Autoimmune Disease – The Body’s Betrayal

When you think of disease, life-threatening disease, what first comes to mind? Cancer? Heart disease?

According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), 9 million Americans suffer from Cancer on an annual basis; 22 million suffer from heart disease. Autoimmune disease beats them both with an annual number of 23.5 million and rising.

According to American Autoimmune, 50 million would be a more accurate number because the NIH only counts and tracks 24 autoimmune diseases (all with good epidemiology studies) though researchers consider 80-100 diseases to be chronic, autoimmune conditions.

What Is an Autoimmune Disease?

The simple definition of an autoimmune disease is a misguided immune system that attacks healthy body tissue. Some autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis or arthritis target specific body parts, while others, such as lupus, affect many parts of the body.

These diseases cause more than inflammation, pain or discomfort; many are crippling and are among the leading causes of death in America. The following is a short list of the most common autoimmune diseases.

Common autoimmune diseases

  • Addison’s disease
  • Arthritis
  • Celiac disease
  • Crohn’s disease
  • Diabetes (type 1)
  • Graves’ disease
  • Guillain-Barré syndrome
  • Hashimoto’s thyroiditis
  • Lupus
  • Myasthenia gravis
  • Multiple sclerosis
  • Pernicious anemia
  • Polyarteritis
  • Polymyalgia rheumatica
  • Psoriasis
  • Raynaud’s phenomenon
  • Rheumatoid arthritis
  • Sarcoidosis
  • Sjögren’s syndrome
  • Ulcerative colitis

Conventional medicine offers no cures and has not reached a definitive answer as to the cause of autoimmune diseases. The primary treatment is medication. Steroids are commonly prescribed, despite how damaging their long-term use can be to the body.

Conventional medicine recognizes a genetic component and questions whether a viral infection could trigger an autoimmune disease. They have also acknowledged the fact that many people suffering from autoimmune diseases have celiac disease as well as another autoimmune disease.

How to Cure Autoimmune Disease

Natural health care practitioners believe that health, or lack of health, begins in the gut. Not only is the gut responsible for 80% of our immune system, an unhealthy gut cannot absorb the nutrients the body needs for every function, including healing.

A sick gut is often a leaky gut, one that allows proteins and food particles to pass into the bloodstream, causing the immune system to attack these foreign particles as pathogens.

An unhealthy gut is the result of an unhealthy diet, antibiotic use, and Candida overgrowth. If you want to rid yourself of any chronic condition, you have to heal the body, one cell at a time. If you are ready to do this, it all starts with diet.

A Truly Healthy Diet Is the Key to Health

The healthiest diet is a whole food, plant-based, 80% raw diet. A full 80% of your diet should be fresh, raw, organic produce – more vegetables than fruit. This will provide your body with the nutrients, fiber, and enzymes it needs and the perfect food to help the colonies of beneficial bacteria in your gut to thrive and reproduce.

There is no room in a healthy diet for processed foods with the exception of a few organic products such as healthy oils. The following should all be permanently eliminated:

  • Artificial colors
  • Artificial flavor
  • Preservatives
  • MSG, BHA, BHT
  • GMOs
  • Trans fats
  • Artificial sweeteners
  • Processed sugars

During the healing process eliminate the following foods as well:

  • Dairy products
  • Caffeine
  • Gluten (very important!) All grains containing gluten and all sources of gluten contamination.

You may be able to add some or all of these foods back into your diet on a limited basis after you have healed your gut and eliminated the autoimmune disease, but it is highly possible that you will find you feel better without them.

If you choose to eat meat, be absolutely sure that it is organic. This is vitally important. When you eat meat, you are eating off the top of the food chain. Animals that are not raised organic are fed hormones, antibiotics, and GMO feed, all of which is passed onto you.

