|
Autoimmune Diseases - Find Out What You Need For Great Health Here!
So let’s list some of them here, so that you know when I use these terms, I am referring to basically the same thing. The synonyms for this term I will use on this page include:
So what is an auto immune disorder? It is a disease or disorder that is caused by an inappropriate immune response to one’s own tissue. This response is considered to be a dysfunctional immune response to healthy processes. Well, that sounds complicated. What that means is that your immune system, which should normally attack foreign invaders, or the bad guys, is out of whack. As a result, your immune system is overactive, attacking the good guys, or attacking itself. Click on the above link for a quick refresher on the immune system. With an autoimmune disorder, your body mistakes healthy tissue for a foreign invader and attacks it, leading to the destruction of healthy tissue.
What are common or typical auto immune disorders? Some common autoimmune diseases are listed below:
An example of an autoimmune response that is not classified as an autoimmune disease are allergies. In this case, a harmless substance like dust or pollen is mistaken for a potentially dangerous one, and as a result, the immune system can react with an aggressive response. The human immune system is highly complex. Our white blood cells or lymphocytes are primarily responsible for fighting infection. Within this class of white blood cells are several types of T-Cells. In the case of auto immune disease, the delicate interaction of all of the components has been thrown out of whack. In some cases, such as the case with rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and human aging, we can see that Killer T-cells show a weakened response to foreign invaders. There are also chronic inflammatory conditions associated with this, which is evidence that the immune system is trying to fight off what it thinks to be an invader. With Multiple Sclerosis, the way the body attacks itself is by destroying the myelin sheath, a protective coating that insulates the nerve fibers. This destruction leaves scars or plaques that short-circuit the electrical signals conducted by the nerve fibers. While it is unknown what causes this disorder, as well as other neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS many studies suggest that oxidative stress plays a major role in this respect. With Crohn’s disease as one of the auto immune diseases, there is still debate by some as to whether it is truly belonging in this category. Click here for a more in depth discussion of Crohn’s treatments and disease. It is clear from the foregoing that to successfully reverse the effects of autoimmune diseases, we must do two things: combat oxidative stress, and re-balance the immune system. Is there something you can do that naturally takes care of both requirements?
Autoimmune Diseases - Reverse Oxidative Stress With Glutathione
Click here for a brief refresher about glutathione, what it is and what it does. Click here to learn about oxidative stress and the role of antioxidants in combating this process. Glutathione is your body’s own master antioxidant, which means that if you keep your glutathione levels high, you will recycle all other antioxidants you take and keep them working longer. In this way, reducing oxidative stress, glutathione can be very helpful in reversing the damage done by autoimmune diseases.
Autoimmune Diseases - Re-Balance Your Immune System With Glutathione
So should you be afraid to boost your glutathione levels? Many have expressed concern, that if their immune system is already overactive, that raising glutathione will only make it worse. Actually, studies have shown just the opposite to be true. Glutathione is a pretty smart molecule. When someone is immunodeficient, or their immune system is too weak, glutathione boosts it up. But, when someone has one of the autoimmune diseases, glutathione does something different. It re-balances it. Now I am not going to go into detail explaining how in each specific disease state, it does this, but the best way to explain it is like this. In a normal healthy functioning immune system, there are optimal levels of all its components, like white blood cells, different types of T-cells, B-cells, and so forth. What glutathione does is make sure that you maintain these optimal levels. There are also little “scouts” that your immune system sends out that are used to tell your body whether a tissue is friend or foe. These little scouts are called cytokines. Cytokines cause inflammation, which is why many of these autoimmune diseases are known for their inflammation. Glutathione keeps the cytokines honest, so they stop tagging good guys as bad guys. They only tag bad guys bad, and good guys good, so that your killer cells only end up destroying what should be destroyed. So basically glutathione knows what to do and gets busy doing it, correcting whatever imbalance a person may have, whether they are immunodeficient, or have one of the autoimmune diseases. There is a new study just out that is investigating both important roles for glutathione even further. More research is ongoing. To view the study, “Glutathione: A key player in autoimmunity”, dated July 2009, please click
here.
(this link opens in a new window)
This study concluded, in part, that “Glutathione, a tripeptide, is the principal component of the antioxidant defence system in the living cells. Glutathione has been demonstrated to have diverse effects on the immune system, either stimulating or inhibiting the immunological response in order to control inflammation.” For more specific information on the role of oxidative stress and altered immunity in a specific autoimmune disease that goes beyond the scope of this page, please
contact us.
Glutathione effectively addresses both roles to help to combat autoimmune diseases. Click here for more information about the
best way to raise glutathione.
Return from Autoimmune Diseases to Immune System.
|
