How to Protect Yourself

What can we do to protect ourselves and our families, and our immune systems? If you know what can contribute to disease it’s easier to know how you can help yourself. Dietary factors, use of household cleaners, emotional stress—these all have to be watched and managed –I go over each of these in detail in the Autoimmune Epidemic. Studies show that patients with an autoimmune disease also do better if they build a wellness plan that involves reducing stress hormones through a daily habit of meditation and whatever form of exercise they can tolerate. Patients also do much better if they follow “the autoimmune diet,” which means consuming foods that are anti-inflammatory, or a whole foods, rather than a processed foods, diet. I have a detailed description of the autoimmune diet in the book. One also needs to work with a doctor who is open to treating you not just with drugs but also with dietary changes, including making sure you’re receiving adequate amounts of the main supplements that have been shown in clinical studies to help autoimmune disease patients, such as omega fatty acids, Vitamin D, antioxidants, probiotics, and glucosamine.