John Arts Abundant Living www.johnarts.co.nz

In March 2008 The Washington Post ran an article titled 'The Autoimmune Epidemic” by respected researcher Donna Nakazawa.

She said rates of autoimmune diseases are rapidly increasing. In The USA, the rates of most autoimmune diseases have tripled in the past three decades. There are over 100 autoimmune diseases and the among the more common are rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, lupus, MS, CFS and related fibromyalgia and polymyalgia rheumatica – which now seems to have risen to plague-like rates in our over-70 population.

There are many theories on the escalating levels and concerns have been raised about environmental pollutants and the 'hygiene hypothesis” which blames our obsession with low bacterial exposure to children for not allowing immune system development. Nakazawa quotes Douglas Kerr from John Hopkins MS Centre: 'Exposures from our environment are a significant contributor to today's rising rates”.

My view is that there are multiple reasons for the increase and these clearly include environmental and immune factors. I also think nutrition plays a huge role. Low levels of Vitamin D are linked to MS and many experts link Vitamin D with autoimmune disease in general.

Autoimmune diseases always cause an increase in oxidative stress- a situation where the amount of free radicals exceeds the capability of our antioxidant defences. Of special importance are selenium, copper, zinc and manganese which are needed to make our most powerful antioxidant enzymes such as glutathione and super oxide dismutase.

The other area of dietary concern is the types of fats in our diets. Most autoimmune diseases are characterised by greatly raised levels of immune system-generated inflammation. Those with autoimmune disease should be careful to avoid anti-inflammatory fats- especially most polyunsaturated vegetable oils, while maintaining good levels of the anti-inflammatory fats including those high in Omega 3 and those high in monounsaturated fats.

This year alone I have created over a 100 personalised nutrient programmes for those with autoimmune disease and people are often surprised at the levels of improvement once we address the nutritional issues that have either caused or supported the disease process. If you suffer from autoimmune disease you should seek and follow medical advice, but do not overlook the benefits of nutritional therapy.

John Arts is the founder of Abundant Health. For product information visit www.abundant.co.nz If you have questions or would like a free health plan you can contact John at john@johnarts.co.nz or phone 07 578 9051 or 0800 423 559. You can join his newsletter at www.johnarts.co.nz Read more from John at www.sunlive.co.nz