Feeling healthy isn’t just about absence of disease; it is about being free to live the life you choose and deserve, it is about allowing your body and mind to be happier and healthier, and it is about thriving and achieving optimal health, for today and the future.
Functional Medicine:
FM is a relatively new, fresh way of thinking about health.
We call is the “Medicine of Why”. It seeks to answer the question, “Why are you ill? It’s a personalised, holistic approach focused on identifying the root cause of disease.
Functional doctors work with their patients to determine how and why illness occurs and then aim to restore health by treating the root cause of health issues and not just address the symptoms.
This approach acknowledges the complexity of disease and individualizes treatment based on the patient’s needs. Functional doctors will help the patient understand the unique genetic, biochemical, and lifestyle factors that influence their health.
Essentially, functional medicine is an individualized, patient-centered, and science-based approach to treating disease and promoting optimal health.
The ultimate goal is to heal disease and promote a healthy life.
Autoimmune Disease:
There has been a dramatic increase of autoimmune diseases worldwide since 19391. There are more than 80 disorders2 that are recognised as being autoimmune. Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), Hashimoto’s Disease, Grave’s Disease, ,Lupus, Celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, Type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease and psoriasis are amongst some of the most common conditions.
Recent reporting found that while autoimmune diseases are more prevalent among females, they may also disproportionately impact specific racial groups. To compound the potential prevalence of autoimmunity, studies indicate that over eight million additional people have autoantibodies that may indicate future development of an autoimmune disease.5
Autoimmune disease occurs when the body’s natural immune system mistakenly identifies your own cells as a foreign pathogen and mounts an attack. Normally the immune system is able to identify pathogens, bacteria and viruses, and selective destroy them.
When the selectivity of the immune system is unable to identify the difference between foreign cells and your own cells an autoimmune condition can develop. The fact that almost any cell in the body can be incorrectly identified as pathogen shows why there are so many varied autoimmune conditions and why they so prevalent.
Within the United Kingdom new cases of certain conditions are rising as much as 9% each year. There are roughly 4 million people in the UK that are currently known to be suffering with an autoimmune disease: 400000 with type 1 diabetes, 100000 living with Multiple Schelorosis, 400000 with rheumatoid arthritis and over 2 million people with hypothyroidism3.
Functional Approach to Autoimmune Disease:
A functional medicine doctor treats autoimmune disease differently than conventional medicine. The traditional/conventional medicine tends to focus on stopping attacks and managing symptoms.
This may be accomplished by using pharmaceutical drugs to depress the immune system, reduce inflammation, or alleviate other symptoms. This is necessary and can provide much needed relief to patients.
However, these treatments are focused on stopping attacks in progress and relieving the symptoms of the attack. While this can help patients, if you want restore true health, then you need to figure out WHY the immune system went from functioning normally to attacking your body.
FM looks at the root cause of the inflammation and asks why that inflammation exists. There are several common things that trigger autoimmune conditions (regardless of which condition you may have). It may be easier than you think to discover which ones may be making you feel so bad.
If we can identify the underlying sources of inflammation, we can heal the body.
The underlying causes may include genetic predisposition, leaky gut, food allergies or sensitivities, nutrient deficiencies, toxic exposure, stress and hidden infections.
Causes of Autoimmune Disease.
A Genetic predisposition.
Individuals may express certain genetic variation that can predispose that person to autoimmunity, this explains why certain autoimmune disorders and disease have tendencies to run in a family. However, genes by themselves are not enough to produce the disease. There are other factors that need to be present, some of which are mentioned below.
Intestinal Permeability or “leaky gut”.
Roughly three quarters of your immune system is found within your gut. It therefore follows that any problem with your gut will inevitably have an effect upon your immune system.
One very common issue with autoimmunity is when the gut lining becomes more permeable than it should. When the junctions between cells within the small intestine become ‘leaky’.
Pathogens, toxins and proteins that are meant to stay within the intestinal tract are able to pass into the body causing the immune system to react. It can also prevent the absorption of essential vitamins and minerals.
If the immune system is constantly being stimulated like this over time it is likely to loss its specificity and sensitivity.
This can cause inflammation within the body which, in turn, can result in autoimmune disease
Food Sensitivities.
