5 Common Autoimmune Digestive Disorders

5 Common Autoimmune Digestive Disorders

One in every five people living in the United States has an autoimmune illness. This includes debilitating conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, celiac disease, multiple sclerosis, lupus, irritable bowel syndrome, and a host of other illnesses. Unfortunately, National Institutes of Health anticipates that the number of people who have some type of autoimmune disease will continue to rise in the coming years. In this blog post, we will go over 5 of the most common autoimmune digestive disorders. I’ll also share a few tips that can help ease the symptoms you may be experiencing. But before we get to that, let’s first talk about what causes autoimmune conditions.

Causes of Autoimmune Digestive Disorders

Immune system problems result in abnormally low or excessive immune system activity. Overactive immune systems cause the body to attack and harm its tissues, resulting in systemic autoimmune diseases. 

Immune deficiency illnesses reduce the body's ability to fend against intruders, making it more susceptible to infection. The immune system may produce antibodies in reaction to an unknown trigger that, instead of fighting infections, the immune system attacks the body's own tissues.

When the body's regular immune responses go haywire, they attack the body itself instead of targeting infections, resulting in autoimmune illness. 

Four major characteristics define autoimmunity

1. Self-reactive immune cells capable of assaulting the body are not adequately eliminated or controlled. 

2. A mismatch between effector T cells, which produce an immunological response to defend the body, and regulatory T cells, which dampen the immune response. 

3. An immune system that is always on the lookout.

4. An inflammatory response throughout the human body.

To sum it up, when you have an auto-immune disorder, your body’s check engine light is on! Your body is attacking itself, which means you have low energy, your gut hurts a lot, your hormones feel out of whack, and you probably feel at a complete loss as to how to feel better.

The Role of Pharmaceutical Medications vs Functional Medicine

A standard healthcare provider will prescribe pharmaceutical medications as a traditional treatment for autoimmune disorders. While these medications are helpful in alleviating symptoms, they can also have serious adverse effects. Corticosteroids, including prednisone, methylprednisolone, and dexamethasone, reduce inflammation in people with autoimmune illnesses. On the other hand, long-term corticosteroid use can raise the risk of type 2 diabetes and lead to weight gain, infection vulnerability, and osteoporosis.

Immunosuppressive drugs, such as methotrexate and cyclophosphamide suppress the body's immune system. These medicines have been linked to liver damage and increase the risk factors for infections and leukemia. While traditional medicine has few alternatives for treating autoimmunity, a Functional Medicine approach can help to prevent and even cure the disease's progression.

Rather than treating symptoms with medication, functional medicine seeks to find the root cause of the autoimmune disorder, which is likely the result of dysfunction in the digestive system. The GI tract plays the most important role in affecting overall body health. The goal of treatment in a functional approach is to do a systematic review of the gut microbiota and any GI symptoms to determine why the body's immune system is turning on itself. While getting to the root of the problem, we can also help alleviate some of the symptoms of autoimmune diseases.

Interested in talking more about your autoimmune disorder and how functional medicine might be a good fit for you? I would love to hear your story.

The 5 Most Common Autoimmune Digestive Disorders and a Functional Approach to Healing Them

1. Ulcerative Colitis

Ulcerative colitis is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in which the immune system's aberrant reactions create inflammation and ulcers on the large intestine's inner lining.

Ulcerative colitis can strike at any age, but persons between the ages of 15 and 30 are more prone to acquire the disease. Common symptoms include diarrhea, passing blood in your stool, and abdominal pain, which varies from person to person. Genes, aberrant immune responses, the microbiome, and the environment are all factors that lead to this autoimmune disorder.

Functional Treatment Approach

In cases of ulcerative colitis, there are often microbial imbalances, vitamin D inadequacy, and vitamin B12 deficiency, which can all be discovered through diagnostic laboratory tests. 

Treatment requires changes in nutrition, such as a whole foods elimination diet low in fermentable oligo-, di-, monosaccharides and polyols (FODMAPs) and free of common allergens, such as bovine dairy, soy, gluten, and maize. 

To help rebalance gut bacteria, we often need to restore the mucosal lining and rectify nutritional deficiencies, introducing dietary supplements in stages.

What You Can Do Today

• Use a strong antimicrobial such as colloidal silver.

• Use an antibiofilm agent such as NAC.

• Optimize your vitamin D levels with a vitamin D + K supplement.

• Abstain from dairy products.

• Take magnesium before bed.

• Take activated charcoal to help with diarrhea.

2. Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune and inflammatory disease in which your immune system mistakenly assaults healthy cells in your body, resulting in inflammation (painful swelling) in the affected areas. RA primarily affects the joints, which are frequently attacked at the same time. The hands, wrists, and knees are the most common joints affected by RA and the primary location of joint pain. The lining of a joint affected by RA becomes inflammatory, causing joint tissue destruction. Long-term or chronic pain, instability (loss of balance), and deformity can result from tissue injury (misshapenness). RA can also affect other tissues in the body, including the lungs, heart, and eyes, causing complications.

