John Arts Abundant Living www.johnarts.co.nz

Auto-immune diseases are sort of like transplant organ rejection in reverse. The only difference is that in transplant organ rejection the recipient's immune system attacks the new organ because it does not have the special cell markers that identify it as belonging to the person. In auto-immune disease, the immune system mistakes your own cells as something foreign and sets up an often permanent attack on its own cells.

One of the essential functions of our immune system is it can identify invaders such as a virus, as foreign. It does this by making antibodies that mark the invader as something that needs to be destroyed. Once marked, the heavy artillery such as T cells are called in to kill the invaders. In auto-immune disease, everything goes horribly wrong where auto-antibodies mark our own cells as foreign, launching an immune system attack on our own cells causing disease.

This is especially nasty, as this attack is characterised by a release of inflammatory chemicals called cytokines that not only inflame tissue, they cause a massive increase in free radical activity, further damaging cells. I guess this is a little like accidentally burning your hand then trying to heal it by putting it in boiling water, then dipping it in battery acid. Auto-immune disease is healing gone horribly wrong.

There are more than 80 identifiable auto-immune diseases including those that affect our connective tissue, such as Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupus (SLE). Others, such as Psoriasis, affect skin, while Crohn's disease affects the digestive system. The medical response to auto-immune disease generally involves various anti-inflammatory medications and, in some cases, immunosuppressants to control symptoms.

In most cases, nutritional therapy can be included alongside medical treatment. Of course, you should always seek advice before combining medicines with supplements. In general we would start by looking at fatty acid balance in the diet and then move to a range of antioxidants and co-factors that can help normalise the immune response. Likewise, we need to make sure trace mineral intake is optimised as these are responsible for antioxidant enzymes to help reduce the free radical damage almost always associated with prolonged inflammation. If you do suffer auto-immune disease, it is worth considering a nutritional support programme as it just may make a difference.

John Arts is the founder of Abundant Health. If you have questions or would like a free health plan phone 07 578 9051 or 0800 423 559 email john@johnarts.co.nz or for more product information visit www.abundant.co.nz
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