When the gut lining is unhealthy, people may develop sensitivities to foods. These foods can then perpetuate chronic inflammation. Food trigger will vary person to person and will be different depending on the autoimmune disorder involved.
Gluten, as an example, along with a leaky gut can cause an increase in gut permeability exasperating the problem further.
Diet.
Certain foodstuffs such as sugar, grains and highly processed foods can cause inflammation within the body. If excessive inflammation occurs the ‘normal functioning of the immune system can be severely compromised.
Nutrient Deficiencies.
Our bodies are complex machines. When it does not have the proper amount of key nutrients as fuel, it cannot function properly. Many vitamins and nutrients that play a role in immune dysfunction, including vitamins A, D, and K as well as Omega 3s, Iron, Zinc, Magnesium, and Selenium.
But before you head out and get all, you need to know what you personally are deficient in. We can test to see which nutrients are below the optimal level and then suggest ways to increase them.
Environment.
Toxicity is another problem in today’s world and toxins in our environment and our bodies are on the increase. We are exposed to toxins in the air we breathe, water we drink, and on the foods that we eat.
Airborne pollutants, pesticides, mycotoxins from moulds, heavy metals like lead, cadmium in cigarette smoke and mercury in amalgam fillings and some fish can all have damaging effects and even alter the body on the cellular level.
These changes can occur to such an extent that the immune system does not recognise these cells and automatically attacks them.
Stress.
Chronic stress can cause widespread inflammation by causing suppression of the immune system. People that suffer from autoimmune diseases often notice that their symptoms tend to flare up whilst under high stress. Daily, non-negotiable self-care is paramount
Infections.
Undiagnosed bacterial and viral infections are also a common cause. Chlamydia pneumoniae has links to Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson, Proteus Mirabilis with Rheumatoid Arthritis and Epstein Barr Virus and Yersinia with Hashimoto’s disease to name a few.
Throughout your life, you’ve been exposed to a variety of viral infections including, the flu, chickenpox, HPV (human papillomavirus), and mononucleosis, to name a few. Once contracted, they can stay with you for the rest of your life, going in and out of dormant states.
Some people are simply better able to tolerate the low-level viruses than others. If you’re a person who is not able to tolerate the viruses, or if your immune system is otherwise compromised, it can trigger the hyperimmune state that leads to autoimmune dysfunction.
Functional Medicine Approach to Autoimmune disease.
Conventional medical treatment of an autoimmune disease seeks to manage the symptoms of the disorder. Pharmaceutical drugs are prescribed to suppress the autoimmune response, reduce inflammation and alleviate further symptoms.
Although medications can help the patient, they do not treat the cause. If you want to restore true health then the root cause of the disorder has to be figured out. What caused the immune system to ‘suddenly’ attack the body? What caused the body to go into this state of abnormal hyper immunity? This is the focus of Functional Medicine.
Functional Medicine does not focus on the treatment of the symptoms of the disease, it is instead concerned with the underlying cause of the disease. Once the body functions properly, after addressing these causes, symptoms diminish and illness is no longer present.
Regarding autoimmune disease the goal is to fix the function of the immune system. So, we have to identify and correct those reasons for the dysfunction.
Being unique individuals, the approach taken will differ for every patient. However, the first step is always to take an accurate and detailed health history. What is learnt from the patient’s history will point the practitioner in the direction of the type of specific testing required to find the root cause of the problem.
Once testing is completed, a multifaceted approach is used to correct the problems that have been found. Dietary adjustments, lifestyle changes and nutraceutical supplementation are all used to aid in this correction allowing the body to get better.
Conventional treatment focuses on having to ‘live with’ the disorder whilst being focused on symptom relief. Functional medicine offers an alternative to the suppression of symptoms, by the logical step of addressing the underlying mechanisms that cause the autoimmune disorder so we can prevent and, in some cases, reverse the autoimmune disorder.
If you have a family history of autoimmune disease, have elevated autoantibodies without signs of disease, or have been diagnosed with autoimmune disease, there is a lot you can do to improve your health. Delve into which of the above causes could be out of balance in your body and work to get it back on track.
Find a Functional Medicine doctor in your area so that you have comprehensive support through this process to find the optimal health you’ve been looking for, and soon your life will be back in balance.
