A Thomsonian Naturopathic Doctor's View of a Common Sense Way Out of the Autoimmune Disease Mess
I am a Thomsonian Naturopathic doctor and follower of Dr Samuel Thomson (the founder 1822). He believed as I have learned from his teachings and my experience that all diseases are actually simple to explain. That the more you complicate disease and medical techniques the more that people are removed from the healing process. One of the results is what you see today in these auto-immune disease epidemic nightmares.
When I was looking at autoimmune diseases in 2004 there were at that time 65 and everyone was shocked at the high number. Sadly these diseases have nearly tripled in that short period of time and today I believe the number is close to 150. But this is not the true number as anyone of those autoimmune diseases can have any number of sub-diseases with their own symptoms. Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) for example, has about 100 sub-diseases.
Autoimmune diseases like RA are a disease where your immune system does not recognize you and attacks you as though you were something foreign. Here is a comparison that shows just how crazy this really is. Imagine, that in your city one day for no apparent reason the police department starts shooting at the employees of the water department, crazy huh?
Modern medicine's answer seems like a good idea, suppress or control the immune system. But wait a minute that is like answering your city's problem by taking away the policemen's guns. This is unrealistic; because like your immune system the police have a vital service to perform. Shouldn't the realistic solution be to find out why your immune system is attacking you in the first place, why the confusion?
Let me see if I can make something clear for everyone so it is easier to understand. When each cell is created by your body it gets an identifying signature a code that says it is part of you and do not attack me. You might say it is like the license plate on your car. Well, when your immune system senses this code it automatically knows that this is you and do not attack. Modern medical science calls this code a major histocompatibility complex (MHC).
As long as you have been alive your immune system has checked each of the trillions of cells in your body two times a day. The question is why, after checking the identification of your cells successfully all your life, does your immune system suddenly attack as in RA? What has happened to these cells of your body such as those in your joints that it once protected and now attacks?
Naturopaths like myself, believe that RA and all other autoimmune diseases are a symptom of a modern lifestyle and genetic weaknesses. Making the pain or symptoms go away without addressing the underlying root of the immune confusion will give your body cause and effect to bring you another autoimmune disease. And so it is, someone with an auto-immune disease tends to get another auto-immune disease and possibly more. It is like the child's game where you knock the peg down with a hammer and another one pops up.
What is needed to prevent the immune system from making these errors? Simply eliminate from the body those things that are causing the immunity confusion. These are things that never have and never will be naturally accepted or beneficial to the human body or mind.
Objective Autoimmune Disease Causes
There are combinations of toxins in everyone's bodies today that have never been there in all of human history. Our bodies were never designed to carry them nor do we have any use for them. Some of them are objectively toxic in nature like the heavy metals aluminum, cadmium, lead, mercury and thallium. Then you have the industrial chemicals that include hydrazine, herbicides, preservatives, dyes, plastics, bisphenol A and rubber products that are released in the environment and they number somewhere close to 85,000 thanks to the EPA and the FDA.
Note (In 2005, researchers from the Environmental Working Group found something very frightening: a cocktail of 287 pollutants - PFOA's, pesticides, dioxins, flame retardants -- in the fetal-cord blood of newborn infants from around the country).
Medical Drugs That Can Cause Autoimmune Diseases
It has been known for some time that medical drugs can trigger an autoimmune disease. Now it has been found that many medical drugs are the direct cause of various autoimmune diseases.
The Prescription Drugs
Alferon N, Allopurinol, Atenolol, Atorvastatin, captopril, Carbamazepine, chlorpromazine, Chlorthalidone, cimetidine, Ethosuximide, gold salts, griseofulvin, Hydralazine, Hydrochlorothiazide, Infergen, Inerferon Alfa, Interferons, Interleukins, Intron A, Isoniazid, Levodopa, Lithium, Lovastatin, Mesantoin, Methimazole, Methyldopa, Methylsergide, Metoprolol, Minocycline, Minoxidil, Nitrofurantoin, Ophthalmic timolol, Oral contraceptives, P-aminobenzoic, PegIntron, Penicillamine, Penicillin, Perphenazine, Phenylbutazone, Phenytoin, Pravostatin, Primidone, Procainamide, Propylthiouracil, Quinidine, Simvastatin, sulfasalazine, sulfonamides, streptomycin, Sulfonamide antimicrobials, Tetracyclines, Tiotropium Bromide inhaler, Trimethadione, Tumor Necrosis factor, Valproic acid.
Why would a medical drug that you take for your health cause you to become sick? Basically medicine is not made to help you to become healthier. Medical drugs are developed to suppress your symptoms. You would never take a pharmaceutical drug to feel healthier as you would a vitamin or herbal supplement.
Mercury in Medicine
Of course everyone knows the dangers of mercury, but modern medicine insists on putting mercury in just about everything they give us and the FDA allows them to, why? Because mercury is cheap and it works to suppress your symptoms even though over the long haul it poisons us all. How dangerous is mercury? It is the second most dangerous element on the planet next to plutonium.
