Educating and Empowering You to Heal, Thrive, and Live a Happy, Healthy Lifestyle
Autoimmune Diseases are Skyrocketing • Root Causes and Triggers
Autoimmune diseases and lifestyle dis-eases have skyrocketed in the last decade. This includes diseases such as cancer, heart disease, autoimmune diseases, thyroid dysfunction and other hormone problems, chronic respiratory disorders, oral disease, diabetes, and mental illness.
What’s interesting about this shift is the research showing that the main contributors to autoimmune diseases and lifestyle diseases are caused by individual lifestyle choices, habits, diet, stress, altered microbiome, exposure to toxic chemicals, disrupted circadian rhythms, and environment.
Autoimmune diseases are at an all-time high and continue to increase. Autoimmune occurs when the immune system attacks healthy organs and tissue in the body. In other words, the immune system can no longer tell the difference between healthy tissue and harmful substances such as bacteria, viruses, and pathogens.
When your immune system is compromised—with not enough immunity or too much immunity—the basis of what’s happening is that the body can no longer recognize the difference between self and other.
The American Autoimmune Related Disease Association has classified more than 100 different autoimmune diseases. As of 2012, nearly 50 million Americans, 20% of the population or one in five people suffer from autoimmune diseases, and that number continues to climb.
75% of autoimmune sufferers are women, often affecting women between 20-50 years of age.
The number of people with autoimmune disease now surpasses those with heart disease! In fact, autoimmune conditions are one of the leading causes of death in young and middle-aged women, the second leading cause of chronic illness, and the third leading cause of Social Security disability (after heart disease and cancer).
Some of the most common autoimmune diseases
- Celiac disease
- Crohn’s disease
- Diabetes (type 1)
- Eczema, psoriasis and other skin disorder autoimmune disorders
- Fibromyalgia
- Food allergies
- Grave’s disease
- Hashimoto’s thyroiditis
- Inflammatory bowel disease
- Lupus
- Multiple sclerosis
- Sjogren’s syndrome
- Pernicious anemia (severe B12 deficiency)
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Scleroderma
- Vitiligo
Other disorders also thought to be related to autoimmune conditions are: autism, eating disorders, chronic fatigue syndrome, narcolepsy, and Lyme disease.
What to Do When the Immune System Weakens?
Allopathic practitioners are perplexed by the drastic increase in immune conditions like cancer, Lyme, and autoimmune conditions, which is leaving a lot of people frustrated, hopeless and confused.
Many are turning to natural methods, functional medicine and holistic nutrition, but not sure where to begin.
Why does the body begin to send antibodies to attack itself? With rheumatoid arthritis, the immune system attacks the joints; with Hashimoto’s and Graves, it attacks the thyroid; with MS it’s the nerves; with Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis and Celiac disease the immune system attacks the intestinal cells…
More and more researchers are looking to the gut/bowel/microbiome connection as the gatekeeper or as one of the first dominoes to fall as autoimmunity progresses. With 80% of the immune system residing in the gut, looking at GI function and healing the gut becomes a no-brainer.
It’s been my experience (as well as many of my colleagues), that if you fix the gut, the antibodies have a better chance of quieting down their expression.
“All disease starts in the gut.” ‒Hippocrates
Autoimmune Disease: Root Causes and Triggers
What’s causing the rise in autoimmune disease and other lifestyle diseases?
With every single autoimmune patient that I’ve personally worked over the years, 100% of them had at least 5 or more of the following:
- Chronic underlying infections. The infections most commonly associated with autoimmune disorders include:
— Fungi, yeast, Candida overgrowth, blastocystis and other parasite infections, Lyme, mycotoxins, H. pylori, dysbiotic bacteria such as citrobactor, pseudemonas, chlamydia, klebsiella, camphylobacter, SIBO and many others
— Viral infections including Epstein-Barr (EBV), CMV, hepatitis, HPV, herpes, and others
— Oral infections. Hidden infections in the mouth, teeth and jaw, mercury amalgams, gingivitis (bacterial gum inflammation), periodontitis (bacterial gum disease) and cavitations (bacterial infections in the jawbone following tooth extraction or root canals)
- Multiple nutrient deficiencies (specifically, protein, omega-3s, vitamin D, selenium, iodine, magnesium, zinc, B vitamins, vitamin A)
- Intestinal permeability aka leaky gut
- Heavy metal toxicity (lead, mercury, arsenic, aluminum, etc.)
