Alopecia universalis can occur at any age, and is currently believed to be an autoimmune disorder. The exact cause of alopecia universalis is not known, although genetics and autoimmune disorders appear to play a role. The disease occurs when the immune system, which is meant to fight off infection from foreign invaders like bacteria, mistakenly attacks the hair follicles instead. Total hair loss including eyebrows is common. Alopecia universalis is the most extensive form of alopecia areata and the most difficult to treat.
Autoimmunity: What it is and How it Occurs
We are facing an epidemic of allergic (60 million people), asthmatic (30 million people) and autoimmune disorders (24 million people). Autoimmune diseases include rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, celiac disease, thyroid disease, and the many other hard-to-classify syndromes in the 21st century. These are all autoimmune conditions, and at their root they are connected by one central biochemical process: A runaway immune response also known as systemic inflammation that results in your body attacking its own tissues.
Your immune system is your defense against invaders. It is your internal army and has to clearly distinguish friend from foe -- to know you from other. Autoimmunity occurs when your immune system gets confused and your own tissues get caught in friendly cross-fire. Your body is fighting something -- an infection, a toxin, an allergen, a food or the stress response -- and somehow it redirects its hostile attack on your joints, your brain, your thyroid, your gut, your skin, or sometimes your whole body.
This immune confusion results from what is referred to as molecular mimicry. Conventional approaches don't have a method for finding the insult causing the problem. Functional medicine provides a map to find out which molecule the cells are mimicking.
Interestingly, autoimmune disorders occur almost exclusively in developed countries. People in poor nations without modern amenities like running water, flush toilets, washing machines, and sterile backyards don't get these diseases. If you grew up on a farm with lots of animals, you are also less likely to have any of these inflammatory disorders. Playing in the dirt, being dirty, and being exposed to bugs and infections trains your immune system to recognize what is foreign and what is "you."
In this country, autoimmune diseases when taken all together are a huge health burden. They are the eighth leading cause of death among women, shortening the average patient's lifespan by eight years. The annual health care cost for autoimmune diseases is $120 billion a year representing nearly twice the economic health care burden of cancer (about $ 70 billion a year).
Unfortunately, many of the conventional treatments available can make you feel worse. Anti-inflammatory drugs like Advil, steroids, immune suppressants like methotrexate, and the new TNF-alpha blockers like Enbrel or Remicade can lead to intestinal bleeding, kidney failure, depression, psychosis, osteoporosis, muscle loss, and diabetes, not to mention overwhelming infection and cancer.
When used selectively these drugs can help people get their lives back. But they are not a long-term solution. They shouldn't be the end of treatment, but a bridge to cool off inflammation while the root cause of the disease is treated.
Recovering from Autoimmunity: Addressing the Root Causes of Inflammation
An example of a patient's experience from the Dr's point of view:
'My patient Sam ended up on a long misadventure through the medical system before he came to see me. For years he went from doctor to doctor getting all kinds of labels for his problems but no real help in treating them.
This hard-working, once healthy trade professional had suddenly developed a series of inflammatory conditions including chronic sinus and prostate infections. Many doctors gave him many antibiotics for these infections.
Shortly thereafter, he developed severe chest pains and went to the emergency room. While he was there, doctors found swollen lymph nodes and told him he had lymphoma, a form of cancer. For three weeks he lived in despair until the biopsy results came back. It turned out he didn't have cancer but an autoimmune disease. Which autoimmune disease? The doctors weren't quite sure ...
He had many abnormal blood test results -- like low white blood cell and platelet counts, high levels of auto-antibodies of all types (antibodies that attack our own tissues), high immunoglobulins (the foot soldiers of the immune system), and autoimmune thyroid disease. But doctors had a hard time putting their finger on what was wrong. They couldn't label him.
Meanwhile, Sam developed metabolic syndrome and weight gain (pre-diabetes) as a result of the runaway inflammation in his body.
Here is a quote from one his specialist's notes:
"Whether he has lupus or Sjogren's syndrome is a bit unclear. Regardless, he merely needs observation and no therapeutic intervention at this time."
This unfortunately is all to common. What exactly did they plan to observe, how bad he felt? Or would they just wait for him to get worse before intervening?
That's when he came to me. Using a functional medicine approach, a new way of thinking about the underlying causes and imbalances in chronic disease, I began by asking Sam some simple questions. Then I went hunting for toxins, allergens, and infections -- all common causes of inflammation -- and found the real causes of his symptoms. He had taken so many antibiotics that altered his gut flora or bacteria and promoted yeast overgrowth. Fungus and yeast flourished in his body, growing between his toes, on his toenails, in his crotch, and scalp. He had Helicobacter pylori bacteria in his gut. He had a leaky gut and reacted to many foods, including dairy and gluten. He was exposed to toxins at his job and had high levels of mercury. And he had chronic sinus infections.
