THE IMMUNE SYSTEM RECOVERY PLAN

Fruit Bowl,                                                            Photo © by Ruth Zachary

Part 1- Do You have an Auto Immune Disease?

Auto-immune diseases are among the most prevalent forms of chronic illness in our country. This affects an estimated 23.5 million people. This is a larger number than those who have cancer or heart disease. Many suffer chronic pain, disability and even death.

Dr. Susan Blum, M.D., MPH says in her book, with the above title,  The Immune System Recovery Plan, conventional medicine rarely gets to the root of the problem. Dr. Blum, practicing in a new field of medicine, known as Functional Medicine, differs in that her emphasis focuses on reversing chronic conditions, and if possible, seeks to find cures, rather than to treat only the symptoms.

Most of these illnesses are listed under Auto Immune conditions, (which are listed on one of the pages of this blog.)  Blum says “these diseases are reversible and curable if caught early, before progressing to worse states of illness, or death.

A number of causes for Auto Immune conditions may be boiled down to a few. Causes include sensitivity to certain foods such as gluten, grains, mercury in fillings, heavy metals, toxins in our foods and in our environment, and more. Genetically modified organisms or foods, which have been developed within the last seventy years or so, may be very difficult for many people to utilize or tolerate. Up to 70 percent of the foods we eat may be genetically modified.

The foods that have been fount to have the greatest negative impact are corn, wheat, gluten, dairy products, soy, sugar and maybe peanuts, because so many product derivatives  from these main food sources, appear in different aspects in almost all processed foods. Toxins and disease pathogens can also play a role, because our immune systems can be additionally damaged by these factors.

A person who has a compromised immune system can be treated, to reverse chronic disease, she believes, and says it takes time and effort, but it can be done. Knowing there are few doctors available to treat everyone, she wrote her book to reach the ordinary citizen who might follow the program and eventually reverse their own chronic illness or symptoms. The plan as described in her book is complex, technical and requires discipline, but if you suffer from an auto-immune disease, you may well find it worth while.

Check the Blog Page titled List -Auto Immune Diseases to see if you have or someone you know has one or more of these diseases. The next Post will explain the basic steps of Blum’s program.