Autoimmune disease is estimated to impact between 23-50 million people in the United State alone. The National Institute of Health's more conservative estimation of 23.5 million only includes 24 identified autoimmune diseases. Up to 140 diseases and conditions are suspected to have roots in autoimmunity.
Autoimmune disease can be a chronic or life threatening condition.
If you have been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, your doctor has probably explained that your body's immune system is confused and has mistakenly developed antibodies to healthy tissue in your body because it thinks it is a foregin invader.
Your Immune cells are a vital part of your body's repair and maintenance system. It is the immune cell's job to attack, destroy and dissolve those foreign cells to keep your system healthy. However, in autoimmune disease, these immune cells attack healthy tissue, damaging and destroying them and creating widespread, chronic inflammation and scar tissue in the process.
Why would you immune system do this?
.
.
.
SHOW NOTES AT
Interested in joining the Hansen Method?! From 16 weeks to a year- long coaching program, there's an option for you. Learn more about the Hansen Method, click here.
Create a thriving thyroid following our PROVEN system for improving thyroid and hormone function! Join hundreds of women who have improved their symptoms by 80% and lose on average 30lbs in the 4 months. Learn more here.
If you have questions about the Hansen Method and want to discuss your specific situation and make sure this is the right program for you you can schedule a complimentary thyroid breakthrough call with one of our team members. schedule here. Hurry, my schedule fills up quickly and we only work with limited amount of women at any given time.
Thinking about using nutrition and holistic health for restoring thyroid function? Learn EVERYTHING you need to know by joining our Free Facebook Group. Adrenal and Thyroid Balance Community.
Confused at what steps you steps you need to do first, download our Freedom From Fatigue Guide without top 5 recommendations to improving your thyroid function.
Confused about what thyroid test to have done? Download our Thyroid Panel Guide.
Facebook Community
Xo,
Shannon Hansen
AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION
(00:00):
Episode 44 auto-immune disease 1 0 1.
(00:05):
Welcome back to the thriving thyroid podcast, where we choose to become empowered patients and take our health into our own hands. Hi, I'm Shannon Hanson, a Christian entrepreneur, a mom of three. And after dealing with my own health mysteries, I made it my mission to learn everything I could about the thyroid. I soon became certified as a holistic wellness practitioner, a functional nutrition practitioner and a functional diagnostic practitioner. And so much more. After that, I founded the revolutionary thyroid program, the Hanson method as a health professional and a mom, I fully understand the importance of having a fun, simple, and sustainable plan for achieving a responsive diary. So I share actionable and practical strategies for developing a responsive vibrate so that the ambitious moms and women can gain freedom from fatigue and lose the thyroid weight once. And for all each week, I will be here for you along with my guest experts, we will be sharing simple and tangible tips that work for not only your thyroid, your hormones, your family, and your mindset, so that you can get back to living the life that you envisioned for yourself. Welcome to the thriving diary podcast.
(01:29):
Welcome back to today's episode. And guys, I'm so excited to have this conversation with you when it comes to auto-immunity. Okay. I have found a lot of confusion with people who are newly diagnosed. Maybe they've even been diagnosed for a few years with Hashimoto's hypothyroidism, and they don't realize that hyper and hypothyroidism are different than Hashimoto's and graves Hashimoto's and graves fall into the category of auto-immunity whereas hypo and hyperthyroidism. In my opinion, and you guys may argue fall under just an illness, right? A disease, a condition of sorts. Now let's dive in to today's episode and hopefully you guys are able to learn something new. And as always, if you guys find value in today's episode, maybe, you know, someone who was going through some of this, or maybe newly diagnosed with an autoimmune condition and is confused about it, this would be a great time to go ahead and share this episode with them so that they can become more familiar with autoimmunity as this is just the basics of it.
(02:48):
Okay. So let's dive in auto-immune conditions are estimated to impact between 23 and 50 million people in the us alone, which is a huge number, right? I think we can all agree on that. The national Institute of health is a little bit more conservative when it comes to their estimation on this, and they're estimating that 23.5 million people. And that only includes 24 identified auto-immune conditions. However, it can go up to 140 diseases and conditions that are suspected to have some root causes in autoimmunity as well. Okay. So this is kind of, it's a big deal, right? It's we're learning more about auto-immunity. They are classifying illnesses, diseases, conditions into different categories. And I feel like the industry's always changing and I'm sure you guys feel the same way auto immune conditions or diseases can be chronic. And in a lot of cases life-threatening, or in some cases I should say, not all cases.
