Genetic Predisposition doesn’t mean you will get the disease. It means you are predisposed or have a tendency to suffer from a particular condition. The same applies to Systemic lupus erythematosus.
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE or lupus) is an autoimmune disease that can impact multiple systems in the body. It can be a burden to the skin, joints, internal organs, and nervous system.
The most common symptoms of lupus are:
Headaches
Fatigue
Fever
Joint pain and swelling
A butterfly-shaped rash across the nose and cheeks
Hair loss
Anemia
Ulcers in the nose and mouth
Edema (water retention) in the hands, feet, and face
Photosensitivity (sensitivity to light, especially sunlight)
Raynaud’s Disease (extremities turning white or blue when exposed to the cold)
Lets understand the underlying root causes of Lupus.
Leaky Gut: The intestinal wall can be damaged by factors including food intolerances, infections, medications, and stress. The majority of the immune system lies in the digestive system. It’s the doorway where bad stuff comes in from the outside. Digestive Problems can lead to undigested food particles. Undigested food particles can cause yeast and bacteria overgrowth in the gut. This can lead to inflammation in the intestines creating a leaky gut scenario where particles get through that shouldn’t. Now we have toxins circulating in the bloodstream. When you do this for decades you develop a chronic inflammatory situation and high potential for the immune system attacking itself.
Gluten Intolerance: Gluten molecules resemble many of your body’s tissues, particularly thyroid tissue. Immune system releases antibodies against gluten and these antibodies mistakenly attack other organs, which may precipitate full-blown autoimmune disease.
Toxins: Today we find over 500 chemicals stored in our bodies and most have at least seven pesticides in their urine. Some examples include GMO’s, heavy metals like mercury, paint thinners, cleaning supplies, and nail polish, smoking, undigested gluten, pesticides, asbestos, estrogen imbalance is a short list of toxins to be aware of.
Infections: Infections from bacteria, viruses, and other toxins are behind the development of autoimmune conditions such as lupus.
Stress: Both emotional and physical stressors trigger and intensify autoimmune disorders. Chronic stress leads to chronic inflammation and suppresses your immune system. This can trigger or worsen autoimmune conditions.
Nutritional deficiencies: Vitamin D is an immune modulator. If your low in vitamin D it can increase susceptibility to autoimmunity. Vitamin C is a known immune booster. Vitamin B6 is critical in biochemical reactions. Vitamin E is an essential antioxidant in the body. Low vitamins from poor nutrition is a major factor in autoimmunity.
Once we know the root cause, it becomes easy to address it. Lupus can be reversed with the following steps and health can be restored.
1. Repair your gut
The connection between leaky gut, autoimmunity, and your immune system makes repairing your gut the starting point in reversing an autoimmune condition. We use the 4R approach to repair gut health.
Remove: Remove the bad. Eliminate factors that negatively affect the environment of the GI tract. That includes inflammatory foods such as gluten, dairy, corn, soy, and eggs, as well as toxic foods, such as sugar, caffeine, and alcohol. Finally, you’ll want to eradicate any kind of bacterial overgrowth (Candida overgrowth, Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth, and parasites).
Replace: Replace what’s missing. Add digestive enzymes to optimize digestion, and include nutrient-dense foods.
Reinoculate: Restore beneficial bacteria in your gut to re-establish a healthy microbial balance. High-quality probiotics help repair your gut and support your immune system. We recommend 100 billion CFUs (colony forming units) while reversing leaky gut, and 30 billion CFUs as a maintenance dose.
Repair: It’s essential to provide the nutrients necessary to help the gut repair itself.
2. Optimize your diet
Gluten is an inflammatory food that wreaks havoc in the gut through molecular mimicry. It is critical for anyone with an autoimmune condition to eliminate it from their diet. Instead, include whole, real foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables and healthy fats.
3. Find and treat infections
4. Test for heavy metals and mycotoxins
If either heavy metals or mycotoxins are a concern, work on minimizing your exposure to these toxins, and support your detox pathways while you work to flush them out.
5. Relieve your stress
We believe that we ALL benefit from regular stress relief! Adopt stress-relieving strategies such as exercise, meditation, yoga, or art. Choose something that you will enjoy and stick with. Even giving yourself five minutes to sit quietly can work wonders for your adrenal glands.
6. Methylation support is critical
As the methyl cycle is seemingly universally deranged in SLE/LN patients, it is critical to include methyl support. Methyl donors are methionine, pyridoxine (vitamin B6), folate (vitamin B9), betaine (trimethylglycine), choline, Vitamin B 12, and zinc.
If you or your loved one is struggling with Systemic lupus erythematosus, do write to us at info.functionalmedicineclinic@gmai.com.
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