Life Source Healing Center

                             Dr. Becky L. Laird DC

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Inflammation is a “hot” topic in medicine.

It appears connected to almost every known chronic disease—from heart disease to cancer, diabetes to obesity, autism to dementia, and even depression.

Other inflammatory diseases such as allergies, asthma, arthritis, and autoimmune disease are increasing at dramatic rates. As physicians we are trained to shut off inflammation with aspirin, anti-inflammatory medication such as Advil or Motrin, steroids, and increasingly more powerful immune suppressing medication with serious side effects.

But we are not trained to find and treat the underlying causes of inflammation in chronic disease. Hidden allergens, infections, environmental toxins, an inflammatory diet, and stress are the real causes of these inflammatory conditions.

Autoimmune diseases, specifically, now affect 24 million people and include rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, thyroid disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and more.

These are often addressed by powerful immune suppressing medication and not by addressing the cause. That’s like taking a lot of aspirin while you are standing on a tack. The treatment is not more aspirin or a strong immune suppressant, but removing the tack.

If you want to cool off inflammation in the body, you must find the source. Treat the fire, not the smoke. In medicine we are mostly taught to diagnose disease by symptoms, not by their underlying cause.

Functional medicine, the emerging 21st century paradigm of systems medicine, teaches us to treat the cause, not only the symptoms, to ask the question why are you sick, not only what disease do you have.

I recently participated in a group discussion with a conventional doctor, a rheumatologist, and patient with an autoimmune disease, and one of my patients who was cured of a complex autoimmune disease by addressing the causes.

The focus of the other doctors, however, was on how to suppress the inflammation with medication, not finding and treating the cause. Functional medicine is a different way of thinking about disease that helps us understand and treat the real causes of inflammation instead of finding clever ways to shut it down. Medicine as it is practiced today is like taking the battery out of a smoke detector while a fire burns down your house!

Autoimmune conditions are connected by one central biochemical process: A runaway immune response also known as systemic inflammation that results in your body attacking its own tissues.

When my patient described how he cured his autoimmune disease by finding and eliminating the causes of inflammation in his diet and environment, it was dismissed as a “spontaneous remission.” In the face of a paradigm-shattering medical case, these doctors were hardly curious and quickly dismissive, describing what was shared as anecdotal.

My patient on that panel, a hard-working 46-year old father of three, was once so inflamed he could barely function. By treating the underlying causes of his inflammation he is now in vibrant good health, enjoying his life with his kids and fully capable of caring for them.

Stories like these (and the many others I have shared in my blogs, books, and on television) are not anecdotes but a giant compass pointing us in the direction we should be looking to find answers to our health problems.

In today’s blog, I will explain what autoimmunity is, how inflammation spirals out of control, describe some of the underlying causes for these fires in the body, and provide you with nine steps to cool the fires of inflammation and overcome conditions that range from allergies to arthritis and more.

Autoimmunity: What it is and How it Occurs

We are facing an epidemic of allergic (60 million people), asthmatic (30 million people), and autoimmune disorders (24 million people). Autoimmune diseases include rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, celiac disease, thyroid disease, and the many other hard-to-classify syndromes in the 21st century.

These are all autoimmune conditions, and at their root they are connected by one central biochemical process: A runaway immune response also known as systemic inflammation that results in your body attacking its own tissues.

Your immune system is your defense against invaders. It is your internal army and has to clearly distinguish friend from foe—to know you from others. Autoimmunity occurs when your immune system gets confused and your own tissues get caught in friendly cross-fire.

Your body is fighting something—an infection, a toxin, an allergen, a food or the stress response—and somehow it redirects its hostile attack on your joints, your brain, your thyroid, your gut, your skin, or sometimes your whole body.

This immune confusion results from what is referred to as molecular mimicry. Conventional approaches don’t have a method for finding the insult causing the problem. Functional medicine provides a map to find out which molecule the cells are mimicking.

Interestingly, autoimmune disorders occur almost exclusively in developed countries. People in poor nations without modern amenities like running water, flush toilets, washing machines, and sterile backyards don’t get these diseases.

If you grew up on a farm with lots of animals, you are also less likely to have any of these inflammatory disorders. Playing in the dirt, being dirty, and being exposed to bugs and infections trains your immune system to recognize what is foreign and what is “you.”