(04:03):
If you've been diagnosed with auto-immune diseases, your doctor has probably explained your immune system, but you guys ate so confusing and has mistakenly been developed. So let me back up, your Dr. May have explained to you that your body has developed these antibodies to attack the healthy tissue in your body, because it thinks that it is a foreign invader. Now, I believe that there's a reason your body does this. It just doesn't flip a switch and decide, oh, I want to attack you. When I was studying the immune system in school, I just remember being so overwhelmed and having to go over some of the classes multiple times because immune system is very different than a lot of other systems in the body. Your immune system does not have a, B, C, D your immune system lives all over, right? Our digestive system, we can categorize, okay.
(05:13):
Part of it, your brain stimulates digestive, enzymes your mouth, chews it up. Then it goes into the esophagus then into the stomach. Then, you know, then, then, then, then right, we can map it out with our immune system. That's not the case. And so that can be very overwhelming and it's also very difficult to study. And that's why we're still learning a lot about autoimmune diseases in general, and why, I think there's also a lot of different theories and beliefs when it comes to autoimmunity in general. So your immune cells are a vital part of your bodies. We've been hearing and maintenance system. It is the immune system job to attack, destroy and dissolve those foreign cells to keep your system healthy.
(06:06):
However, when it comes to autoimmune conditions, these immune cells attack healthy tissue damaging and destroying them and creating widespread inflammation, scar tissue in the process of this. So why would your immune system do this for many years? This has been a mystery to the medical community, and there has been a lot of theories. And in one of the theories today's Siri that we're going to talk about is referred to as molecular mimicry, the molecular mimicry theory proposes that over hundreds and thousands of years, foreign invaders have learned to randomly mutate and take on a similar structures and characteristics as our healthy cells, as our healthy cells to invade the immune system. These are low level infections that often stay inside the body and are undetected for years causing the inflammation and eventually leading to chronic diseases. And most people who are diagnosed with auto-immune conditions have family history of also having autumn condition.
(07:22):
But that doesn't mean that you are destined for this diagnosis. You have the power to turn off and on the genes with many of the simple choices that you make every single day. This may be slightly confusing for those of you who are brand new to this thought or this theory, but we will explain it a little bit more coming up. So genetic disposition makes up only one third of our risk for developing auto-immune conditions. Dynamics in your environment have a far greater impact on your health risks. This includes your nutrition, your lifestyle choices, the toxic exposure. What chemicals are you using in your laundry room or to clean your bathroom infections that you may have, or have been exposed to if you have motto, you know, in high school or in college and healthy hormone balancing inside the body. If you've had things like me where you've been had some hormonal acne and ended up getting put on birth control and Accutane, obviously my hormones were a little out of whack in that situation.
(08:33):
So current research identifies there are between 80 to a hundred different types of auto-immune diseases known to attack different organs, tissues, and systems inside your body. And then additionally to that, 40 other diseases are suspected to have some roots in auto-immune auto immunity as well. And I wanted to explain something to you guys about genetics. And this was really hard for me in the beginning to kind of wrap my head around until I heard this analogy and the theory between twins, right? You can have identical twins and one of them can develop auto-immunity. And one of them wouldn't, well, why is this? They're exactly the same genetically. They are the same person. They've basically just split apart in the womb, but they still have different experiences in their life. So if we think about it in the sense of this twin goes off, goes to college lives, a pretty stress-free life gets a good job.
(09:47):
Finances on an issue, eats really healthy and organic, you know, lives a pretty active lifestyle, exercising, taking care of their body, moving the body, married someone who's fantastic. Like their stress level is going to be pretty low. They use clean cleaning products. I mean, we could list on and on and on, right where as the other twins, maybe they went to college, they went to do something really, really stressful in their career. It was a high demand college experience, high demand college or excuse me, career choice, where they have a crazy sleep schedule. Maybe they're a doctor or a position where they're working in day shifts at night shift and kind of all over the place. And maybe they're grabbing a little bit more convenient food. They're hiring a housekeeper to come in and use whatever products and not the health isn't important to them, but they're just going all the time.
(10:49):
And their stress is super high and maybe they're exposed to chemicals or this different things at work, right? We could theory theorize about a a hundred different scenarios, but at the end of the day, one may have the environment that would lead them more towards auto-immunity versus the other one, because of stress, because of environment, because of toxic exposure and hormones, and all of the things that we've talked about and a big part of this has to do simply with our environment, the dynamics of the way that we're living and conducting the life. And this is why I am so passionate about working with them in who want to make those lifestyle and dietary changes because, oh my gosh, it's so simple. I mean, it's so simple when we know what we're doing, and we can do things in the right order and the right system, and really put the time and energy and focus into the areas that are specific to us.