To Eliminate Disease, Help Your Body Detox

Once you are eating right, you need to detox and avoid as many environmental toxins as possible. Give your immune system a rest. Use only organic soap, shampoo, skin care products, perfumes, colognes, cleaning products, etc. Your immune system responds to viruses, bacteria, fungi (Candida is the main one), parasites, and toxins. If you have an autoimmune disease, your immune system needs all the help you can give it. Get rid of the chemicals. Remember that your skin is a sponge, soaking up whatever you put on it.

You must kill the overgrowth of Candida in your body. Chances are the “indiscriminate attacks” that your immune system makes on your tissues are either an attempt to kill Candida that is present throughout your body or it’s a response to the proteins and other food particles that are routinely released into the bloodstream from a leaky gut. To heal the body, kill the Candida and heal the gut.

You need to move. Your lymphatic system is an integral part of your immune system. In order to work properly, it must circulate. Rebounding is considered the best exercise to move the lymph, but other exercise works as well. Walk, run, swim, yoga, dance – just move.

A healthy immune system also requires vitamin D. The best source is the sun, but many of us don’t live in an optimal climate and many with autoimmune diseases are photosensitive. If you supplement, be sure to choose a quality vitamin.

Conclusion:

To heal the immune system, you must heal the whole body. The good news is that every cell in the body requires the same thing: elimination of toxins and high-quality nutrients.

To learn more about a healthy diet, read 80% Raw Food Diet. To learn how to detox safely, read about a Total Detox Plan, How To Detoxify from Vaccines and Heavy Metals, and Inexpensive Easy Detox. (But know you will need to do a full detox.)

Autoimmune disease usually starts in the gut, and typically ends with healing the thyroid. Check out , How To Kill Candida and Balance Your Inner Ecosystem and see Understand Hypothyroidism – Prevention and Natural Remedies.

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Live a Cancer Free Life

Cancer propaganda is blasted from the airways, the television, the Internet, and print media. Cancer treatment is big business. So are the campaigns that ask you to contribute your hard earned money to find a cure. Meanwhile the big shots at the American Cancer Society make six figures, while claiming they are searching for a cure. But there is no real cure that will ever come from conventional medicine, just treatments. Treatments that are as likely to kill as they are to cure.

Cancer is a malfunction within the body. So the obvious question to ask is, “Why is the body malfunctioning?”

Every cell within the body has a purpose. If the cell isn’t functioning correctly, it is due to one or both of these basic reasons:

  1. The cell does not have the proper nutrition it needs to function correctly.
  2. Toxins or waste are making it impossible for the cell to function correctly.

How Do You Avoid Cancer or Heal Your Body If You Already Have Cancer?

First and foremost, you flood your body with nutrients. This is the foundation for all health. Your body needs a wide variety of nutrients to nourish itself, to feed every cell, to regulate its systems, to produce neurotransmitters and hormones, T cells and red blood cells, bone and tissue. It cannot maintain, much less repair itself, if it doesn’t have the basic building blocks it requires.

So What Is a Truly Healthy Diet?

A truly healthy diet is a plant-based diet consisting of 80% fresh, raw, organic produce – more vegetables than fruits. It contains a wide variety of foods and includes healthy omega 3 fatty acids. If meat is eaten, it is also organic.

A truly healthy diet does not contain artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives. It does not include GMOs, MSG, or trans fats. In other words, it does not contain 99% of today’s processed foods. Limit sugar and caffeine. Try to eliminate all processed sugar. Cancer cells love sugar.

Numerous studies have revealed a link between meat consumption and cancer rates. Vegetarians definitely have lower rates of cancer. Processed meats are the worst offenders – again artificial preservatives are very toxic to the body. But all of today’s meat – except for organic, free-range meats – contain antibiotics and hormones. Many of the animals are raised on foods unnatural to their diet. In addition, many are fed GMO foods. Is it any wonder that consumption of disease ridden, factory-raised animals contributes to cancer?