In this country, autoimmune diseases, when taken all together, are a huge health burden. They are the eighth leading cause of death among women, shortening the average patient’s lifespan by eight years. The annual health care cost for autoimmune diseases is $120 billion a year representing nearly twice the economic health care burden of cancer (about $ 70 billion a year). (i)

Unfortunately, many of the conventional treatments available can make you feel worse. Anti-inflammatory drugs like Advil, steroids, immune suppressants like methotrexate, and the new TNF-alpha blockers like Enbrel or Remicade can lead to intestinal bleeding, kidney failure, depression, psychosis, osteoporosis, muscle loss, and diabetes, not to mention overwhelming infection and cancer.(ii)

When used selectively these drugs can help people get their lives back. But they are not a long-term solution. They shouldn’t be the end of treatment, but a bridge to cool off inflammation while we treat the root cause of the disease.

There is another way to deal with autoimmune conditions. Let me share the same story I told the doctors on that panel.

Recovering from Autoimmunity: Addressing the Root Causes of Inflammation

My patient Sam ended up on a long misadventure through the medical system before he came to see me. For years he went from doctor to doctor getting all kinds of labels for his problems but no real help in treating them.

This hard-working, once healthy trade professional had suddenly developed a series of inflammatory conditions including chronic sinus and prostate infections. Many doctors gave him many antibiotics for these infections.

Shortly thereafter, he developed severe chest pains and went to the emergency room. While he was there, doctors found swollen lymph nodes and told him he had lymphoma, a form of cancer. For three weeks he lived in despair until the biopsy results came back. It turned out he didn’t have cancer but an autoimmune disease. Which autoimmune disease? The doctors weren’t quite sure…

He had many abnormal blood test results—like low white blood cell and platelet counts, high levels of auto-antibodies of all types (antibodies that attack our own tissues), high immunoglobulins (the foot soldiers of the immune system), and autoimmune thyroid disease. But doctors had a hard time putting their finger on what was wrong. They couldn’t label him.

Meanwhile, Sam developed metabolic syndrome and weight gain (pre-diabetes) as a result of the runaway inflammation in his body.

Here is a quote from one his specialist’s notes:

“Whether he has lupus or Sjogren’s syndrome is a bit unclear. Regardless, he merely needs observation and no therapeutic intervention at this time.”

This unfortunately is all too common. What exactly did they plan to observe, how bad he felt? Or would they just wait for him to get worse before intervening?

That’s when he came to me. Using a functional medicine approach, a new way of thinking about the underlying causes and imbalances in chronic disease, I began by asking Sam some simple questions. Then I went hunting for toxins, allergens, and infections—all common causes of inflammation—and found the real causes of his symptoms.

He had taken so many antibiotics that altered his gut flora or bacteria and promoted yeast overgrowth. Fungus and yeast flourished in his body, growing between his toes, on his toenails, in his crotch, and scalp. He had Helicobacter pylori bacteria in his gut. He had a leaky gut and reacted to many foods, including dairy and gluten. He was exposed to toxins at his job and had high levels of mercury. And he had chronic sinus infections.

So we went to work cleaning house. I treated his yeast with anti-fungals and the H. pylori with antibiotics, got rid of his food allergies, fixed his gut, detoxified him from metals and cleaned up his sinuses.

Then I helped heal his immune system by supporting it with nutrients. I gave him zinc, fish oil, vitamin D, herbs, and probiotics, and put him on a clean, whole-foods, allergen-free, anti-inflammatory diet.

At his next follow-up visit, I asked Sam how he was doing, expecting him to say that he felt a little better. However, his response surprised even me. He said he felt fine.

“What about the fatigue?” I asked.

“I have great energy.”

“What about the bloating and gas?”

“Nope.”

“What about the reflux?”

“Gone.”

“What about your sinuses and chronic phlegm?”

“All clear.”

“What about your memory and concentration problems?”

“All better.”

And he lost 15 pounds.

When his labs came in, they confirmed what he told me—they were all back to normal. His white cells increased and his immune markers calmed way down.

Sam’s results simply reflect the application of a new model of thinking about problems called functional medicine—it’s a way to get to the root of health problems and treat the underlying causes of what ails you instead of suppressing symptoms with medications.

If you have an autoimmune disease, here is what you need to think about and do.

