Functional Medicine
Autoimmune Disease
Functional Medicine
Autoimmune disorders vary greatly but often dramatically impair the quality of life on a daily basis.
It’s not unusual for our patients to report that they have multiple unrelated symptoms and when we investigate, they usually have an underlying autoimmune disorder. Rather than treating the symptoms like conventional medicine, our functional medicine approach is to treat the immune system (where the issue stems from) and focus on restoring normal immune function.
Our experienced doctors can provide you with the appropriate personalised treatment to help manage your condition so you can live and enjoy life more.
A healthy immune system protects us from getting ill, but in people with autoimmune conditions, the immune system mistakenly attacks itself because it can’t tell the difference between your own cells and foreign cells (bacteria and viruses). If we liken the body to a battlefield, the soldiers that fight are essentially being sent to the wrong battlefield.
There are more than 80 different types of autoimmune disorders. They are chronic, frequently lead to lower quality of life, and can even be life-threatening.
Here is a list of common autoimmune disorders:
Rheumatoid arthritis
Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)
Thyroid diseases (inc. Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis & Graves Disease)
Raynaud’s
Crohn’s Disease
Lupus
Psoriasis
Multiple sclerosis (MS)
Type 1 Diabetes
Coeliac Disease
Symptoms of autoimmune disorders are many and varied but some of those that are reported to us most frequently include:
At this time, the exact cause of autoimmune diseases is unknown, however, there are a number of risk factors including:
A genetic predisposition puts you at higher risk of developing an autoimmune disease. However, if you have a family history of autoimmune disease, this doesn’t necessarily mean you will get the same autoimmune condition – or have one at all.
It is thought that environmental stressors can be triggers. Examples of this could include living in a house with mould, moving into a house with new carpets exuding fumes, occupation, smoking, exposure to fuel, and diet.
Being overweight can be a major factor in autoimmune disorders as can a very stressful lifestyle. It can cause inflammation in the body which can in turn have a detrimental impact on the immune system.
Unfortunately, once an autoimmune disorder has been triggered and the immune system is already subpar, it can often lead to the development of other conditions.
At Harpal Clinic we take a step back. Instead of addressing symptom relief like conventional medicine, we go to the source of the problem – the immune system. We hope to get you to a place where you are comfortably managing your condition and you can start to enjoy your life again.
The treatments we utilise can include one or a combination of the following:
Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN): The body has its own innate intelligence and we utilise this with LDN which tricks your body into making more endorphins that modulate immunity.
Micro immunotherapy: This reprograms the immune system using very low doses of the immune system’s chemical messengers.
Lifestyle changes: We work with you to reduce stressors to restore the fight or flight response to ‘normal’. We also work to restore the stress or adrenal gland’s function so that it can produce cortisol, the stress hormone, in optimal quantity.
Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT): Some people’s hormones are so irregular that it impacts their daily life, relationships, and can make them feel out of control. We can utilise BHRT to help optimise the hormones.
Nutrition: We address nutrition as certain foods can trigger inflammation, which in turn can have a significant impact on the immune system.
Each patient is treated as an individual, receiving treatment personalised to their condition and their body’s needs. However, in our experience, the sooner and the more intensive the initial phase of treatment (front-loading), the better results we have managing the condition.