Conclusion

Everyone with cancer has at least two out of these five things in common, and typically all of them:

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How Cancer Tumors Use Meat To Fuel Their Growth – Collective Evolution



Some Antibiotics May Blind, Cripple, or Kill You

Pharmaceutical drugs come with risks, risks most users choose to ignore. We block out the risks when we hear about a drug on television or the radio. We either skim over the words in print or ignore them altogether. Due to trust that the federal government will protect us and a belief that pharmaceutical companies have our best interest at heart, we play Russian roulette, believing we would never be so unlucky as to suffer a serious side-effect. After all, they are so rare!

We are all aware that antibiotics can cause allergic reactions, even fatal ones. It is not so common knowledge to find an antibiotic can cripple or kill in other ways.

Chris Dannelly was in the prime of his life at age 41. His physical (two months prior to his death) showed he was in excellent health. He was an athlete who stayed in shape. When he came down with the flu and pneumonia, he was prescribed levofloxacin (brand name Levaquin) an antibiotic manufactured by Johnson and Johnson, Jansen Pharmaceutical. This antibiotic was the best selling antibiotic in the United States in 2010.

Chris took two pills. Those two pills killed him.

Chris did not have an allergic reaction. He died an excruciatingly painful death from rhabdomyolysis, a syndrome caused by the death of muscle fibers and the release of myoglobin into the bloodstream. Death occurs due to toxic overload with resultant kidney failure, heart attack, liver damage, or compartment syndrome (which inhibits blood flow).

Chris died 48 hours after taking the second pill. The diagnosis of rhabdomyolysis was made through autopsy.

Death and Injury Caused by Levaquin

Rhabdomyolysis is not the only serious reaction patients have had to Levaquin. Many have experienced Achilles ruptures; severe on-going joint, muscle, or tendon pain; rupture of the retina; or neurological damage that may well be irreversible. Two other possible fatal outcomes are related to skin reactions: Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrosis (TEN). Stevens-Johnson syndrome results in blistering of the mucous membranes, while TEN causes widespread necrosis of the skin. It can literally fall off the body in sheets.

The circular for the drug includes a current stand statement for prescription drugs:

Remember that your doctor has prescribed this medication because he or she has judged that the benefit to you is greater than the risk of side effects. Many people using this medication do not have serious side effects.

This statement is one that supports the mindset that these things happen to other people, not us. Seriously, would any of us risk our health with pharmaceuticals if we really paid attention to and understood the warnings? Not if we understood that foods, herbs, and natural supplements would cure that pneumonia, sinus infection, or strep throat. Not if we all understood that natural treatment strengthens the immune system and that over time through the use of natural remedies we would catch fewer infections and when we did, they would be less severe.

The Beneficial Risk Profile

Pharmaceutical companies are quick to talk about the benefit risk profile – the fact that a particular drug has helped so many people as opposed to how few it damaged or killed. And though this drug has 20,000 or more lawsuits filed against it, claims can be made that it has helped many more. (And yet, many other medicines with less risk could have been used instead.)

This is a very expensive medication. It makes a great deal of money for its company. It is one of the drugs in the class called fluoroquinolones. Another well-known drug in this class is Cipro.

Do you think Johnson and Johnson bases their risk-benefit calculations on anything other than profit compared to losses through lawsuits? If you do, you drank the Kool-Aid.

If you’ve recently taken antibiotics, this is what you need to do to restore healthy intestinal flora, and check out Make Your Immune System Bulletproof with These Natural Remedies for real immunity from bacterial infections and other pathogens. See Gluten, Candida, Leaky Gut Syndrome, and Autoimmune Diseases to learn more about the gut and how to repair antibiotic damage.

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GMO Labeling Legislation Introduced In Minnesota

In the dead of winter, the Minnesota State Legislature isn’t letting the snow keep them from reintroducing legislation to label GMOs. At the end of January, HF 351 and SF 335 were proposed in both the House and the Senate. While the state has proposed legislation that would disclose the presence of GMO ingredients to consumers by January of 2017, support for GMO labeling in the state has grown at a fantastic rate. After seeing the Oregon initiative to label GMOs defeated by a mere 812 votes, activists across Minnesota are pushing even more to make sure they get the support they need to pass these bills and let GMO companies know that we want to know what is in our food.