Nine Steps to Treating Autoimmune Disease

1. Check for hidden infections—yeast, viruses, bacteria, Lyme, etc.—with the help of a doctor, and treat them.
2. Check for hidden food allergens with IgG food testing or just try The UltraSimple Diet, which is designed to eliminate most food allergens.
3. Get tested for celiac disease, which is a blood test that any doctor can do.
4. Get checked for heavy metal toxicity. Mercury and other metals can cause autoimmunity.
5. Fix your gut. Leaky gut.
6. Use nutrients such as fish oil, vitamin C, vitamin D, and probiotics to help calm your immune response naturally.
7. Exercise regularly—it’s a natural anti-inflammatory.
8. Practice deep relaxation like yoga, deep breathing, or massage, because stress worsens the immune response.
9. Tell your doctor about Functional Medicine and encourage him or her to get trained—go to functionalmedicine.org for more information and to get a copy of the Textbook for Functional Medicine.

Give these steps a try—and see if you don’t start feeling less inflamed. As I said earlier, the answers are right in front of you. Treat the underlying causes of your illness and you will begin to experience vibrant health once more.

Now I’d like to hear from you…

Have you been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease?

How is your doctor treating you?

Have you been frustrated by the medical advice that you’ve been given?

What steps have you taken to get to the root of the problem, and what have your results been?

Please leave your thoughts by adding a comment below—but remember, we can’t offer personal medical advice online, so be sure to limit your comments to those about taking back our health!

Dr. Mark Hyman MD

What is the big deal about Gluten?

So many of us have started hearing a lot about going gluten free and wonder is it just a fad or does it really make a difference in our health. We wonder, should I go to the trouble of trying to go off gluten and how do I know if I have a problem with gluten? Well gluten is not bad but bad gluten is bad. The gluten in wheat, rye and barley is bad. The best research authorities in the world state that “ No One “ can digest bad gluten. We can break it down into small pieces but not small enough pieces to where it doesn’t cause inflammation in our small intestines where it is processed. People that do not have a gluten sensitivity (GS) get irritation from eating it but they don’t get the immune response like GS people do. Their gut heals and they don’t really notice much of a problem. GS people and those with true Celiac Disease (CD) get irritation that doesn’t heal as readily and the immune response that cascades can reek havoc in their systems. I say “Systems” because you don’t often experience gastrointestinal complaints when you are GS or CD. Only 8% of the people who test positive for CD using more sensitive testing have any GI complaints. My brain went, WOW!, when I heard that fact. No GI symptoms?

This happens because we are getting an immune response. When the gut gets exposed to gluten it makes tears in the lining of the small intestine and allows particles larger than are supposed to get into the blood steam to enter. This we call “leaky gut”. Think of your gut lining as cheesecloth. It normally sifts out certain size particles. When you eat gluten it makes holes or tears in the cheesecloth allowing larger particles to pass through. These larger particles are viewed by the body as invaders because they are not supposed to be there. Thus the immune system reacts to fight it. Over time the immune system gets overstressed and hyperactive. This leads to inflammation and cell destruction. Where in the body the immune system attacks these cells depends on where these compounds attach when then immune system finds them and individual genetics. The immune system will attack normal cells causing break down by the immune system anywhere in the body. Research is now finding that people with mildly elevated liver enzymes, osteoporosis, chronic sinus congestion, thyroid disease, depression, schizophrenia, ADHD, hormone imbalances, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, auto immune diseases of all kinds and many, many more maladies should be tested for CD and GS routinely.

So let’s say you decide gluten free is for you. Is that all I need to do? No, is the short answer. Just removing glutinous foods from your diet is like having your house burn down. The fire stops burning because it has no more fuel. And then the firemen come and say it is safe to move back in. Do you think it would be a very hospitable environment to live in? First you have to stop the smoldering spots, clean up the debris and then rebuild the house. Right? Same with your gut. Lots of damage has been done to the gut and calming the immune response and healing the systems that have been damaged is all required to get back on the road to health. Research shows that over time the gut can regrow the villi damaged in celiac disease but more often than not there are still signs of inflammation and increased risk of disbiosis and  small intestine bacterial overgrowth, SIBO . Disbiosis is a condition where the bad bacteria in your gut greatly outnumber the good bacteria that help you make and absorb vital vitamins and nutrients. Specific diet changes also have to be started in order to give your small intestine the digestible fibers it needs to grow and maintain healthy flora. This is why people many times don’t feel significantly better by simply removing gluten from their diet. Saying it really didn’t seem to make a difference.

