generally accepted optimal ratio of dietary intake of omega-6 fatty acids and omega-3 fatty acids is 4:1. This means we should take in four times as much omega-6 as we do omega-3.
- Omega-6 fatty acids are abundant in the Western diet; they are in our meats, dairy products, and processed foods. We get omega-3 fatty acids from vegetable oils such as flaxseed, canola, pumpkin, and soybean oil.
- These fats are also found in such cold-water fish as mackerel, sardines, salmon, and tuna. As you might guess, the average American consumes a few more omega-6 fatty acids than omega-3s-a lot more, in fact.
- On average, we consume a ratio of 20:1 or even 40:1 of these fats in our diet! This results in our bodies producing significantly more inflammatory products than anti-inflammatory products.
- Our bodies are simply too inflamed. The imbalance in the consumption of these essential fatty acids is the main reason for the imbalance in our body’s production of these hormones.
That is why many individuals in the industrialized world need to take flaxseed oil and fish oil in supplementation in an attempt to bring these back into balance.
- Here is another unknown fact: essential fats also have the ability to actually decrease our total cholesterol levels and our LDL (bad) cholesterol levels. This means that not all fats are created equal.
- I not only encourage my patients to supplement their omega-3 fatty acids but also to decrease their intake of saturated fat. When you combine these two efforts, the inflammation in the body readily comes back under control and your cholesterol levels improve.
- Several studies have shown significant clinical improvements in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, and almost any disease that involves inflammation when they consume these important essential fats in supplementation.
- This is a very important aspect of maintaining your health or redeeming your health if you have already lost it.
- We have looked at various aspects of our immune system and how it is supposed to work. We have also looked at the problem when this normal inflammatory response gets carried away.
- But now we need to look at the very worst scenario-what happens when our immune system mounts a mutiny and actually starts to attack our own body?
Autoimmune Diseases
You’ve heard the saying: “One’s greatest strength is also his greatest weakness.” This is no truer than in the immune system. Many clinicians believe that every disease is essentially the result of a breakdown of our immune system.
- But in the bizarre case of autoimmune disease, the immune system actually becomes the body’s worst enemy itself by attacking normal cells and tissue.
- If it attacks the joint space, we call it rheumatoid arthritis; if it attacks our bowels, we call it Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis; if it attacks the myelin sheath of our nerves.
- We call it multiple sclerosis; and when it attacks the connective tissue of our body, we call it lupus or scleroderma.
- Why and how does this happen? I learned in medical school that autoimmune diseases were the result of an “overactive” immune system that begins attacking the “self” instead of “nonself.”
- But it made more sense to me that in the case of autoimmune disease, the immune system, rather than being overactive, had instead become confused and was now attacking the body rather than foreign invaders as it was designed to do.
- In a recent review article on autoimmune diseases reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, the authors pointed out that no one really knows for certain why the immune system literally turns on “self.”
But many researchers not only believe that oxidative stress is the underlying cause of every autoimmune disease
- But that it also could be the culprit that causes our immune system to actually attack us.
- Several studies have documented the fact that the root cause of autoimmune diseases is oxidative stress.” As you may anticipate, the antioxidant levels in persons with rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, MS, Crohn’s, and scleroderma are significantly decreased.
- Low antioxidant levels have also been shown to increase one’s risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis or lupus. The clinical indicators of oxidative stress are also very high in these patients, especially during a flare-up period of these diseases.
- Antioxidant supplementation would therefore be ideal for patients with these autoimmune diseases. Not only can antioxidant supplements optimize the natural antioxidant defense system.
- But they also can enhance our immune system and help control the inflammatory response. In other words, they can help bring oxidative stress back under control and circumvent this entire vicious cycle.
Matts Story
Matt is a successful lawyer in the Chicago area, which basically means he has worked long, hard hours to build his practice while working equally hard to balance his priorities of wife and family. His health had always been good, so he never thought much about it until the fall of 1996. Matt was attending a wedding when he began to feel some significant abdominal discomfort.
- He had been extremely busy the two weeks prior to the wedding, so he thought he might be coming down with a flu bug. A day or so later, he felt like he’d been “hit by a Mack truck,” as he put it, he was so fatigued with body aches.
- When his symptoms worsened, Matt decided to go to the doctor. By this point, he was experiencing waves of severe abdominal pain. Desperate for relief, he asked the doctor to take out whatever was causing the pain.
- He underwent all kinds of tests, including CT scans, ultrasounds, x-rays, and numerous blood tests. So you can imagine Matt’s shock when no diagnosis became apparent. He was sent home with only a painkiller.
- Matt had recently been reading about nutritional supplementation and decided to start an aggressive supplement program. But he did not improve very much.
- He still felt miserable. He felt achy all over, and he remained extremely fatigued. He finally saw a specialist who ordered a blood test called ANA (antinuclear antibody). Matt’s ANA came back positive at a level of 1:640 (normal is 1:40 or less).
- His specialist told him that he had systemic lupus erythematosus, or what most people simply refer to as lupus. The ANA was an indicator of an autoimmune process gone amuck.
- His body’s immune system was actually attacking itself. Once Matt heard this, he increased his supplements even more and started taking 350 mg of grape seed extract along with his antioxidants and minerals.
- He slowly improved and required less and less pain medication, even though he still had intermittent bouts of pain. The process was long and hard as Matt continued to fight fatigue and the flu-like symptoms.
By January Matt was feeling much better and was able to make up for lost time by getting back to working ten-hour days.
- He was thrilled because he had not been able to work at all for about four months.
- Being able to support his family financially was something Matt was not sure would ever be possible again. When he went back for a follow-up visit several months later, his specialist wanted to start him on some chemotherapeutic drugs, a standard treatment for lupus.
- Needless to say, Matt insisted that he felt great and was not having any problems. When his specialist looked at his repeat ANA report, his jaw dropped. He couldn’t believe it.
- “Matt, your ANA has crashed!” he exclaimed. “It’s now only 1:40 and is basically normal.” He congratulated Matt and encouraged him to just keep taking whatever medication his doctor had put him on.
- When Matt informed him that he wasn’t taking any medication, the specialist replied, “I don’t know what you are doing, but keep it up.”
Matt continues to do well. - He’s not been sick for more than five years now and his ANA tests remain negative. In fact, he claims that he feels better now than he felt before he contracted lupus.
- Though he realizes it’s not true, Matt doesn’t feel like he has lupus anymore. Its symptoms may return, and they might not. No one can say for sure. But one thing is certain: Matt will never take his health for granted again.
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