How to Find the Real Cause of YOUR Autoimmune Disease

Heavy metals

As with every toxin, the first step is to eliminate all current exposure. This means determining where the exposure is coming from and doing whatever it takes to stop it. Common sources of heavy metals are silver/amalgam fillings, seafood, vaccinations (especially the flu vaccine), residential and commercial construction materials, conventional cosmetics (60-80% of all lipsticks on the market contain lead), contaminated drinking water (old lead or copper pipes), and polluted air.

After this, it’s time to address the heavy metals already inside your body. Juice fasting, water fasting, oral activated charcoal, and charcoal poultices are a great way to start the detoxing process. Typically with heavy metals, additional herbal supplements may be needed to dislodge, bind, and remove deep-rooted metal toxicity such as activated charcoal, nano-zeolite or modified citrus pectin.

The final though about detoxing metals is to be cautious. If done incorrectly detoxing heavy metals can turn into a nightmare.

For greater detail on how to safely and effectively detox heavy metals, pp. 77, 92, 100-121

Mold

One of the most common ways that people get infected with mold or fungus is from spending time in buildings that have been contaminated with them. The largest study ever done on homes and an EPA study on commercial buildings found that over 50% of U.S. homes and 85% of commercial buildings have water damage! If you suspect a mold infection at home or at work, there are a variety of tests that can be ordered ranging from as cheap as $22 mold plates at Lowes to $700 specialized tests.

Again, you must remove yourself from the source. Then after that, utilizing juice fasting, water fasting, and morning and evening doses of lemon water, plus 2-3 tsp of activated charcoal orally are very effective in detoxing mold.

For a lot more info on how to effectively detox mold: pp. 77, 92, 100-121

Chronic stress

There are several simple, easy things you can do to begin to handle your stress better. Exercise regularly making sure you sweat and get your heart rate up for 30 minutes or more at least 5 times per week. Take hot baths with Epsom salt (magnesium is calming). Many persons are low in magnesium and this is a good way to absorb more. Get at least 8-10 hours of early sleep each night. Cut down your hours at work and eliminate unnecessary spending to enable yourself to do this financially. If you are in school, take less classes next semester and focus on your healing.

To dive deeper on how to successfully deal with chronic stress including how to heal from old wounds: pp. 135-147

Genetic Mutations

Make sure that through your diet you are getting large amounts of the vitamins and minerals that your specific genetic mutations are causing you to be deficient in. For MTHFR, that would be folate (B-9) and possibly B12. For COMT and MAO, people tend to tolerate the effects of these genetic SNPs much better when the leaky gut has been healed and the inflammation has been calmed down in the body. If supplementing is necessary, make sure to take the bioavailable forms of nutrients and not the synthetic forms, hence methylfolate not folic acid.

For more information on how to bypass genetic mutations by focusing on specific foods: pp. 155-171

Infections

With my experience of eliminating my fungal skin infection, I know how difficult getting rid of infections can be. Infections need to be treated in a certain order. Typically, you need to remove mold and fungal infections first, then viral and bacterial infections in the gut, and then viral and bacterial infections in the blood. Infections usually thrive off of a processed, junk-food diet so filling your diet with whole plant-foods is key.

Thankfully for every infection, there are many herbs that are known to kill them. Here are several common infections and the herbs that kill them.

Fungus: garlic, Pau d’arco, oil of oregano

Parasites: diatomaceous earth, cloves, wormwood

Biofilm: stevia leaf, berberine, garlic, turmeric

Bartonella: noni, neem, grapefruit seed extract

Lyme: Otoba bark, samento bark (closely related to cat’s claw), stevia leaf (kills all of three of its forms plus the biofilm, outperforms drugs in killing Lyme)

Combining these herbals along with a good long-term overall cleansing program to get rid of other factors that might be fueling the infection like gut dysbiosis or heavy metals, and a lot of progress can be made in the right direction.

For a complete picture of how to eliminate infections: pp. 129-133

Pesticides

To eliminate pesticides, first remove yourself from chronic exposure by buying mostly organic produce, especially for the items that are high on the Dirty Dozen list. Second, build up your body's nutrition by focusing on juicing and eating raw organic fruits and vegetables. Then do one 5-10 day juice fast combined with a 6 month long gentle cleanse program per year or until symptoms subside.

