Have you come to the end of your rope with your autoimmune disease? You’ve seen countless doctors, only to be shuffled from one specialist to the next that just wants to put you on another medicine. Your list of medicines is outrageously long and, to be honest, offers little relief. Not to mention the side effects…and are they interacting with each other?? You feel like throwing in the towel! But don’t give up hope yet! There is healing from autoimmune diseases!
You’re ready for change but you feel lost and alone. No doctor that you know knows how to help you heal…truly heal. I’m here to tell you, you aren’t alone and I can help you. Start with the tips I’m recommending below.
If you prefer to watch, check out my YouTube video below.
Healing Autoimmune Disease
Your body is designed to heal and thrive! When given the proper environment and nutrients, your body has the innate ability to heal and function correctly, including healing autoimmune disease. Problems arise and your body can’t do what it naturally needs to do when the delicate balance of nutrients is depleted and your environment is putting too much strain on your nervous system.
The autonomic nervous system has two main parts, the sympathetic, aka fight or flight, and the parasympathetic, aka rest and digest. The sympathetic part of your nervous system requires much more nutrients to “fight off” the dangers. This can lead to nutrient depletion of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients. That in-turn can lead to dysregulation of other systems in the body such as your hormone levels.
Stress and Autoimmune Disease
There are lots of reasons nutrients get depleted or just aren’t there, but a huge reason is STRESS. This can be physical stress, emotional stress, or chemical stress. The types of physical stress could be from an accident, over-exercise/training, or poor diet. Emotional stress could be from a divorce, death of a loved one, worry about children’s choices, or job changes. And there are too many chemical stressors to list because we are constantly being exposed daily.
Think back to when you were diagnosed with your autoimmune disease (or if you haven’t been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, any diagnosis fits this criteria usually). What type of stressors or big life events happened within a year leading up to your first symptoms? Usually stress is to blame for tipping you over the edge into a disease state.
Until that stress is fully dealt with and resolved, healing from autoimmune disease is challenging for the body.
Healing from Stress
Like I said, stress can be coming from anywhere, and multiple places at once. Finding the root cause is important. Here are my top tips for changing the nutrients your getting and changing your environment.
Diet
Your diet can give you a double whammy by not providing enough nutrients to handle stress and also by being the cause of stress and inflammation. A processed food diet is depleted of nutrients and causes inflammation. Gluten grains and processed foods with gluten cause inflammation and can lead to worsening of autoimmune disease symptoms.
Start evaluating what you eat and incorporate fresh fruits and vegetables and avoid processed foods, especially those with gluten to heal from autoimmune disease.
Chill
Stress isn’t going to stop…it will always be there so you can’t change that. But what you can change is how you handle it. Your breath is a powerful tool to use when you feel life stressors taking their toll. Taking deep, slow belly breaths can change how your body perceives stress and can help you remain in the parasympathetic part of your nervous system.
Detox
Your body has pathways to get rid of toxins. You get rid of toxins through your sweat, breath, bowel movements and urine. Healing autoimmune disease takes making sure these pathways are working properly. Do this by eating plenty of fiber through fruits and vegetables, sweating through exercise most days each week, drinking enough water to urinate clear urine every 2-3 hours, and have a bowel movement everyday.
Toxins
You can help your detox pathways by decreasing the amount of toxins you’re exposed to. Change your household toxins from cleaning supplies and skincare routines to help heal autoimmune disease. Check out the Environmental Working Group’s website for recommendations on safe products.
And that’s it! Those are great places to start changing your environment and getting more nutrients to heal from autoimmune disease (or any diagnosis). I hope these tips help. Let me know what your favorite tip is or if you have another!