(11:51):
And this is why having a coach is so valuable in terms of being able to see what I call my blind spots or your blind spots and say, Hey, you know, this is really important for you. Please do this, right? Some of our clients in the handsome method, their big thing is just drinking water. And then they go, my gosh, I didn't know how much water would impact my bowel movements. My energy levels, me not snacking and eating all day long and how good I feel just by making that one change. But for a lot of people, what we want to do is be like, okay, I'm going to overhaul my diet. I'm going to go and exercise. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. And then it becomes overwhelming. And we begin to fail because we're trying to take on too much where we just go back to some of those basics and focus on plugging those holes to begin with our body's going to respond really well.
(12:53):
Our immune system is going to respond very, very well. So what distinguishes one autoimmune disease from another is simply the tissue that is under attack by the auto immune system and being damaged. So some of the well-known ones are Hashimoto's thyroiditis, which is what we deal with. We've dealt with a lot of women who also have celiac disease. Rheumatory arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Crohn's lupus rises, asthma, diabetes. And even in fertility, many doctors believe that the root of autoimmune disease is directly related to the health of your guts. You may have heard of leaky gut. There are these tiny junctions that line, your intestinal tract, whose job is to mitigate what molecular structures get past that and into the bloodstream and which ones don't when these junctions have become compromised fats and proteins that are not fully digested, as well as waste products, toxins, things like that can be leaked into our blood stream.
(14:03):
This will promote your immune response, eventually creating widespread and chronic inflammation inside the body. And this sets the stage for chronic inflammation and also for eventually possibly auto-immune diseases in the future. So for a more depth understanding of this process, please refer to some of our guides. We will have them linked up in the show notes for you on just a thyroid panel, giving you guys just some, a greater idea of what's kind of going on. If you have been diagnosed with any autoimmune condition, you are statistically at a greater risk for developing other autoimmune conditions and diseases. There's no cure for autoimmune diseases that it can be greatly influenced by the choices that you can make every single day. You have a tremendous amount of power. And as Dr. Terry Wells, the author of the walls protocol, the debt, the best treatment for chronic disease is to create health through lifestyle.
(15:15):
So with this, I want to just tell you guys that our immune conditions can go into remission, same thing with cancer. They can go into remission. That means that they're not flaring up. They're not active, they're not having the daily symptoms and side effects of whatever the condition may be. It doesn't mean it's cured. It doesn't mean it's gone forever, but then there will be residual side effects from it. However, you can greatly improve the quality of your life. And, oh my gosh, she can just feel so amazing. So here's my little disclaimer before making any changes to your diet, you guys need to please consult with your physician on this. So for auto-immune auto-immunity, there are really two recommendations that we typically make inside the Hanson method, but also just in general whether you work with us or you don't there's kind of two places that we like to go.
(16:22):
So depending on where you're at, what you have going on I like to say more of a paleo lifestyle typically because it's easier for people to cut out gluten and dairy products that could be causing a lot of inflammation. So that can be a great place to go. I will be completely honest with you guys doing an AIP or an auto-immune protocol can be very challenging to do on your own. Just simply for having the directions and the things like that. So let's just look at some of the next steps that you guys can do. And if you decide that you would like to try a more holistic, natural approach to your auto-immunity this can help with those symptoms and they can be alleviated. And as I, as I stated earlier, please talk to your, your doctor, your physician about this.
(17:18):
Some of them will tell you that diet and my style have nothing to do with your condition. And I'm here to tell you that it does. You can take my word for it, or you can believe in trust in your doctor either way is okay with me. But I just want to present you guys with this information. So what I sometimes like to do, oftentimes, especially if you have multiple autoimmune conditions I like to start people with an AIP as long as something else. Doesn't Trump. It, as long as we don't see high levels of heavy metals or toxic exposure, that needs to be taken care of first. Okay. So I'm just speaking in general terms. So number one is implementing an AIP approach for 30 to 60 days. If your symptoms have decreased or resolved, then slowly begin to reintroduce those foods.
