A conversation must be had about some disease labels.
For example are we inadvertently creating fear when diagnosing a person with an "autoimmune" condition?
Autoimmune has been defined as an abnormal immune response to normal body tissue. If our innate body defence system has turned against us, how can we feel safe?
Imagine your body attacking its own healthy cells! Or don’t - please. Thoughts matter.
Fear can be debilitating. While it may quickly mobilize constructive action in some, it can be crippling to others.
Feeling scared triggers a stress response in the body. It prepares us to fight or flee. Feeling unsafe but stuck long-term is not conducive to health and well being. It will break down lean muscle tissue and drain us of energy and vitality.
Although I may sound knowledgeable explaining the mechanisms and statistics of “autoimmune” conditions, referencing all my facts with current scientific research, I have become increasingly uncomfortable doing so.
The body has an incredible capacity to heal itself. Given the right building blocks, it can generate a vast array of medicinal substances that can repair any damage from within.
I have written about my own thyroid diagnosis and self-healing, as published here in Vitality magazine. Never did it occur to me that I had an “autoimmune” condition. Sadly, had autoimmune been the meme at the time I became ill, it may have become part of my own story. I may have felt disempowered.
Another thought to ponder: Is the immune system really attacking normal body tissue?
Credible research shows that viruses and bacteria may be the underlying cause of many thyroid, and other so-called "autoimmune" conditions. Therefore, what the body may really be attacking are microbes that have become lodged in that tissue. Clearly, this is not the body mistakenly attacking itself. The immune system is doing exactly what it was designed to do – get rid of harmful microbes.
Interestingly enough, these microbes can be dormant unless reactivated by stress hormones.
But once again, fear not. Reactivating them may just present an opportunity to purge them once and for all. Getting tested for Epstein-Barr and yersinia enterocolitica viruses; streptococcus, H Pylori and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth; or fungal infections, may shed some light.
Healing the gut to prevent absorption of particles the immune system considers foreign, and promoting a diverse and healthy array of gut microbes, that will naturally eradicate the bad bugs, will then become the objective. Asking the right questions, from the right sources, will facilitate healing from within.
Knowledge is power. Fear not. There is always hope. Recovery and healing become entirely possible in "rest and relax" mode.
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