So we went to work cleaning house. I treated his yeast with anti-fungals and the H. pylori with antibiotics, got rid of his food allergies, fixed his gut, detoxified him from metals, and cleaned up his sinuses. Then I helped heal his immune system by supporting it with nutrients. I gave him zinc, fish oil, vitamin D, herbs, and probiotics, and put him on a clean, whole-foods, allergen free, anti-inflammatory diet.
At his next follow-up visit, I asked Sam how he was doing, expecting him to say that he felt a little better. However, his response surprised even me. He said he felt fine.
"What about the fatigue?" I asked.
"I have great energy."
"What about the bloating and gas?"
"Nope."
"What about the reflux?"
"Gone."
"What about your sinuses and chronic phlegm?"
"All clear."
"What about your memory and concentration problems?"
"All better."
And he lost 15 pounds.
When his labs came in, they confirmed what he told me -- they were all back to normal. His white cells increased and his immune markers calmed way down.
Sam's results simply reflect the application of a new model of thinking about problems called Functional medicine -- it's a way to get to the root of health problems and treat the underlying causes of what ails you instead of suppressing symptoms with medications.'
If you have an autoimmune disease, here is what you need to think about and do.
Nine Steps to Treating Autoimmune Disease
1. Remove all dairy from the diet, especially cheese.
2. Check for hidden infections -- yeast, viruses, bacteria, Lyme, etc. -- with the help of a doctor, and treat them.
3. Check for hidden food allergens with IgG food testing. Water kefir is the best natural remedy for allergies.
4. Get tested for celiac disease, which is a blood test that any doctor can do. Removal of gluten from the diet will reduce inflammation considerably.
5. Get checked for heavy metal toxicity. Mercury and other metals can cause autoimmunity. Cilantro is an amazing remover of heavy metals.
6. Fix your gut. Probiotics such as kombucha and water kefir are necessities for establishing a healthy environment in the gut. Avoid probiotics that contain dairy as this will lead to further inflammation.
7. Use nutrients such as omega 3's (walnuts, flax seed), vitamin C, vitamin D (sunlight), and probiotics to help calm your immune response naturally. Click here for more details on anti-inflammatory foods.
8. Exercise regularly -- it's a natural anti-inflammatory.
9. Practice deep relaxation like yoga, deep breathing, biofeedback, or massage, because stress worsens the immune response.
Give these steps a try -- and see if you don't start feeling less inflamed. Treat the underlying causes of your illness and you will begin to experience vibrant health once more.
Autoimmunity: What it is and How it Occurs
We are facing an epidemic of allergic (60 million people), asthmatic (30 million people) and autoimmune disorders (24 million people). Autoimmune diseases include rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, celiac disease, thyroid disease, and the many other hard-to-classify syndromes in the 21st century. These are all autoimmune conditions, and at their root they are connected by one central biochemical process: A runaway immune response also known as systemic inflammation that results in your body attacking its own tissues.
Your immune system is your defense against invaders. It is your internal army and has to clearly distinguish friend from foe -- to know you from other. Autoimmunity occurs when your immune system gets confused and your own tissues get caught in friendly cross-fire. Your body is fighting something -- an infection, a toxin, an allergen, a food or the stress response -- and somehow it redirects its hostile attack on your joints, your brain, your thyroid, your gut, your skin, or sometimes your whole body.
This immune confusion results from what is referred to as molecular mimicry. Conventional approaches don't have a method for finding the insult causing the problem. Functional medicine provides a map to find out which molecule the cells are mimicking.
Interestingly, autoimmune disorders occur almost exclusively in developed countries. People in poor nations without modern amenities like running water, flush toilets, washing machines, and sterile backyards don't get these diseases. If you grew up on a farm with lots of animals, you are also less likely to have any of these inflammatory disorders. Playing in the dirt, being dirty, and being exposed to bugs and infections trains your immune system to recognize what is foreign and what is "you."
In this country, autoimmune diseases when taken all together are a huge health burden. They are the eighth leading cause of death among women, shortening the average patient's lifespan by eight years. The annual health care cost for autoimmune diseases is $120 billion a year representing nearly twice the economic health care burden of cancer (about $ 70 billion a year).
Unfortunately, many of the conventional treatments available can make you feel worse. Anti-inflammatory drugs like Advil, steroids, immune suppressants like methotrexate, and the new TNF-alpha blockers like Enbrel or Remicade can lead to intestinal bleeding, kidney failure, depression, psychosis, osteoporosis, muscle loss, and diabetes, not to mention overwhelming infection and cancer.
When used selectively these drugs can help people get their lives back. But they are not a long-term solution. They shouldn't be the end of treatment, but a bridge to cool off inflammation while the root cause of the disease is treated.