(18:14):
One at a time with a minimum of four to five days between the re-introduction. Okay. So one of the big things that we take out with an AIP is eggs. As a lot of people have inflammatory responses to those. And so you would want to cut it out for the 60 days and then introduce it, let's say day one of reintroduction, and then don't reintroduce anything else for five days track all of your symptoms, see what's going on. And you really want to pay attention to those symptoms with every introduction, because it can take up to 72 hours for your immune system to respond to the food antigen. So during this time, it is critical that you keep it through diary during this reintroduction process. And honestly, if you start before, I think that's great as well, because then you have a baseline of the symptoms and the things that you have going on after all the food have been, has been re-introduced.
(19:17):
You can have a pretty clear picture on what food is going to work really well for you and which foods are not going to be the best fit. So responses to food antigens vary. It can be anything mental, physical, or both. So beyond the lookout for symptoms like brain fog, fatigue, achiness, like feeling in your stomach, your digestive system, insomnia, digestive distress ranging from diarrhea to constipation, to bloating gas skin eruptions, meaning like acne or rashes on your skin anywhere. If you have maybe what we call Hashi rashes, if those flare up, we know that whatever the food was that you tried to reintroduce is not a good fit for you. Number two, then. So once you complete the AIP, begin with a paleo approach and then eliminate if needed. Okay? So some people who suffer with auto-immune disease conditions have experienced symptoms of relief by simply following just a traditional AI or traditional paleo elimination of grains, dry lagoons, dairy, refined sugar, processed foods, and refined oils.
(20:32):
So they're just moving to a more whole food diet. So some people do just great with that. If you are implementing this approach for 30 to 60 days, you should find that you are feeling a little bit better, maybe a lot better, but if you would like to get a greater relief from this, maybe consider taking out some of those other big allergens that's eggs, seeds, nightshade, vegetables, I'm doing this one at a time pain, again, close attention to how you feel, keeping those food journals, those food diaries on those symptoms can be very, very helpful, help, helpful, and healthy, helping you make those, those adjustments. So let's talk about how to get started with doing this. Okay. So Dr. Terry Walls, author of the walls protocol talks about the importance of nourishing your body at a cellular level for optimal health. This makes so much sense to me.
(21:35):
You guys I, before I read her thing, I heard someone say, we need to saturate our body with nutrition. And I was like, oh, I love that because every single cell in our body is dependent upon nutrients, right? Micronutrients it's dependent upon vitamins, minerals, proteins, amino acids. Those are the same thing, essential fatty acids to really help and support the body, eating your vegetables. So just like your mom said to you eat a wide range of vegetables, we'll do wonders to help you crowd out some of those other foods that you've been trying to avoid and keep you satiated with those nutrient dense foods. Dr. Walls recommends eating six to nine cups of a wide variety of vegetables every day, but you're not, I'm not just talking about strawberries and lettuce and rabbit food. Dr. Walz explains that for optimal health, we need to split up vegetables equally into three different categories.
(22:40):
Okay. Number one, greens, dark leafy greens, lettuce, kale, Swiss, chard, spinach, a rugala color parsley. That's one that I was looking thinking of. These greens are nutrient dense sources of phytochemicals and have a wide range of vitamins and minerals. So super important. Number two, those sulfur rich vegetables. These are your cruciferous vegetables that include broccoli and asparagus cabbage cauliflower. So on and so forth. Reggie's Graham, the onion family like garlic chives, chives, leaks those, and as well as having a variety of mushrooms, those, so her rich foods, vegetables support, glutathione production inside the body and our health goal at eliminating those toxins. And then at number three, colorful vegetables, these are delicious options in every color of the rainbow. So red, orange, yellow, green, blue purple, brightly colored vegetables are rich in those protective antioxidants. If you guys can afford to do so, go organic.
(24:02):
I personally recommend if you can't buy everything, organic wheat, fruits, veggies, those types of things, start with your meat. I find that that to me is more important because you're, you're taking out the hormones that are being pumped into the animals. Okay. So when increasing your vegetable intake, it's also important to consider going organic again, if possible, eating organic produce and eliminates the exposure to chemicals that are known to disrupt hormones and really wreak havoc on the body by blocking hormone receptors on the cells, it is very difficult for your body to release these hormone disruptors because they accumulate in those fat cells. Certified organic food is free of hormone disrupting chemicals, including pesticides and antibiotics. According to the USDA, organic foods should be free from genetically modified organisms as well. Gmos sometimes organic produce can be a bit expensive. It's more expensive than conventionally grown food.