No More GMOs!

Natural News has reported before on the initiatives Minnesotans have been taking to protect themselves from Monsanto toxins. Last December, Minnesota educators started a plan to phase GMOs out of school lunches instead using things like organic squash and hot dogs made from grass fed beef. A month earlier, they had GMO awareness day, distributing information on the lack of proper testing for GMOs and their links to allergies, cancer, autoimmune disorders, and other diseases. Educators took the initiative to distribute flyers to parents detailing the negative effects of GMOs on developing children. The Minnesota state legislature has also proposed bills from both the Senate and the House supporting informed purchasing in the past.

Massive Public Support

Even though bills to labels GMOs have been proposed and defeated before, the local support for these two bills is strong in Minnesota. Polls across the nation have found that the majority of Americans want to know about genetically engineered ingredients in their food. Minnesota is no different. Activists from Minnesota’s Right to Know organization have expanded the number of co-authors on both bills and met with over 45 legislators in their quest to get these bills passed. Local news outlets in St. Paul are reporting on the large number of people who showed up to the first Capitol hearing of this bill. Local businesses are also receiving requests from customers asking that they label their products, and that they support bills like this that will allow for informed purchasing.

Big Business Poses a Threat

While the Minnesota’s Farmer’s Union have also voiced support for these bills, there is always the possibility of Monsanto and others throwing a monkey wrench in these plans. Large agricultural corporations like Hormel, Land o’ Lakes, and General Mills are based in Minnesota. Collectively they spent millions of dollars opposing the labeling of GMOs in California. With plenty of time between now and the informational hearing on these bills in April, Monsanto and these other corporations have plenty of time to spread misinformation and lies to Minnesota voters in an attempt to protect their profits.

Show Your Support

If you or any of your loved ones are in Minnesota, let them know that they can make a difference in the campaign to know what’s in our food. Here are some things that you can do to support these bills. Email or call members of the Minnesota congress. Even if you don’t live in Minnesota, they need to know that this bill could be an important first step in labeling GMOs and boosting the health of our nation. Passing these bills will defiantly affect the rest of the United States, and they need to know that they could be part of history.

You can also support the Minnesota Right to Know campaign on Facebook or Twitter. They have up to date notifications on the bills, are organizing opportunities to speak with members of congress, and have volunteer information available for those who want to get involved. They also have a list of local businesses who support labeling genetically engineered products. By supporting these retailers, you vote with your dollars. Let companies in Minnesota know that the more likely they are to let you make informed shopping decisions, the more likely you are to support them.

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Why I Stopped Taking Antibiotics

As the natural health movement grows, people across the nation and the world are learning the benefits of using food, herbs, and supplements to prevent and treat illness and disease.

Antibiotics are chemical therapy. Read any package insert or look up a pharmaceutical on the Internet and thoroughly read the possible side effects. Many drugs, even many over the counter drugs, warn of risks that include lifelong disability or death. These are the outcomes the companies either freely admit or are forced to admit.

Why I Stopped Taking Antibiotics

I didn’t realize throughout the years I followed conventional medicine that antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals were damaging my gut and my immune system – not until I crashed headlong into auto-immune disease after my second anaphylactic reaction, a reaction to an antibiotic.

The next time I became ill, I took supplements. One day my chiropractor did a kinesthetic test and told me I had strep throat. He recommended a supplement: Spanish Black Radish.

I decided to follow his treatment plan, but I wanted to prove to myself and to my medical doctor that this form of therapy worked. I asked her to give me a step test and yes, it was positive. She immediately argued with the plan, saying strep was too serious for alternative treatment. I brought her around by promising I would do a follow-up test and then take antibiotics if needed. A week later, the test was negative.

Another month passed, and I developed pneumonia. I went straight to my doctor. Pneumonia always scared me since it had nearly killed me twice, and I wanted the “big guns.” This was the day that changed my life. My doctor, my brilliant, conventional, medical doctor suggested I go back to my chiropractor and ask what supplements to use for the pneumonia since his treatment had worked so well for the strep. She was right. It worked great. That was 20 years ago. I have never taken another antibiotic.