So how do I find out if I am GS or have CD? The best tests are done by specialty labs, like Cyrex or Genova. They test all markers for the immune reactive components associated with gluten sensitivity. The standard labs test for 2 to 3 of these marker where specialty of labs often test for 19. This is why we and more natural healthcare  practitioners use these specialized labs. They catch everyone possible that have these issues. The typical test your gastroenterologist does is one test, transglutaminase II. It picks up some reactive patients but the standard for celiac confirmation is always a biopsy. The biopsy only confirms complete villus atrophy which is the end stage of celiac disease. There are at least 2 other stages of inflammation and destruction that are present long before CD is able to be diagnosed by this method. It is like you have installed shag carpet in your house, heaven forbid, and short time later you start to notice that the fibers are falling out. You think, hmm, maybe something is wrong but well it’s still got shags so you wait. Do you wait until all the shags are gone before you decide that the carpet is wearing out prematurely? Not a wise choice yea? It is extremely important to identify as many people with GS and CD as possible because people are dying of these immune related diseases and disorders. Not to mention all the needless suffering it causes. Follow up testing to make sure you no longer have leaky gut and smoldering inflammation is also important to make sure you have given your body the time and right nutrients it needs to be as healthy as it can be.

Yes, going gluten free is a hard thing to do but becoming ill or developing a life threatening disease is far more devastating to ones quality of life and lifestyle. Furthermore, it is much, much harder, often requiring much longer treatment times to redirect the body to restart the healing process. And yes, in some cases when these disease processes have gone on for a long time it is often not possible to completely recover ones health. This is why I am receiving advance training and certification to help as many people as I can to discover the cause of their illnesses and help them recover. If you suspect you might have issues with gluten Please! get tested and get the help necessary to get on the path of healing and health.

Written by Dr. Becky Laird DC at Life Source Healing Center 706-338-5650

Hi there,

These days there are a lot of terms used to describe healthcare that differs from the standard or allopathic medicine so many of us are used to. Many of the terms used mean similar things, terms like Holistic, Alternative, Integrative and Functional Medicine. Doctors of different disciplines preferentially use these terms but many share them and overlap there meaning. To some degree they can also be used when different types of therapies are used. Like, some Chiropractors use the term “Holistic” even when they may only employ Chiropractic adjustments as their primary treatment. Chiropractic philosophy is “holistic” in that they adjust to bring balance and wholeness to the body by addressing the nervous and musculoskeletal issues by addressing the underlying cause. They typically don’t just treat the symptoms of the issues. But “holistic” can and often means more to most people.  The other terms like Integrative Medicine are used more commonly by Naturopaths or Naturopathic Doctors, they often include natural Herbs and Nutrients along with Acupuncture. Functional Medicine is often used more commonly by “alternative” Medical Doctors who practice similarly to the Naturopaths.  However, no one discipline uses these terms to the exclusion of any other discipline. There are many Chiropractors and Naturopaths that practice Functional Medicine for instance.  All these terms can mean the same thing, that your practitioner offers healthcare that addresses the underlying cause of why your body is not expressing optimal health. And that they address those issues by using methods which  are derived from either more natural sources, like herbs and vitamins, and/or use a physical art, like acupuncture or chiropractic, that promotes the body’s natural healing powers to be awakened. So, in short all these terms, except “Holistic” are terms that usually include many different modalities to bring about healing and health in the body. Holistic is in my opinion is an often over used and  misleading term. Too general to give much information. The only sure way to know to what your doctor means by the terms  they use to describe their work is to call and speak with them about your health concerns and find out what methods they do use.  I, as a Chiropractor, use all of these terms to describe what we do here at Life Source Healing Center. As the picture down below shows all your body’s systems are very interconnected. So to get to the foundation or cause of many of today’s health challenges it is often necessary to “integrate” an “alternative” approach” using more “natural” resources to bring more healthy “functioning” of the body and restoration of health.

Call Dr. Becky Laird DC at Life Source Healing Center @ 706-369-3600 if you would like to discuss your health issues and find out just what we do.