Recovering from Autoimmunity: Addressing the Root Causes of Inflammation
An example of a patient's experience from the Dr's point of view:
'My patient Sam ended up on a long misadventure through the medical system before he came to see me. For years he went from doctor to doctor getting all kinds of labels for his problems but no real help in treating them.
This hard-working, once healthy trade professional had suddenly developed a series of inflammatory conditions including chronic sinus and prostate infections. Many doctors gave him many antibiotics for these infections.
Shortly thereafter, he developed severe chest pains and went to the emergency room. While he was there, doctors found swollen lymph nodes and told him he had lymphoma, a form of cancer. For three weeks he lived in despair until the biopsy results came back. It turned out he didn't have cancer but an autoimmune disease. Which autoimmune disease? The doctors weren't quite sure ...
He had many abnormal blood test results -- like low white blood cell and platelet counts, high levels of auto-antibodies of all types (antibodies that attack our own tissues), high immunoglobulins (the foot soldiers of the immune system), and autoimmune thyroid disease. But doctors had a hard time putting their finger on what was wrong. They couldn't label him.
Meanwhile, Sam developed metabolic syndrome and weight gain (pre-diabetes) as a result of the runaway inflammation in his body.
Here is a quote from one his specialist's notes:
"Whether he has lupus or Sjogren's syndrome is a bit unclear. Regardless, he merely needs observation and no therapeutic intervention at this time."
This unfortunately is all to common. What exactly did they plan to observe, how bad he felt? Or would they just wait for him to get worse before intervening?
That's when he came to me. Using a functional medicine approach, a new way of thinking about the underlying causes and imbalances in chronic disease, I began by asking Sam some simple questions. Then I went hunting for toxins, allergens, and infections -- all common causes of inflammation -- and found the real causes of his symptoms. He had taken so many antibiotics that altered his gut flora or bacteria and promoted yeast overgrowth. Fungus and yeast flourished in his body, growing between his toes, on his toenails, in his crotch, and scalp. He had Helicobacter pylori bacteria in his gut. He had a leaky gut and reacted to many foods, including dairy and gluten. He was exposed to toxins at his job and had high levels of mercury. And he had chronic sinus infections.
So we went to work cleaning house. I treated his yeast with anti-fungals and the H. pylori with antibiotics, got rid of his food allergies, fixed his gut, detoxified him from metals, and cleaned up his sinuses. Then I helped heal his immune system by supporting it with nutrients. I gave him zinc, fish oil, vitamin D, herbs, and probiotics, and put him on a clean, whole-foods, allergen free, anti-inflammatory diet.
At his next follow-up visit, I asked Sam how he was doing, expecting him to say that he felt a little better. However, his response surprised even me. He said he felt fine.
"What about the fatigue?" I asked.
"I have great energy."
"What about the bloating and gas?"
"Nope."
"What about the reflux?"
"Gone."
"What about your sinuses and chronic phlegm?"
"All clear."
"What about your memory and concentration problems?"
"All better."
And he lost 15 pounds.
When his labs came in, they confirmed what he told me -- they were all back to normal. His white cells increased and his immune markers calmed way down.
Sam's results simply reflect the application of a new model of thinking about problems called Functional medicine -- it's a way to get to the root of health problems and treat the underlying causes of what ails you instead of suppressing symptoms with medications.'
If you have an autoimmune disease, here is what you need to think about and do.
Nine Steps to Treating Autoimmune Disease
1. Remove all dairy from the diet, especially cheese.
2. Check for hidden infections -- yeast, viruses, bacteria, Lyme, etc. -- with the help of a doctor, and treat them.
3. Check for hidden food allergens with IgG food testing. Water kefir is the best natural remedy for allergies.
4. Get tested for celiac disease, which is a blood test that any doctor can do. Removal of gluten from the diet will reduce inflammation considerably.
5. Get checked for heavy metal toxicity. Mercury and other metals can cause autoimmunity. Cilantro is an amazing remover of heavy metals.
6. Fix your gut. Probiotics such as kombucha and water kefir are necessities for establishing a healthy environment in the gut. Avoid probiotics that contain dairy as this will lead to further inflammation.
7. Use nutrients such as omega 3's (walnuts, flax seed), vitamin C, vitamin D (sunlight), and probiotics to help calm your immune response naturally. Click here for more details on anti-inflammatory foods.
8. Exercise regularly -- it's a natural anti-inflammatory.
9. Practice deep relaxation like yoga, deep breathing, biofeedback, or massage, because stress worsens the immune response.
Give these steps a try -- and see if you don't start feeling less inflamed. Treat the underlying causes of your illness and you will begin to experience vibrant health once more.