Our Immune System Without Antibiotics

The amazing differences people discover when they stop taking antibiotics are how they recover from illnesses faster, how illnesses are less severe, and how they don’t become ill as often as they did back in the day they took antibiotics. All of these changes are signs of a healthier immune system. In time, you stop becoming sick. Your immune system works so well it defeats attacking pathogens before they can get a foothold and cause you to feel ill.

I believe several things are at play here. First of all, it would be unlikely for anyone to follow alternative medicine without also learning that food is our primary medicine. Better nutrition and alternative medicine go hand in hand. But as soon as you stop taking antibiotics, you stop the utter destruction of the good bacteria in your gut. And your gut is responsible for 80% of your immune system! So of course you are going to respond better to pathogens than you did before your gut was healing.

If you are making the switch from conventional medicine to alternative medicine, start with diet. The healthiest diet is a plant-based diet where 80% of the food you eat is fresh, raw, organic produce, more vegetables than fruits (see the first source for an awesome recipe). If you choose to eat meat, make sure it is organic, and do not overcook the meat or cook at a high temperature. Avoid pasteurized and/or homogenized dairy, all artificial flavors colors, and preservatives, MSG, GMOs, and trans fats. Limit or eliminate gluten, sugar, and caffeine. This is a diet filled with real, whole foods, not processed garbage devoid of nutrition.

With this kind of diet you will soon find that your immune system fights much better on its own than it ever has before. But when it needs help, choose high-quality supplements proven to aid the immune system, not tear it down. For those who have taken antibiotics and have not addressed their gut health yet, see After taking antibiotics, this is what you need to do and Balance Your Inner Ecosystem.

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B Vitamin Food Sources – Because A Deficiency Can Drive You Insane

A teenage boy is admitted to a mental hospital. He screams in fear, begging to be saved from the thousands of spiders climbing up the wall – spiders no one else can see.

A middle-aged woman is anemic.

An elderly man is depressed.

A young woman dreads her monthly cycle, knowing she will become moody or angry – mood swings so severe they may jeopardize her relationship or her job.

What do all of these people have in common? They are all suffering from a B vitamin deficiency.

The B vitamins are a group of water-soluble vitamins crucial to many of the metabolic processes in the body. All eight B vitamins, or several of them, are often found together in a particular food- a helpful occurrence since many of the B vitamins work together.

The B vitamins are: B1 (thiamin), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B5 (pantothenic acid), B6 (pyridoxine), B7 (biotin), B9 (folate or folic acid), and B12 (cyanocobalamin).

B vitamins help carbohydrates break down to glucose and they aid in the breakdown of fats and proteins. Without them, we would not have fuel for any tissues in the body. They are absolutely essential for neurotransmitters and nerve tissue. They help our bodies form red blood cells. B9 and B12 are required for normal fetal development during pregnancy.

B vitamin deficiencies run the gamut from decreased energy all the way through to acute psychosis or death. Every bodily function requires B vitamins or the glucose it provides.

The best source of any vitamins is food. B vitamins are found in the following foods.

Foods High in B1

Asparagus, Brussels sprouts, green peas, beet greens, spinach, sweet potatoes, navy beans, black beans, pinto beans, lima beans, kidney beans, lentils, peanuts, unpolished rice, barley, oats, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds, watermelon, oranges, and liver.

Foods High in B2

Beet greens, spinach, asparagus, crimini mushrooms, collard greens, sweet potatoes, green peas, eggs, turkey, tempeh, sardines, and tuna.

Foods High in B3

Asparagus, crimini mushrooms, potatoes, sweet potatoes, green peas, tuna, chicken, turkey, salmon, lamb, beef, sardines, shrimp, peanuts, sunflower seeds, brown rice, and barley.

Foods High in B5

Avocado, crimini and shitake mushrooms, sweet potatoes, green peas.

