022 - Infections and Autoimmunity pt. 2 - Action Steps

The Autoimmune Doc Podcast w/ Dr. Taylor Krick

Last episode I discussed the importance of pathogens, infections, and their relationship with autoimmunity, including the 10 Principles of Infection and Autoimmunity. Nearly every autoimmune process is associated with at least one pathogen, and it makes sense because we all know our immune system gets rocked when we get an infection. The highlight of last episode however was that it is rarely ONE INFECTION, but rather the BURDEN OF INFECTIONS from childhood that can lead to autoimmune disease onset or progression.
That's really important, but still begs the question - WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT IT??
In this episode I cover action steps - what labs can you look at, what natural steps can you take, which nutraceutical herbs or vitamins have been shown to help and what is the mechanism of how they can help? To know which action steps are important, there are many questions you need to ask, such as:

• Do you have a chronic "infectious burden"?
• Do you have imbalanced white blood cells?
• What are you trying to fight? Virus? Bacteria? Fungus?
• Where are you trying to fight it?

Then, do you need to:

• Boost NK and innate immune function?
• Boost Th1 and adaptive immune function?
• Stop viral replication?
• Resolve inflammation?
• Decrease fibrosis?
• Promote Tolerance?

Then, you may choose to use natural substances such as:

• Echinacea
• Astragalus
• Zinc
• Vitamin C
• Glutathione
• Baicalan
• Berberine
• Black Walnut
• Pau D'Arco
• Coriolus
• Reishi

The key is that there are many many options, and many important questions to answer, so it's important to work through all the mechanisms and get as complete a picture as possible before you go trying to shift your immune system. Just because your symptoms may match up with an internet article about Epstein-Barr Virus, doesn't mean that the other 490 trillion viruses don't matter. And don't put all of your eggs into the "pathogens" basket - - everything matters!