Functional Medicine Game Changer for Autoimmunity
80% of auto immune conditions are in women
Auto-immune diagnoses are growing by day and we have to stop and think why and what can we do. Sadly, the conventional model offers us immunosuppressant medications which often the individual has to take for life to manage their conditions, medications which in most instances are not addressing the cause of the dynamic at all.
What I love most about functional medicine is that we are able to support the traditional Ayurvedic concepts with evidence based data. We can use tests to really understand extent of progression in a person and use practical tools to help bring them to a state of balance.
One of the key issues I have when someone is simply handed a medication for an illness is that individual begins to feel helpless and that their body is failing them. If you are told one day that you have a condition where your own immune system is attacking part of your body but there is no explanation why and nothing you can do about it, then naturally one is left vulnerable and deflated.
Functional Medicine however changes all of that, it provides us with answers and explanations and give us the opportunity to be proactive in our health. I always tell clients who ask to work with me that there is no guarantee that we can completely resolve this. In some cases it may mean we can stop the progression but have to manage with lifelong support. But it gives women hope.
I myself suffered with alopecia and so understand first hand that an auto immune condition requires us to really broaden our thinking and this is how we work with clients. For 2 people the same diagnosis may require 2 different approaches. One has to be patient, it isn’t a one size fits all approach, but I find it to be a very therapeutic journey, as it allows us to check in on all the key areas of our health and often make some changes to that one area we have been resisting for so long, for me it was sleep.
Auto immunity presents in three stages. The first stage is when our body has produced antibodies but we are asymptomatic, the second stage is when we have elevated antibodies along with symptoms and the third stage is when we have raised antibodies, symptoms and destruction of the tissue.
Interestingly we can have a gap of 8 years between elevated antibodies and actually displaying symptoms and so what that means is that we can actually make changes so that we may never display any symptoms at all. We can also prevent or delay the tissues for getting damaged.
In clinic we are able to use laboratory tests that assess your antibody levels, we can identify areas you may not be aware of that may be potential areas of concern later.
Auto immunity is not about one piece of the puzzle it is about addressing your dietary habits, what you are eating and how you are eating, it is about your choices, your sleep patterns, toxicity, your stress loads. Whilst we can not cure auto immune conditions we can definitely become more educated and empowered to manage flares and stay in remission for longer.
