Autoimmune Disease
What is Autoimmune Disease
Autoimmune disease is a condition in which your immune system attacks your body.
The immune system normally guards against germs like bacteria and viruses. When it senses these foreign invaders, it sends out an army of fighter cells to attack them. Normally, the immune system can tell the difference between foreign cells and your own cells.
In an autoimmune disease, the immune system mistakes part of your body, like your joints or skin, as foreign. Therefore, it releases proteins called autoantibodies that attack healthy cells. Some autoimmune diseases target only one organ. For example, Type 1 diabetes damages the pancreas. Other diseases, like systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), affect the whole body. Currently there are 61 disease which fall into the Autoimmune category. This list seems to grow each and every year.
Who gets autoimmune disease?
According to a 2014 study, women get autoimmune diseases at a rate of about 2 to 1 compared to men — 6.4 percent of women vs. 2.7 percent of men and often the disease starts during a woman’s childbearing years (ages 15 to 44).
Researchers are documenting the rapid increase in the incidence of autoimmune disease and they believe there are 3 primary reasons for this increase:
- Environmental factors like infections and exposure to chemicals, EMF’s or solvents.
- A “Western diet” is another suspected risk factor for developing an autoimmune disease because studies show eating high-fat, high-sugar, and highly processed foods is linked to inflammation, which appears to set off an immune response.
- A 2015 study focused on another theory called the hygiene hypothesis. Because of vaccines and antiseptics, children today aren’t exposed to as many germs as they were in the past. The lack of exposure makes their immune system prone to overreact to harmless substances.
Regardless of why your immune system attacks your body, the results of the attack can manifest with many symptoms which can be found below.
Common symptoms when your immune systems attacks your body
- General Fatigue
- Muscle Ache
- Swelling
- Redness
- Low Grade Fever
- Difficulty Concentrating
- Numbness or Tingling In Hands/Feet
- Hair Loss
- Skin Rashes
Common Autoimmune diseases
- Type 1 Diabetes
- Rhumatoid Arthritis
- Psoriasis
- Multiple Schlerosis
- Systemic Lupus Erhthematosis
- Inflammatory Bowel Disease
- Addison’s Disease
- Sjogren’s Synfrome
- Hashimoto’s Disease
- Mysthenia Gravis
- Autoimmune Vasculitis
- Pernicious anemia
- Celilac Disease
Treatment Protocols
Dr. Darling uses treatment plans based upon 30 years of successful treatments for different autoimmune diseases. Each treatment plan is unique to the patient’s specific circumstances and generally requires time to heal the body.
There are many new treatments that are not FDA approved where studies show are having positive impact autoimmune symptoms. One of those is stem cells. Contact us to learn more.
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