Nutritional Support for Auto-Immune conditions

I wanted to post a basic suggestion for those struggling with auto-immune disease. These disorders are un-relenting and devastating to people's health. I frequently get asked to give advice on this topic and I wanted to make a few basic points available to all. (Reminder this is my personal opinion and the intent is education not diagnosis or cure of any condition, if you have an auto-immune condition please follow the advice of your physician) Disclaimer out of the way, there are a few basic things I do in my clinic to help curb and control the symptoms associated with many auto-immune diseases. At the heart of the disease one must realize no matter what tissue affected, it is an attack of the immune system and things that help settle the Immune system can be helpful.

THE BASICS:

Step: 1 Get healthy

Basic health is vital to achieving wellness of any degree, so I typically test my patient's blood work and assess core metabolic functions. Do you have normal blood sugar? Cholesterol? Iron levels? Do you have any deficiencies? Active infections? If yes priority one is getting those issues in check. You can't expect to help improve your condition if you are an out of control diabetic or anemic. So we improve diet to get a healthy core functioning metabolism. This is critical step one.

Note: through blood work testing, I frequently find my auto-immune patients severely deficient in Vitamin D, This is important because Vitamin D is essential for immune system balance.

Step: 2 Cleanse

Now that your basic health is sound, normal blood sugar, normal iron levels, naturally low cholesterol from diet, adequate levels of minerals and Vitamin's esp. D, we move on to nutritionally supporting the immune system.
(How do you know if your levels are normal? You get a thorough blood work assessment)
The best way I know of to calm and balance the immune system is cleansing. There are many types of cleanses and these should not be performed without the supervision of a knowledgeable physician.
(I have had good success with the clearvit cleanse from Apex energetics)

Note: sometimes it can take several cleanses to get maximum result, I recommend with my patients that we cleanse then take a 2-3 wk break and cleanse again if necessary. Though in some severe cases this had to be modified. Again this should be supervised by a physician familiar with cleansing as to guide you through the process. Also in some cases the cleanse must be modified based on your specific health concerns and this is another reason why it is vital that you do this supervised.

Step: 3 Immune system supporting supplements

The most basic supporting nutrient for this are Vitamin D and Glutathione. Again a physician trained in nutrition (functional nutrition)
Can best guide you on the doses?
Vitamin D
Your Vitamin D dose should be based off the blood work assessment and will require follow up as Vitamin D is one of the fat soluble vitamins and can build up in the system. I prefer my patients to have a Vitamin D level of around 50 (Esp. if they have a known auto-immune disease)
Glutathione
I typically recommend Glutathione cream (oxi-cell from Apex)
Glutathione can help mediate your auto-immune system but again the dose should be suggested by your Physician/Chiropractor/nutritionist.
I like that it's a topical because patients can put it on the area that hurts. In cases of MS, poly-myalgia and Rheumatoid this is especially helpful. This is not an instant fix supplement you have to use it consistently over time to achieve your result.
Step 4: Diet modification
I find my patients do much better with their conditions on a "CLEAN" diet. That is a low inflammatory, lower in carbohydrates and slightly richer in protein diet avoiding refined foods. Also, knowing that the auto-immune disease is diseases of the immune system, eating foods that you are sensitive to will drive up the immune system in turn increase the attack. So knowing what you're sensitive to is vital. You can blood test for food sensitivities (I use ALCAT) but in many cases if you cleanse correctly and have supervision most of the significant food sensitivities can be weeded out. Also I have my patient s avoid gluten. Even if I have tested my patient for them and the test came back negative for gluten antibodies.


From here things get more complicated, but this is a good basic overview of nutritional support for these conditions. For more information on me and my clinic you can check out http://www.coralvillenutrition.com

Yours in Health,

Adam Introna, D.C. C.C.E.P
Coralville Chiropractic