(25:08):
I get it. We all have some tough choices to make. And one of the things that I tell all of my clients is we have to choose our heart sometimes making sacrifices when it comes to maybe going to the movies or our Starbucks so that we can afford more organic produce is really going to be the best option. And we have to choose, do we want to maybe miss out on the movies and going out and getting the daily Starbucks, or do we want to struggle with our health more? I know which one I would pick and hopefully you guys would pick the same thing. All right, moving into this, you guys can. So actually, before I go here, I just have to say this sometimes when we are going or trying to go more organic shopping, your local commerce market can be a really great place to go because those farmers oftentimes, and you can ask them about their farming practices, but they may have organic produce, but they haven't gone to the extensive certifications and validations and farming practices and everything to be quote unquote, certified organic.
(26:24):
And so they typically are able to sell organic curves out of a little bit less of a product or less of a price, but you're still going to get the quality behind it. And it's going to be very fresh because it's not getting picked early and then transported and then, you know, transported again and then shipped to the, the grocery store. And then, and then, and then, right. So the food is going to be just a little bit more flavorful and better for you. All right, moving into the clean 15 and the dirty dozen. So you guys there, you guys can do a quick Google search. The clean 15 are produce items that have the least amount of pesticide residue on them. And they're okay to purchase conventionally conventionally. The dirty dozen, there are actually 14. Those produce items have always strive that I always strive to purchase organic whenever possible, because they do have a higher level of pesticides and residual yucky chemicals.
(27:35):
So some of the things that I try to buy more organic strawberries, apples, peaches, nectarines, celery, grapes, cherries, spinach, tomatoes, sweet bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, hot peppers, and kale and collard greens. Okay. Going back to organ meats or meat, I should say. And we're going to talk just briefly about Oregon needs. You guys, I'm going to be honest with you. The idea of eating liver kind of freaks me out. So I choose to take a supplement for that and put it in a capsule form, but there are a lot of benefits to incorporating organ meat from a healthy animal into your diet. And these, this may be kind of out of your wheel house as it is mine, but I encourage you to give it a try. I do remember growing up in eating some animal organ meat from my dad.
(28:34):
He was a hunter and this is a really common misconception that an animal's liver is filled with toxins. And that's one of the things that I can't get out of my mind. But since it is the liver's job to really filtrate those toxins, it's really not true. Okay. So that's a false misconception. Even of myself, the liver actually stores a multitude of nutrients that are vital for the elimination of toxins. So Dr. Sarah, Sarah, I'm going to butcher this name valley tin recommends adding mild flavored liver from chicken lamb, bison that is grounded in a food processor to ground beef as a way to hide it in nutrient dense that nutrient dense liver into your food. And this can be done in a ratio of two parts, ground beef or bison or whatever. And then one part ground deliver have used if using a stronger tasting liver, such as the report.
(29:39):
Then she recommends a ratio of three to five when it comes to the liver and meat portion. Okay. So of course the quality of the animal is essential when it comes to consuming organ meat or really any meat at all. So strive for grass fed pasture raised or organic organ meats and regular meats when possible, if you're not able to source this quality meat and organ meat locally, consider looking at some options online, such as the grassland beef.com and the grass and grass fed tradition, traditions with an s@theend.com. I'm sure there are other things out there to kind of look at or consider you guys live on any kind of land property and have the ability to raise a tower to, for your, for yourself or your family. That's also a really good option. That's something that we do. We also try to do our best to raise chicken and just different things that we eat so that we can control as much as possible for our diet.
(30:45):
I know that that's not possible for everyone, but again, farmer's market is a great place to go and see if there are anything local to you. And sometimes small towns have a really good options for this. So with that, you guys, I'm going to let you go. I hope today was very impactful in helping you guys kind of figure out what to do, where to go, what next steps do you need to take in your auto-immune condition and journey? And I am just so thankful for all of our listeners. You guys are amazing and just send so much love on Instagram. So I really appreciate you. And like I said, if you found value in today's episode, please share it with your friends, tag us on Instagram. And just let everybody know what you guys having going on. And I will see you guys in the next, before you, I want to make an offer to you guys.
(31:46):
Now there's no pressure here, but if you are like me and you just want to get to the group of the issue and you want help and you want guidance and you just want to know what to do, and you are an action taker and you are highly ambitious. We have several Scots that are open for the Hanson method. Our schedule fills up very quickly. So if you are interested in getting in, filling out an application and joining us, please take the time to visit the show notes and schedule your thyroid breakthrough call. We will be talking to you about what is holding you back, where do you want to go? How do you want to feel, and then give you our personal and professional recommendations on the next step for you so that you can get out of this diverse chaos once and for all, wait,
(32:47):
Please subscribe. If you found value in today's episode, he listening to you and share on Instagram and please tag us.
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free