For more details on cleansing including a 10-day intense cleanse and a gentle, long-term cleanse: pp. 48-52, 79-84, 95-121

Genetically modified foods (GMOs)

The obvious goal here is to learn how to eat and shop non-GMO. The top 11 GMO crops are soy, corn, cotton, canola, sugar (from sugar beets), zucchini, yellow squash, apples, potatoes (White Russet variety), papaya (from Hawaii or China), and alfalfa (used as hay to feed cattle). The big challenge most folks have with this seemingly simple step is that these GMO items hide in hundreds of popular processed foods that people usually don’t think of like the grand majority of restaurant oils (vegetable oil, corn oil, soy oil, canola oil), cereals, crackers, deli sandwiches, tortillas, butters, milks, breads, bars, and so on. It’s an entire re-education process of how to look at shopping and eating out.

Thankfully there is a simple way to start. The big three to look out for are soy, corn, and canola. If you start by focusing on identifying these three GMO foods in labels you will catch 95% of the hidden GMOs on the market. For more on shopping and eating out non-GMO: pp. 42-52

Wheat/Gluten (mutation-bred wheat)

Wheat is in so many food products, it can be difficult to avoid. But thankfully, there are many gluten-free options on the market now. The trick to avoiding gluten is learning how to use the non-gluten grains. Non-gluten grains are rice, buckwheat (ironically it's not a wheat at all), millet, quinoa, chia, oats (gluten-free of course), amaranth, teff, and sorghum. Even some seeds can be used in recipes to act as a gluten substitute like chia, sunflower, sesame, and flax. Between all of these items you can make bread, crackers, pancakes, hot cereal, and tortillas. It’s just a matter of learning how. Due to the increasing amount of people who are having problems with gluten more gluten-free cookbooks and blogs are popping up.

We will be coming out with our own cookbook in the near future that will be both gluten-free and autoimmune safe. Keep your eyes peeled. We're also going to continue adding more recipes to our website. For more on how to live gluten-free: pp. 50-55

Poor Diet

A lot of poor eating is due to people not preparing food for themselves. Most prepackaged foods and restaurant foods are not healthy as they are often loaded with oils and GMOs. Instead of relying on chips, soda, TV dinners, and fast food, invest the time cooking food at home. Make it a goal to eat out less. Get a healthy cookbook and focus on making several recipes a week. If time is an issue, batch cook on the weekends. This means when you do cook, make enough to last two or even three days.

For more tips on how to eat healthfully, including narrowing in on the most ancient diet recorded in history: pp. 47-52, 79-94

Animal Products

It is easier than you probably think to cut down or altogether avoid animal products. There are many tasty animal product substitutes such as nut milks, vegan cheeses, vegan creams, and meat substitutes. Most every local grocery store now has these healthy alternatives available. One thing to watch out for however is that some of these substitutes will use gluten or GMO products which is counter productive. There are scores of plant-based blogs and cookbooks in bookstores and online. For more on how to eat more plant-based: pp. 55-57, 84-88

Chemicals

To eliminate chemicals, like always first remove yourself from exposure. Throw out your chemical personal care and cleaning products and replace them with natural ones, and buy organic as much as you can. If your exposure is due to your geographical location or a workplace environment, you may have to make the tough decision to relocate or find another job.

Secondly, build up your body with high levels of nutrients by focusing on eating raw and juicing organic fruits and vegetables. Then do one 5-10 day juice fast combined with a 6 month long gentle cleanse program per year or until symptoms subside. For more details on cleansing: pp. 48-52, 65-73

Vaccinations

If you are 28 years old or younger, then unfortunately you were raised during the hyper-vaccination era. If you are older than 28, then thankfully the vaccination schedule was not yet too terribly out of hand. Regarding vaccinations that occurred in the pas,t the damage has already been done and the focus should be on reversing the toxicity that may still be in the body due to them. Follow the same cleansing steps listed under pesticides and chemicals. For more details: pp. 95-121

Medications

This should always be done under the supervision of a competent doctor. Through documentaries like Fat Sick and Nearly Dead, Bella Vita the Movie, Forks Over Knives, and What the Health, there are so many clear examples of people getting off of their medications, it should be understood that they are not necessary. The key to no longer needing medications is bringing the body back into a state of health.

For autoimmunity, it would be through following the 5-step protocol. First, cutting off all exposure of every toxic factor that is causing the body to become confused and attack itself. Second, healing the leaky gut. Third, building up the depleted nutritional stores through a clean high-nutrient diet via fresh fruit and vegetables. Fourth, cleansing and detoxing. Then lastly by reducing chronic stress. For more details on medications: pp. 58, 59, 95-121