Foods High in B6

Sweet potatoes, potatoes, spinach, cabbage, turnip greens, garlic, winter squash, bok choy, bell peppers, avocado, green peas, tuna, chicken, turkey, beef, salmon, lentils, lima beans, pinto beans, bananas, and sunflower seeds.

Foods High in B7

Sweet potatoes, onions tomatoes, carrots, oats, peanuts, almonds, walnuts, eggs, salmon, and bananas.

Foods High in B9

Asparagus, spinach, turnip greens, broccoli, Romaine lettuce, bok choy, cauliflower, green peas, avocados, leeks, fennel, summer squash, Brussels sprouts, lentils, pinto; garbanzo; black; navy; and kidney beans, papaya, and quinoa.

Foods High in B12

Sardines, salmon, tuna, cod, lamb, shrimp, scallops, beef, yogurt, and milk.

It can be difficult to meet the daily requirement of B12 if you are a vegetarian or vegan, or if you are elderly. It is also more difficult for anyone suffering from digestive diseases that inhibit absorption such as celiac disease.

Conclusion

If you do choose to supplement with B vitamins, it is important to take a full B complex. Taking one or more B vitamin over an extended period of time can cause deficiencies in other B vitamins.

Remember a healthy diet is one that consists of 80% raw, fresh, organic produce – more vegetables than fruits along with healthy omega 3 fats. To properly absorb and assimilate B vitamins, you must have balanced healthy fats in the body and a healthy gut that’s not overrun with Candida. Check out Balance Your Ecosystem.

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Gut Health

Gut health. Catchy phrase, isn’t it? Of course the first thing it brings to mind is diarrhea, constipation, bloating and gas, right? But gut health is so much more.

It’s not just whether your bowels regularly move or whether you have runny stools. It’s whether you have the right balance of good bacteria to bad bacteria and yeast that determines whether many functions of the gut work properly including assimilation of nutrients.

A sick gut is overrun with “bad” bacteria and yeast. We label bacteria as good when the bacteria benefit us. Good bacteria help us further digest our food, they produce serotonin (a necessary neurotransmitter), and they create byproducts through their metabolic processes that are either beneficial to us or benign. They also play a very important role in keeping both bad bacteria and yeast in check.

Bad bacteria cause inflammation of the tissues in the gut and they release harmful toxins through their metabolic processes. Yeast does the same. In addition, it burrows holes through the protective inner lining of the gut allowing food particles and proteins to pass into the bloodstream. We refer to this process as leaky gut syndrome. This corruption of the normal digestive process sets the immune system into overdrive. Many now believe that leaky gut syndrome may very well be the common denominator and precursor for many kinds of autoimmune disease.

Antibiotic use and gut health

Antibiotics kill bacteria. That’s what they are made to do. The problem is, they usually kill a wide variety of bacteria, both good and bad. After using an antibiotic, you not only need to increase or repopulate your good bacteria, the yeast in your system has had a chance to multiply since the good bacteria that normally keeps it in check has died off. You need to kill the yeast and replenish the good bacteria.

How to increase the good bacteria in the gut

So a healthy balance of good bacteria in the gut is essential to health, especially since our immune system requires good gut health. How do we go about ensuring we have an abundance of good bacteria?

First of all, build them a home and they will come. Good bacteria thrive in a fiber-rich environment. It makes them happy – so gloriously happy they multiply like crazy. The foods that promote this environment are prebiotic foods- raw, fresh, organic, fiber filled vegetables and fruits. The best thing we can do to create an environment that feeds, houses, and promotes good bacteria is to eat a large salad every day filled with dark leafy greens and 10-15 types of vegetables.

Probiotic foods (fermented milk products and vegetables) can also help to increase the amount of good bacteria in the gut, but their significance is often highly overrated. First of all, sugar filled kefir and yogurt products do not promote health. And most of the time, the probiotic bacteria do not survive the stomach acid. But there are supplements made to get past the stomach acid and eating sugar-free probiotic foods on a regular basis will help to some extent. Just remember, the primary method to increase good bacteria is through raw vegetables.

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