The influence of genetics, environment, age, and sex on the development of autoimmune arthritis, such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, and ankylosing spondylitis, has long been recognized. Scientists have recently discovered that the bacteria and other microbes that live in the digestive tract, generally known as the gut microbiome, play a role as well. People with rheumatoid arthritis have higher amounts of a bacterium called Prevotella copri, lower levels of a type of bacteria called Bifidobacterium, and more potentially pathogenic (disease-causing) bacteria in their digestive tracts.

Drugs like Mycophenolate Mofetil are commonly used to help patients with RA. However, because these medications work to prevent the immune system from destroying healthy tissue, they also decrease the immune system's ability to attack and fight external invaders, placing you at a higher risk for viruses, parasites, and bacteria such as helicobacter pylori (h. pylori) and e. coli. As a result, your immune system is less efficient in protecting you from major illnesses and diseases like viral infections and cancer. These medications can also put you at risk for uncontrolled bleeding and liver damage.

Functional Treatment Approach

The goal of an integrative approach will be to improve nutrition and digestive function while also removing harmful environmental exposures and providing ongoing coaching. 

You'll eat an anti-inflammatory elimination diet centered on a majority of whole, low glycemic index foods, beneficial fats (MUFAs and omega-3 fats), fiber, and phytonutrients (no processed foods, sugar, gluten, or dairy). 

Suppose you have an altered intestinal permeability, as determined by a specific test from your stool or antibodies to lipopolysaccharide. In that case, we will adjust nutrient levels based on laboratory results such as vitamin D or omega-3 fatty acids.

Those with high levels of heavy metals like mercury or lead (tested in whole blood or urine) will also be treated to get rid of them.

What You Can Do Today

• Move Regularly – Yoga, walking, water aerobics – Stronger muscles help support your joints, and improved flexibility aids joint function.

• Alleviate Stress – Meditation has been shown in studies to boost mood, reduce distress, and reduce pain. It could be as easy as concentrating on your breathing.

• Remove Trigger Foods – Coffee, all sugar except natural fruits, all citrus fruits, wheat, corn, and soy.

• Incorporate Anti-inflammatory Ingredients like Omega-3 fatty acids, Turmeric, and Capsaicin

• Use CBD –Cannabinoid receptors can be found in a wide range of tissues throughout the body, from frontal cortex neurons to the gastrointestinal system and immune cells. According to the "entourage theory," the combination of THC and CBD produces a synergistic effect in which other phytocannabinoids may also participate, implying that utilizing cannabis rather than synthetic cannabinoids as an analgesic or therapeutic agent may be beneficial. I suggest RA clients use “Pure CBD” and “Pure Curcumin” from Biorains. Click HERE to purchase.

All autoimmune disorders trace their roots to Leaky Gut. That is why I put together a FREE 30 minute Leaky Gut Webinar to teach you more about how your gut functions and what you can do to ensure its optimal health.

3. Hashimoto's Disease

Hashimoto's disease (Hashimoto's thyroiditis) is an autoimmune disorder that can lead to hypothyroidism or an under-active thyroid. Hyperthyroidism, or an overactive thyroid, is a rare side effect of the condition.

The thyroid gland is a tiny butterfly-shaped gland located at the front of the neck. The immune system creates antibodies that attack the thyroid gland in persons with Hashimoto's disease. Excessive numbers of white blood cells, which are part of the immune system, build up in the thyroid, causing the thyroid to become damaged and unable to produce enough hormones. Thyroid hormones regulate how your body uses energy; therefore, they impact practically every organ in your body, including how your heart beats.

Hashimoto's illness can affect anyone, but it is more frequent in middle-aged and young women. Thyroid hormone replacement with levothyroxine is the most common treatment. However, even after a hormonal replacement has normalized thyroid function, many people with Hashimoto's still suffer from chronic fatigue, dry skin, hair loss, chronic irritability, and anxiousness, which negatively impact their quality of life.

Functional Treatment Approach

Several clinical trials examining the efficacy of dietary therapies for autoimmune illnesses such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, celiac disease, autoimmune thyroiditis, and rheumatoid arthritis have been conducted. Iodine, selenium, vitamin D, and gluten all play a role in the treatment of Hashimoto's patients, according to a 2017 review. The authors found that a gluten-free diet may be beneficial for individuals with Hashimoto's, regardless of whether or not they have celiac disease. Despite the possible benefits of this dietary change, they predicted that the gluten-free diet's restricted nature could negatively influence the quality of life.

