Next Steps ~ Naturally

Autoimmune, Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) / Sunday, March 10th, 2019

My previous post Just Diagnosed ~ First Steps goes through what I think should be your immediate reaction to being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. Once you are relaxed and ready to think about your life with autoimmune disease, or if you have had your disease for years and wish to try a new natural way of managing it, read on!

First things first, I encourage you seek advice from practitioners in holistic, functional and/or integrative forms of medicine and educate yourself on other ways of understanding and healing autoimmune disease.

“Healing?”, I hear you ask. “But my Doctor told me it was a chronic disease that I’ll have for the rest of my life?”

Well, I’m sorry (or really happy) to break it to you, but autoimmune diseases can be reversed! Healing might mean:

  • reducing symptoms or being rid of them completely,
  • test results close to or within target ranges,
  • needing less medications or none at all,
  • having less or less-severe flare-ups,
  • feeling good more of the time, or
  • a wacky combination of the above!

Healing will look and feel different for everyone, but the bottom line is that you can work towards reducing the severity of your disease naturally.

Conventional medicine is only comfortable with one form of managing autoimmune disease – prescribing medications to deal with the symptoms until your test results look normal. But I know from personal experience that there is a lot more to health. Other forms of medicine can round out a way of living with autoimmune diseases with more energy, vibrancy and wellness.

Please do not misunderstand me. Conventional medicine is lifesaving, especially in acute situations. Medications can be lifesaving. Medications can also still be needed to live a healthy life. I definitely need my medication! There is a place for conventional medicine and it does do good.

But conventional medicine understands very little about autoimmunity.

If you would like to seek other advice, find a holistic, functional or integrative specialist that specifically handles autoimmune conditions (more than just lifestyle diseases). See what you think about that form of medicine alongside conventional medicine, focusing on dietary and natural options to heal and improve the function of your body. I found it revolutionary, enlightening, empowering and a truly healing experience as my specialist took the time to listen and explain what was happening in my body.

A holistic or functional avenue of health has its own steps, but please seek a specialist and be guided by their advice always in the first instance. I do not have medical training or any expertise – I just know what has worked for me.

The five steps I have undertaken to heal and reverse my autoimmune conditions, in no particular order, are:

1~ Eliminate inflammatory foods

It is highly likely that there are foods in your diet that are causing inflammation and sores in your gut lining allowing particles to leak into your body. This causes your immune system to attack these particles as foreign invaders, and rightly so. But at a molecular level, gluten particles look just like thyroid particles. Your immune system gets confused and and WHAM – autoimmune thyroid disease. Or at least that’s one theory of how autoimmunity works that seems to make sense for me. It starts in your GUT! So eliminating those harmful foods is the first step.

It’s likely that you don’t know yet exactly what these inflammatory foods are for your individual body – probably things that you have eaten your whole life without a second thought! To figure it out, you can use an elimination protocol such as the Autoimmune Protocol, which I have benefited from greatly, or work with your doctors and/or specialists to undertake allergy testing (which is often dubious and doesn’t offer a full picture), or simply self-guided elimination and reintroduction. But it is important to figure out what these foods are that are silently wreaking havoc on your body, and then remove them from your lifestyle.

The biggest gangstas are grains, dairy and sugar (artificial and natural). Their hench men are soy, eggs, lentils and nightshade vegetables (tomatoes, potatoes, capsicum/peppers, chilli, eggplant/aubergine, cayenne pepper, paprika, goji berries and some more obscure ones). But it is different for everyone.

And don’t worry, these foods may not need to be gone forever! Once you have made your way through the process and started healing, you can reintroduce these foods to see how you react. Read up on AIP for detailed information on the reintroduction phase and the different types of reactions you can have.

2~ Heal your gut

Once your gut is not being attacked, it needs to heal. There are great foods and supplements to do this such as fermented foods, bone broth, natural gelatine and pre- and pro-biotics, but speak to your holistic or functional specialist.

3~ Targeted testing and supplementation

This stage is obviously dependent on your holistic and functional specialist and the individualised advice they provide. My experience is that these specialists can run tests that are not widely accepted in conventional medicine because they provide a ‘vague picture’ rather than exact figures to work with. But that ‘vague picture’ can be really insightful, especially when identifying crucial deficiencies! I’ve also benefited greatly from the natural supplements advised by my specialist for liver, thyroid, gut and autoimmune health.

4~ Eliminate chemicals

Chemicals interfere with normal processes and make your body work harder to eliminate them as toxins. Some people’s bodies don’t do that every well, especially those with autoimmune issues.

Educate yourself about what foods use pesticides in their production (the ‘dirty dozen’) and choose organic instead.  Find or make natural body products where you can pronounce all the ingredients. Try natural cleaners or make your own out of white vinegar, bicarb soda, lemon, essential oils etc. Ditch the perfume and use essential oils instead. On that note, ditch the makeup, or find natural alternatives. Wash your clothes with soap nuts, use natural hand soaps and find toothpaste without fluoride (depending on which side of the fence you fall with that one). Switch to glass or stainless steel (not aluminium) food containers, drink bottles and utensils. Avoid plastic (even BPA free) whenever possible.

5~ More rest

Seriously, your body is doing a lot of attacking itself and healing itself, on top of everything else day-to-day! But as well as resting, also try things like meditation or mindful activities such as painting, colouring, cooking, sewing or other hobbies that require focus in the moment. How about a bath, massage, curling up on the couch and reading a book? Watching a movie? Brewing yourself a cup of tea and simply staring out the window? The important thing is to take time out for you for restoring and healing.

Besides these five steps, there are also two other factors that deserve a mention but require a post in themselves to cover adequately. One is reducing stress (wow, how do those two words look so small when they are so so hard!?). The other is movement, aka gentle exercise. I find these two factors are the most individualised, based on personal preference and what works for your lifestyle. But maybe later on I’ll give you an idea of how I am trying (really really hard) to incorporate these two things into my life and the issues I am having in the process!

Resources

Here are some posts you should definitely read if you are considering a natural approach to healing your body with autoimmune disease:

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