The gut-joint axis: cross reactive food antibodies in rheumatoid arthritis
While the research has supported this for some time, clinicians have been slow to catch up. Bottom line is that the GI tract has a strong ability to tone up or tone down the entire body’s immune response. Insult the GI tract too much with food allergies and a signal will go out to the rest of the body that we’re under attack, raising our overall defense and increasing likelihood of our body mistakenly attacking our own cells. An elimination diet is absolutely essential for anyone with an autoimmune disease.
Additionally, our view of autoimmune disorders is changing. While we have always viewed AI conditions as dysfunctions of the immune system that need to be surpressed, evidence is increasing that the immune system is actually doing what it’s supposed to be doing, but that the tissues themselves (DNA in Lupus, myelin sheat in MS, Type II collagen in RA…) are being excessively damaged. This is what needs to be fixed, not the immune system.