Yet mercury is even found in over the counter medical drugs (OCMD) such as topical antiseptics, stimulant laxatives, diaper rash ointments (yes for babies), eye drops, nose sprays, Preparation H, Calomel body powders and talc, Mercurochrome, Merthiolate, Laxatives containing Calomel, Psoriasis ointments, Calamine lotions, Contact lens solutions and Vaginal gels - especially those that are contraceptives. And of course mercury is highly suspect as a cause in all these new autoimmune diseases and the alteration of our children's behavior such as ADD, ADHD and Autism. Easy to see why we have health problems, isn't it?
Why is the FDA afraid to do what is right and pull mercury out of all of these products? Because the use of mercury is so cheap and the pressure is high in the drug industry to leave it that way.
"Lawsuit to Force FDA to Comply With Law and Ban Mercury" (News of the Day 11/13/2006)
The lawsuit, originally filed in August 2006, asks the court to force the FDA to comply with existing law and regulations and provide proof of the safety and efficacy of mercury in drugs. The suit was filed because the FDA failed to answer issues raised.
Mercury is found in at least 45 different prescribed or over-the-counter drugs, including eye ointments, nasal sprays, and vaccines, most importantly, flu vaccines administered to children and pregnant women.
In a 1999 internal email, obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request, an FDA official wrote that the agency's failure to evaluate the cumulative amount of mercury in medicine "...will raise questions about FDA being 'asleep at the switch' for decades by allowing a potentially hazardous compound to remain...and not forcing manufacturers to exclude it from new products...."
In a second email, the same official wrote: "...the greatest point of vulnerability on this issue is that the systematic review...by the FDA could have been done years ago and on an ongoing basis."
Citizen Filed Petition, Aug 4, 2004, by CoMeD representatives
FDA Sued Over Mercury in Medicines, News of the Day, 11/13/2006
Subjective Autoimmune Disease Causes
Would you be surprised to learn that something subjective like losing a loved one or getting a divorce can trigger an autoimmune disease just liked mercury can. To eliminate these and others you need to address the whole person which takes work and willingness on the part of the patient.
Your Genetic Weaknesses and Autoimmune Diseases
The genetic connection to autoimmune diseases are well established but very few people are aware of the Naturopathic Medical view of genetics and disease. A chain is the perfect object to use as an example of genetic weaknesses. There is a very old saying that goes like this, "a chain is only as strong as its weakest link". So, there is no chain that does not have a weak link and that link can be found by exerting enough stress on the chain to break that link.
Now imagine each organ in your body alphabetically beginning with your adrenals down to your veins is a link in a chain. This chain of organs has a weak genetic link somewhere you just need to apply enough stress (through diet, toxicity and lifestyle) on the organ chain to find the weak link. Knowing you have a weak link how would you protect yourself from getting a disease in that organ? The answer is as simple as the cure for all disease. Simply do not put stress on your genetic chain with your lifestyle.
Those people whose genetic chain is already broken need to reverse what they have been doing all their life. This will take the stress off of the weak organ and give it a chance to recover. By doing the opposite I mean cleansing, detoxing, no refined foods, lots of produce, live juices and lifestyle adjustments.
One of the miracles of the human body is the replacement of each and every cell and organ over an 8 year period. To take advantage of this process you give your body everything it needs to do this to the optimum level. In other words treating your body just as I said above with the best cleansing, detoxing and the most nutritious foods, herbs, supplements and lifestyle adjustments to get the most from this building process.
Specifically What Can You Do?
Naturopaths believe disease and ill health attack you from five different areas of your life. One, what you bring into your body via food, water, air. Two, what is not eliminated; the toxins that build up encouraging the disease to start. Three, a lack of movement and exercise cause poor blood flow encouraging toxic buildup, low oxygen and poor nutrition to cells. Four, the stressful people and situations in the work place and at home. Five, a poor spiritual foundation, no belief in higher power. To reverse auto-immune diseases like RA and bring good health, the above five areas are addressed at the same time with rigorous cleansing, detoxing and lifestyle changes
Few people today realize how intensively healing and powerful Naturopathic medical treatments really are. They think of using a few herbs for this and that disease, drinking an herb tea, do a few yoga stretches etc. Which is as weak as it sounds and is also very far from the truth.
The truth is that Naturopathic Medical therapies are intense, invasive and rigorous. Juice fasting, colon, liver and kidney cleansing and detoxing, cold sheet treatments, hydro therapy, caster oil packs and blood cleansing using substantial doses of herbs, etc. All of these treatments plus making permanent changes in your lifestyle and more are part of Naturopathic Medicine's treatments to undo RA and all auto-immune diseases. Anyone who gives these techniques their complete attention and focus will see RA and any disease including cancer disappear into their past.
I know, I used the above techniques on myself against a life threatening disease twenty years ago and they wiped my health slate clean as when I was a boy. I am 65 now; healthy and strong as a horse with zero diseases and zero medications.
