The topic of auto-immunity and its relation to gut-health is important to cover because there is very little information provided by general practitioners in regards to dietary interventions that can be taken to manage autoimmune conditions.
What is autoimmunity?
Autoimmune diseases are facilitated by a heightened immune response and
systemic inflammation, resulting in your body attacking its own tissues. Symptoms can include pain, swelling, fatigue, and disability as your immune system sees your own tissue as a foreign invader, and directs an attack on your normal tissue like your joints, brain, gut tissue and skin.
What cascades auto-immune diseases?
While the health of your gut is a major contributing factor, there are many factors that influence the development of autoimmune conditions.
SOME SPECIFIC EXAMPLES:
- Food allergies and sensitivities (common ones include wheat/gluten, dairy, eggs and soy).
- Overconsumption of raw, lectin-containing foods (such as grains, nuts and seeds)
- Bacterial imbalances (such as candida overgrowth and lack of beneficial bacteria)
- Prescription medications (including the BC pill)
- The use of antibiotics
- Low stomach acid
- Inefficient digestive enzymes
- Poor diet
- Excess alcohol consumption
One of these alone is unlikely to trigger a full-blown autoimmune condition. It is likely that these generate a ‘barrel-effect’ in which your immune system is overwhelmed and your barrel ‘spills over’ so-to-speak, at which point, symptoms appear. With that being said, I want to educate people on the role gut-health has on the development of autoimmunity.
Poor immune function and gut-health
Roughly 80% of your immune system is in the gut and is regulated by the health of your microbiome, which is the collection of good and bad bacteria that reside in us.
One of the best ways to ensure a healthy immune system is to ensure the health of our gut and our digestive system.
You should start to think of the gut as being the barrier that protects us from the outside world.
Within the digestive tract, we have our ‘gut-associated immune system’, which is designed to allow proper and completely digested food particles, such as amino acids, fatty acids and simple sugars to pass unhindered through the gut wall into the body while preventing unwanted or harmful materials from passing through.
When we load our gut with food, drink, medications and chemicals from the outside world several times a day, our gut’s intestinal cells become inflamed. This causes the integrity of our defence system to suffer and allows and unwanted substances such as undigested food particles to make their way into the bloodstream. This is what is termed “leaky gut” or increased intestinal permeability, and triggers an immune reaction, eventually resulting in allergies and autoimmunity. *
Once the integrity of our intestinal lining becomes compromised, and foods and toxins enter our bloodstream that should not be there, our immune system becomes hyperactive signals an attack.
Fortunately, there are dietary and lifestyle interventions you can take to identify your dietary triggers and begin to health the digestive system.
In my Digestive Healing Guide to Managing Autoimmunity, I give you specific guidelines to help improve your health and immune function from a holistic perspective.
The guide includes:
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- 4 step process of healing the gut
- Healing the gut with nutrition
- What foods to avoid when restoring digestive health
- What foods to include when restoring digestive health
- Foods and supplements that heal the gut
- Foods and supplements that reduce inflammation
- Remedies for natural immune enhancement
- Herbal
- Supplemental
- Lifestyle
- 14-day autoimmune balancing meal plan
- Full recipes, pictures, and instructions included
- Includes a grocery guide for each meal plan
- Includes nutritional information for each meal
BENEFITS INCLUDED IN THIS PROTOCOL:
- Restores Gut Integrity
- Boosts Beneficial Gut Bacteria
- Helps You Learn More About Your Body
- Identifies Foods that Trigger Symptoms
- Rich in Nutrient-Dense, Healthy Foods
- Can Help Reduce Inflammation
- May Decrease Symptoms of Autoimmune Conditions
If you suffer from autoimmune conditions such as Colitis, Crohn’s, Rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, Celiac Disease, Psoriasis, Lupus, Type 1 Diabetes or Raynaud’s disease, you will find this protocol to be of great benefit.
For an instant-download of The Digestive Healing Guide to Managing Autoimmunity, CLICK HERE and use the code Royally20 to receive 20% off (deal ends July 4th)
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Marissa Liana is a Certified Nutritional Practitioner and Health Coach who is passionate about helping men and women solve their digestive issues with evidence based research and practical lifestyle techniques. She has created a series of wellness ebooks and works with clients one-on-one to educate and develop nutrition and lifestyle protocols to help clients establish wellness, vitality and balance for the rest of their lives! Follow her on Instagram HERE