- Environmental triggers: high toxic load, pesticides, GMOs, glyphosate, fluoride, 5G damage (EMF sensitivity), and toxic chemical accumulation
- Multiple food sensitivities
- Dietary problems (poor food choice, food sensitivities, non-organic foods, gluten, grains, dairy, sugar, soy… )
- Congested bile (gallbladder dysfunction), low levels of SCFAs such as butyrate, increased or decreased secretory IgA, congested liver
- Vitamin D receptor (VDR) dysfunction
- Hypochlorhydria (low stomach acid), malabsorption issues
- Low (or non-existent) levels of healthy gut flora, disrupted microbiome
- Disrupted circadian rhythms
- Breast implant illness
- Heavy metal toxicity (mercury, lead, aluminum, cadmium, arsenic…)
- Hormone imbalances such as increased OR decreased blood sugar, adrenal insufficiency, estrogen dominance
- Overuse of antibiotics, steroids, NSAIDs, OTC and Rx drugs
- Multiple vaccines. Autoimmunity Reviews and the EPMA Journal both reported that vaccinations are related to increased risks of lupus (SLE), MS, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and potentially even trigger a full-blown autoimmune disease.
- A study published in the journal Nature Immunology identified a subset of B cells that accumulate in autoimmune patients known as age-associated B Cells (ABCs). ABCs are not only associated with autoimmune disease, but actually drive it.
- Compounding episodes of stress and exhausted adrenals: unresolved soul wound, prior trauma/abuse emotional, mental, physical), relational problems, poor vagal tone, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), divorce, financial stress, loss of a loved one, psychological stress, etc., stress-induced PNI (psychoneuroimmunological) imbalances
- Inflammation due to food sensitivities, environmental toxins, poor diet, bacterial overgrowth, altered microbiome, probiotic deficiencies, essential fatty acids, omega-3s and other nutrient deficiencies, partially digested proteins, disrupted circadian rhythms, excessive use of antibiotics, NSAIDs and other drugs, chronic electrosmog, 5G EMF and EMR exposure, psychological stress… the list goes on and on.
With any autoimmune disease or any other health challenge for that matter, the condition does not just pop up overnight . . . the process starts years, if not decades earlier.
For healing, reversal and restoration to occur, many spokes of an individual’s ‘health wheel’ must be factored into the health equation. This requires peeling away the various layers of the onion. You can never get healthy in the same environment you got sick.
Do genetics play a role in autoimmune disease?
Genetics can predispose someone to an autoimmune disease, however the genes that you have just mean that you’re vulnerable to an autoimmune condition or a particular disease – it does not mean you’re going to get the disease. It’s just a weak link in your chain. Gene expression is controlled by epigenetic regulation, and strongly influenced by the food we eat, our emotions, lifestyle habits, behavior, thoughts, circadian rhythm, toxic load, microbiome, and several environmental factors.
Many people are hyper-focused on genetics and methylation, yet they don’t even have the fundamentals in place. It’s important to build a strong foundation first!
Support the body, mind and spirit as a whole with the Paula Principles
If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with an autoimmune condition or suffers from an unresponsive chronic health challenge, it’s crucial to dig deeper and this means…
- The individual must be ready and willing to do what it takes, make a commitment to self, and follow through
- Identify the underlying root cause(s)
- Use food as medicine
- Targeted nutritional therapy to support one’s unique biochemistry
- Heal and seal the gut
- Breathing exercises
- Balance hormones
- Rule out toxic metals, viral infections, Lyme, mold toxicity, underlying infections, and food sensitivities
- Address toxic load from toxic chemicals, toxic emotions, poisonous thought patterns, toxic relationships, electrosmog and dirty electromagnetic frequencies (EMFs)
- Treat addictions (screen time, smart phones, alcohol, food, drugs, exercise, outdated behaviors and destructive patterns)
- Address lifestyle, habits and environmental triggers (WiFi, 5G damage, blue light at night, daily sunshine, sleep hygiene and sleep quality, breathing, vagal tone, water and air quality, etc.)
- Remove offending triggers and replace with healthier habits to support a healthy lifestyle
- Explore alternative therapies such as chiropractic, acupuncture, counseling, cold water immersion, hyperbaric oxygen, and hydrotherapy to name a few
- Test to assess, don’t guess! Lab work to include blood work and a functional blood chemistry analysis to detect imbalances at the cellular level. Other valuable lab tests may include a comprehensive DNA stool test, organic acid test (OAT), the DUTCH Complete, and the NutrEval FMV with Nutrient & Toxic Elements.
Any other treatment is just symptom suppression.
The choices we make each day affect our health. Instead of a danger being “out there,” we have the opportunity every day to nourish our body, mind and soul, and make better lifestyle choices.
Are you ready to invest in your health in order to heal, take responsibility for your choices, and willing to do things differently to get your health back?
A key question that must be answered when I start with a new chronic illness client/patient is: how willing are you to do what it takes to get better once I create a strategy for you? People quickly get the idea that getting healthy is up to them.
In order to be happy and healthy requires a fundamental paradigm shift. The way you think, beliefs about who you are, your behavior and values, what’s important to you, your priorities, and what motivates you all must be challenged.
Most lifestyle dis-eases, autoimmune disorders, health challenges and imbalances can be reversed. The body has an innate ability to heal itself. It takes a plan, an open mind, faith, valuing self, compliance, and a lot of hard work.
Getting healthy isn’t just about what you do, the vitamins you take and the food you eat, it is about changing how you think, your mindset, your behaviors, priorities, your environment and lifestyle.