Is reversing an autoimmune disease -a myth or reality?
Many people are not aware that “incurable” diseases can be reversed by bringing the body back into balance. For eg in the case of autoimmune conditions, we can move beyond masking our symptoms and bring our immune system back into balance.
By doing this, many people can almost completely reversing symptoms and their disease. While for others, it means lowering their medications dosages, preventing further damage and living a life free of pain. Either way, reversing a chronic disease is possible, though it certainly takes time and effort.
One thing is clear, the mind and the body are intricately connected through a vast network inside your body. This network includes your immune, endocrine, central nervous and connective tissue systems. This has evolved over millions of years of evolution and honed to survive many challenges.
As Dr Christian Northrup says
Our bodies are influenced and actually structured by our thoughts and beliefs. Every thought is accompanied by an emotion or feeling, and every emotion creates a specific biochemical reality in our bodies. Thoughts that are reinforced over and over become beliefs. Beliefs drive our behavior
The science of mind body connection is called psychoneuroimmunology. It tells us that our emotional and psychological health affects our physical health and vice versa. What this also means is that we have the power to choose our thoughts that supports our healing process.
In short, our emotions, thoughts and our brain impact our immune health and all the organs in our body.
Going beyond the conventional method of treating chronic disease
You need to go beyond physical interventions to manage symptoms if you want to find a long term solution. The key to dealing with a chronic illness like an autoimmune condition is to address the root causes driving the disease progression.
Even though there is a genetic component to autoimmune disease, studies show that autoimmunity is only 25% heritable. The rest? It is attributed to your environment, a field now known as epigenetics.
Epigenetics tells that you have a choice in terms of how you want to change your gene expression by changing your diet, lifestyle and environment. This means that you can influence your gene expression and work towards turning off genes that are leading to autoimmune and other diseases.
You can reverse an existing disease or even prevent autoimmune disease by making different dietary and lifestyle choices. This was exactly what Dr Terry Wahls did. She reversed her “incurable” Multiple sclerosis diagnosis and completely changed the future of MS research and treatment options. Listen to her inspiring story here.
There are countless others who are doing the same by addressing all modifiable lifestyle factors (diet, stress, movement, toxins). They are reversing their incurable and degenerative diseases by changing their internal and external environment. You can learn about how Dr Amy Myers successfully reversed Graves disease here.
What you need to keep in mind
In Functional Medicine we believe that as we remove the obstacles in the way of the healing process and provide the body with all the nutrients that it needs, we give our bodies a fighting chance to heal itself. This is true for anyone suffering from a chronic condition and was also true for my daughter’s healing journey which you can read about here.
The approach to treating a disease is to treat the person as a whole and not just their symptoms. Healing systems like Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine have practiced this over thousands of years. They focus on health creation rather than only “treating” a disease.
These are three important aspects of the healing process that I want you to keep in mind-
1. Your body knows how to heal itself
No amount of medications can take away autoimmune disease but your body can heal itself if you support it the way it needs you to.
We have survived millions of years of evolution as a species long before the advent of modern medicine because our bodies know what to do.
2. Your diet plays a critical role in your healing journey
Your body is made up of trillions of cells which are the unit of a living organism. Cells (and your body) need certain nutrients to function properly and to thrive. Without proper nourishment, they don’t function properly and contribute to genes being turned on for autoimmunity.
Several lifestyle factors like toxic load, diet, type of exercise, stress, sleep, negative thoughts, and emotions affect our gene expression. However, it’s never too late to nourish your cells with the right kind of foods by focusing on your diet. Doing this can not only stop disease progression, it can reverse autoimmune disease in many cases as well.
3. Chronic diseases need long term self management
Chronic diseases like autoimmune diseases never really go away on their own. They are multifactorial in nature and have no single origin. They neither have an identifiable beginning nor an end. This is the reason why a conventional approach to chronic illness doesn’t work. Focusing on underlying deficiencies and imbalances is the key to reversing chronic disease.
Your body will show you the way
Your own body is your best “guide” when it comes to making changes and creating an environment that is healing.
By paying attention to what your body is trying to tell you you can learn much more than you could ever imagine. Indeed, the messages and the mysteries that it holds can be life saving!
Why?
Because your body lives neither in the past nor in the future. Unlike your mind, it lives in this present moment. The flip side of ignoring this aspect of your life often comes at a steep price.
If we continue to ignore the messages or the warning signs, minor symptoms can often build up to major health issues in the long run.
In my coaching programme I teach my clients how to pay attention to their body and tune into their body’s wisdom every single day.