Total Body Burden
Autoimmune disease is becoming very common these days. The treatment and cost are greater than cancer, heart disease, and diabetes combined. It is also one of the top 10 causes of death in women under the age of 64.
Food, infections, gut health, hormone balance, toxins and stress are all factors in the development of autoimmune disease.
What is your total body burden? Imagine your body is a bucket. In most cases our immune system can handle a normal everyday invasion. But as you fill that bucket with processed foods, infections, metals, plastics and stress, the bucket is full and will start to overflow. Your body is so overwhelmed it can no longer detoxify, and therefore your gut will start leaking these toxins into your body. Our immune system gets very confused and starts attacking our healthy cells. My total body burden has taken awhile to figure out and in fact I am still putting the puzzle together. I do know the following thanks to the wonderful Integrative Doctors I have worked with. Hormones, thyroid, candida, low vitamin D and more and co-infections, such as Lyme and Babesia are a few of my culprits. I am also realizing how stress is a major contributor in the condition. I am currently in the process of removing all of my amalgam dental fillings and replacing my metal crowns. I will be checking into the most holistic route to take for two old root canals as well since my dentist detected an abscess in that area.
If you’ve read other posts of mine, you’ll know that I believe that the food we eat is another huge factor in our health. When I was a kid, every day after school or my nighttime snack was a bowl of cereal with cows’ milk. My favorites being “Life” (Mikey likes it) and “frosted flakes”. My autoimmune disease did not happen overnight. In fact, it has probably been years of this toxic burden and finally it had enough. I truly believe what made my bucket overflow was my years on birth control pills and then the so-called straw that broke my immune system was the NuVaRing. This was a convenient way for birth control, and I was told by the Dr’s what a great and safe way to do it. I was no longer having anymore children and my husband was not ready to get a vasectomy. You insert this plastic ring for 3 weeks and then remove for 1 week. Then you just insert a new one and it is forgotten…. easy peasy right? Not only did I have a piece of plastic in my body, but I had synthetic hormones tricking my body into thinking it was pregnant. What is natural about that? Autoimmune disease has risen dramatically after the birth control pill was first introduced. The gender ratio has also skewed dramatically since the Pill was introduced. Twice as many women than men were diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in 1940. By 2000, four out of five MS patients were women. That’s a 50 percent increase over each decade since the Pill was introduced, according to Mike Gaskins, author of “In the Name of the Pill”.
Healing will not be accomplished overnight. It depends on so many things. I believe I have permanent damage because my Nurse Practitioner was not equipped to deal with the root causes of my autoimmune condition and do the proper testing to get a diagnosis. It takes time, money, and devotion to get better. Health is so important. You realize how important once you lose it. I understand if you are skeptical or discouraged. But I am living proof you can turn things around and live a very fulling life.
I am currently working with Functional doctor’s and continue to get further testing done. I am hopeful for more answers and more healing. The knowledge I am receiving and the confidence in wanting to help others is another reason to keep me fighting. I am now starting to help others through coaching. I can help others by putting all my success and failures into an autoimmune wellness coaching program. I am asked weekly about nutrition and undiagnosed illnesses by friends and people who have heard my story. My heart aches for the people who are struggling to live everyday with this awful disease. Our medical field only has one answer...drugs! There is hope and I will address different ways to help heal. You are worth the fight!