Therefore, the most helpful treatment for Hashimoto's is The Autoimmune Protocol (AIP). AIP is a complementary approach to chronic disease management that focuses on giving the body the nutritional resources for immune regulation, gut health, hormone regulation, and tissue healing while eliminating inflammatory stimuli from diet and lifestyle. While avoiding processed and refined foods and empty calories, the AIP diet provides balanced and comprehensive nourishment. Because sleep, stress management, and movement are all essential immune modulators, the AIP lifestyle encourages them.

What You Can Do Today

• Focus on nutrient-dense foods like organ meat, seafood, and vegetables.

• Remove grains, legumes, nightshades (such as eggplant and peppers), dairy, eggs, coffee, alcohol, sugar, oil, and food additives from your diet.

• Focus on getting adequate sleep, managing stress, and living an active lifestyle while avoiding overtraining.

Hashimoto’s is one of the more complex and technical autoimmune disorders out there. If you have these symptoms and this feels hard to get your mind around, you are not alone. Book a call with me and I am happy to talk through more of it with you.

4. Crohn's Disease

Crohn's disease, like ulcerative colitis, is an inflammatory bowel disease characterized by chronic inflammation in all or part of the gastrointestinal tract. According to current reports, the United States has the highest prevalence rate globally, with roughly a quarter of all IBD patients living there as of 2017. Crohn's disease most commonly affects the intestinal walls (lower small and large intestine); however, it can affect any layer of the GI tract.

It has similar symptoms to ulcerative colitis (being that they are both IBDs): abdominal pain, diarrhea, fever, exhaustion, and weight loss are the most common symptoms, but malnutrition due to small intestine injury is also a possibility.

Crohn's disease may be linked to Westernization, including an urban lifestyle, greater pollution exposure, a shift in food, access to antibiotics, and improved hygiene. Other indicators are environmental toxins.

Corticosteroids such as cortisone, prednisone, prednisolone, hydrocortisone, methylprednisolone, beclometasone, and budesonide are commonly used to treat Crohn's disease. Corticosteroids are intended to decrease inflammation and bring active Crohn's disease into remission.

However, these medicines have side effects such as Cushing's syndrome, acne, weight gain, and dyspepsia, which can lead to severe adrenal insufficiency if abruptly stopped. Hypertension, diabetes, and osteoporosis are among some of the other adverse effects.

Functional Treatment Approach

Finding the root causes of inflammation and addressing them by supporting the body's natural healing mechanisms is the goal of an integrative approach to any autoimmune condition, including Crohn's.

A functional practitioner can work with a patient to identify inflammation triggers using specialized testing, such as a validated comprehensive stool study or reproducible food sensitivity testing.

Triggers can include specific foods, disruptions in the microbiome involving bacteria, yeast, parasites, viruses, increased intestinal permeability (leaky gut), or a lack of beneficial bacteria.

Individualized, patient-specific testing informs a personalized and targeted plan of care that emphasizes lifestyle changes such as nutrition, exercise, mind-body practices, and supportive supplements. Many treatment options keep a patient safe from potentially hazardous medications.

The Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) and the Elimination Diet are two commonly recommended Crohn's diets. Both of these nutrition programs emphasize the elimination of food triggers and the consumption of healthy foods that do not aggravate symptoms.

Incorporating a mind-body practice into any autoimmune treatment plan is also essential. Studies have shown mind-body practices reduce sympathetic nervous system stimulation (our fight or flight response) and allow our bodies' innate healing systems to function.

Many supplements, particularly anti-inflammatory agents like Omega 3 fatty acids and curcumin-based products, have been shown in studies to be effective in treating Crohn's disease. Additionally, zinc glycinate, N-acetyl glucosamine, and Vitamin D3 all aid in the repair and restoration of the gut lining.

What You Can Do Today

• Take a Probiotic (such as Restorflora) to help reinforce good bacteria in the gut and defend against bad bacteria.

• Take a Prebiotic (Such as Megaspore)to increase the efficacy of the probiotic and help improve the function of your normal intestinal bacteria.

• Take Fish Oil, which contains Omega-3 fatty acids (Be careful when taking this while on any blood thinners).

• Get Acupuncture to release endorphins (chemicals that block pain) and strengthen your immune system to help fight infection.

• Use biofeedback therapy to learn more about how your body responds to pain and learn to control your responses to body temperature, perspiration level, blood flow, and brain waves.

5. Celiac Disease

Celiac disease (or coeliac disease) is a long-term digestive and immune disorder that affects the small intestine. It is one of the most common autoimmune diseases. Eating gluten-containing foods causes the disease. Celiac can cause long-term digestive problems and prevent your body from getting all the nutrients it requires. A genetic predisposition, environmental factors, and the gut's health, especially the balance of the microbiota and the level of intestinal permeability, all interact to cause it. Blood tests can be run to determine if you have higher levels of certain antibodies in your blood. Symptoms of celiac disease include diarrhea, fatigue, abdominal pain, anemia, loss of appetite, and joint pain.

