Immune System and Inflammation
Your immune system defends your body against attack from harmful pathogens, injury, or other exposures you come in contact with. But this complex system of defense can be compromised by many lifestyle factors, including offending foods, toxins, and poor hygeine.
Our immune system is constantly working to protect your body from the insult of foreign invaders. It can be thought of as the military of the body. Sometimes, these defenses can be on over-drive, or be under-functioning. There are many factors that can influence the tone of your immune system. An optimally functioning immune response requires good communication between the wide variety of immune cells, called to action by all sorts of stimuli. Sometimes, when there is a lot of immune activation, it can lead to inflammation throughout the body, which can lead to many uncomfortable symptoms. It is intentional to have a brief period of inflammation, because it is important to let the body fight the illness. In general, this should last for a short period, but sometimes, the inflammation lingers and the body is not efficient at effectively ridding the body of the pathogen or toxin.
Examples of Immune Deficiency:
- These are generally divided into 2 categories, primary and secondary.
- Primary Immune deficiency is genetic and generally discovered early in life. These conditions are well managed by medicine and involve replacement of deficient immunoglobulins, or other targeted therapies.
- Secondary Immune Deficiency disorders are the most common and are acquired by other conditions. The most extreme example is AIDS caused by infection with HIV. Certain cancers, prolonged auto-immunity, and some medications (like corticosteroids or other medications for auto-immune disease or cancer). Diabetes, nutritional deficiency, chronic infections, toxin exposures and aging are also causes of immune deficiency.
Examples of immune system over-activity:
- Auto-immune diseases occur when the body mistakenly attacks it’s own tissues, thinking it is a harmful invader.Dealing with this kind of illness can be challenging, as your body’s defense systems are working against it. If left untreated, serious medical issues may occur and even organ damage. There are hundreds of auto-immune illnesses, but common ones include Hashimoto’s Thyroid Disease, Celiac Disease, Crohn Disease, and Rheumatoid Arthritis.
- Hypersensitivity and Allergic Reactions – Sometimes the body over-reacts to substances that don’t mean any harm, like pollens or foods. This over-reaction can cause sneezing, rashes, swelling, digestive problems, headache, or at it’s extreme, anaphalaxis.
- Other types of Chronic Inflammation: When the immune system is consistently activated, creating a low and slow level of inflammation, it can create uncomfortable symptoms. This can include arthritis, cardiovascular disease, hepatitis or glomerulonephritis, weight gain, fatigue, neurological illnesses, and many others.
What causes Immune Dysregulation and Inflammation?
There are many possible causes that are known, and also many that are still unknown. The immune system is deeply interconnected to other systems in the body – including the nervous system, hormonal system, and fascia system. There are feedback loops that communicate between all of these systems, and when there is a problem in one, there can be problems in all systems. But some patterns reveal the importance of restful sleep patterns, appropriate nutrition status, good stress management, regular exercise and reduced toxicity to having optimal immune function and adequate levels of inflammation.
At Fusion Natural Health, we provide programs to rebalance your immune system and get your body back on track. Following a detailed discussion of your symptoms and history, and possible blood tests, our team can help immune dysregulation and map out an effective treatment plan, that will can execute together with plenty of support and guidance.
This may include changes to your diet, managing stress levels, and incorporating natural medicines and lifestyle adjustments, to restore and retrain your immune system, so that you can experience vibrant health again.
If you have been experiencing symptoms that may be connected with immune or inflammatory diseases and are looking for answers, schedule an appointment with Fusion Natural Health today!
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