Celiac disease affects 1.4 percent of the general population globally and is getting more widespread, even though it typically goes undetected for years.

Functional Treatment Approach

A Functional Medicine approach to treating Celiac Disease will allow for accurate and fast diagnosis to prevent symptoms and intestinal harm.

Diarrhea and steatorrhea are two gastrointestinal symptoms linked to Celiac Disease (or fat in the stool due to an inability to digest it properly) and loss of weight, and an overall failure to thrive. 

Malabsorption of nutrients symptoms associated with Celiac are iron-deficiency anemia, mouth canker sores (aphthous stomatitis), chronic fatigue, impaired growth, itchy blistering skin rash (dermatitis herpetiformis), reduced bone density, hormone imbalances and reproductive problems, and neurological symptoms.

Celiac illness can only be treated by adhering to a gluten-free diet, which means avoiding all gluten-containing foods. For the most part, following this diet will relieve symptoms, treat current gut damage, and prevent future damage. 

Within weeks of starting the diet, you'll see a difference. Although most children's intestinal linings recover completely, research has revealed that in many adults, even if symptoms improve, the repair may be partial.

Other treatments are being tested to reduce harm and inflammation from accidentally consuming gluten. Gluten-specific enzymes (proteases) that target gluten and digest it into minute bits in the stomach before passing into the duodenum and some types of probiotics to alleviate gastrointestinal symptoms are examples. Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, for instance, prevents Gliadin from affecting intestinal permeability. 

In addition, larazotide acetate is being researched as a treatment for celiac disease symptoms. This medicine is a zonulin antagonist, which prevents gluten from passing the intestinal mucosal barrier, where it might cause autoimmunity by blocking the disassembly of tight junctions.

What You Can Do Today (besides gluten elimination)

• Eliminate dairy and corn – Many people with Celiac have cross-reactivity with these other two foods. Try taking it out to see if it makes you feel even better.

• Increase B Vitamins (6, 12,2) – Gluten provides you with all of your B vitamins, so you need to replace those (I recommend Liposomal Hydroxy B12).

• Add leafy greens to your diet – Leafy greens contain B vitamins and can help increase them.

• Take WheatRescue Enzymes – your body is most likely missing some Enzymes to break food down. These will help process foods, especially if you have any cross-contamination.

• Take a dairy-free immunoglobulin concentrate (such as MegaIgG2000) that supports healthy digestion, binds environmental toxins, and maintains healthy gut barrier function.

Other Autoimmune Diseases

Even with all of this information, we only scratched the surface of the world of autoimmune diseases. Some other, less common autoimmune diseases include:

• Vasculitis – an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation and narrowing of blood vessels.

• Systemic Lupus Erythematosus – the most common form of lupus wherein the immune system attacks its own tissues, causing widespread inflammation and tissue damage in the affected organs.

• Psoriatic arthritis – an autoimmune condition that attacks healthy tissue, which affects your skin and your joints.

• Sjögren Syndrome – sjögren syndrome affects the joints, thyroid, kidneys, liver, lungs, skin, and nerves.

• Pernicious anemia – a megaloblastic anemia resulting from a deficiency of cobalamin (vitamin B12), which in turn is caused by a lack of intrinsic factor.

• Primary Biliary Cirrhosisa – a chronic autoimmune liver disease in which the bile ducts in your liver are slowly destroyed.

• Autoimmune hepatitis – autoimmune hepatitis affects the liver, causing inflammation that occurs when your body's immune system turns against liver cells. Diagnosis involves blood tests and a liver biopsy.

• Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) – GERD has not historically been considered to be an autoimmune disease but caused by stomach acid burning the esophagus. A 2009 study questions that acid reflux causes the esophagus to release inflammatory cytokines that attract inflammatory cells like interleukin-8, interleukin-6, and others.

• Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia – a rare type of anemia where your bone marrow doesn't make enough red blood cells.

• Neuromyelitis optica – an autoimmune disorder that affects the nerves of the eyes and the central nervous system, which includes the brain and spinal cord.

• Autoimmune pancreatitis – chronic inflammation of the pancreas caused by the body's immune system attacking the pancreas.

Autoimmune disorders are on the rise and they come in all shapes and sizes. 

Fortunately, there are treatment protocols. That said,they require very specific, unique testing of multiple systems in your body. In my experience as a functional health practitioner, the source, more often than not, is in the gut. This includes a leaky gut, a parasite, bacteria overgrowth, and most likely a combination of several factors. 

If you’d like to talk more specifically about any diagnosis you have received, or any undiagnosed symptoms you are experiencing, book your free consultation today.

Talk soon,