About Autoimmune Diseases

Autoimmune disease is an inflammatory condition that causes pain in the joints and the tissues surrounding the joints.

When the body’s immune system is attacking itself resulting to inflammation, this is called autoimmune arthritis.

When the medical profession cannot determine the cause of an illness, we often accuse the body’s immune system (call it the body’s local police) of being overactive, (for turning against their seemingly “innocent citizens”) when disturbed tissues are attacked.  When doctors see redness and swelling, they use medicine that directly counteracts the “police’s gunfire”. This usually makes the severity of the “anti-terrorist battle” quieter.  Therefore, conventionally, the mainstay of treatment is non-steroidal anti-inflammation medications, or cortisone, etc.  If the situation continues to deteriorate, we will resort to stronger “immunosuppressive drugs” such as methotrexate, or Imuran, etc.

What are the consequences?  Since the real “invaders” are still there, calming the symptoms (tying up the police’s hands) actually allows the real criminals to survive, and the health problem has not been solved, just muted.

Let’s use an analogy:

What is happening is that the real job is being carried out by conscientious and competent “policemen” who detect “aliens”. They perform their due diligence to eliminate and attack the potential terrorists.  Their military action, however, could hit “innocent bystanders” or the tissues and organs whereby these aliens have attached themselves into.

Who are these aliens?
Occult (hidden) infections – from species such as Chlamydia, Mycoplasma, Borrelia viruses, etc. Route of entry is often the respiratory system, gum or root canal, gut, etc.  It is virtually impossible to sterilize the gum, mouth and gut.  If the microorganisms are still in the bloodstream (the body’s “highways”), the white blood cells, interferon, etc. (the “local police patrolling”) will usually take care of them.  But once the invaders have penetrated the tissues that are not well vascularized, and therefore not easily reachable by the white blood cells, such as the joints, whitish-looking nerves, these bacterial or viral aliens will stay there for years.

However, when the body’s defense agents (like the “FBI”) become aware of their presence, they will mount an attack, send bullets and bombs into the hiding places of the invaders which are of course, the infected tissues.  As a result, the following conditions arise in these tissues:

Liver: hepatitis, Gut: colitis, Joints: arthritis, Thyroid: thyroiditis,

Nerves: neuritis, and scarring (sclerosis)

Possible treatments:
Dr. M. Brown, a professor at Harvard University, proposed treatment of these autoimmune diseases with antibiotics, such as Minocycline, Clindamycin, etc.  (www.rheumatic.org), This type of treatment seems to be quite successful.  But there are drawbacks.  A low dose antibiotic needs to be used on a long-term basis and the antibiotics can’t readily penetrate the tissues.  We have to soak the highway with antibiotics so that one day, through the process of cells’ turnover, the deeper layer would come to the surface and may allow the penetration of these antibiotics.  Higher doses, on the other hand, would cause gastrointestinal side-effects aside from too much rapid “die off” of these organisms.  The extra fragmented pieces of these ”aliens” would cause more intense immune responses.

Our Approach to Treating Autoimmune Diseases

IV H2O2 treatments

  • H2O2 is a well-known killer of germs –Its action is against viruses, bacteria, fungi and semi bacteria. It mostly works by creating a high oxygen environment in which the germs can’t survive.

  • I had good clinical success using this treatment, but now, I have a more powerful treatment that does not irritate the veins which is High dose Ozone therapy. I prefer this approach.

High dose (10 pass) Ozone therapy

  • It delivers more ozone in a shorter amount of time and better saturation of red blood cells with oxygen without damaging it.

  • The 10-Pass method describes an ozone therapy treatment during which 200 ml to 220 ml of a patient’s blood are drawn under negative pressure. The blood is then mixed under positive pressure with 200 ml of ozone at a concentration of 70 ug/ml, and then re-infused into the patient’s vein, also under positive pressure. This is repeated 10 times and can be administered 1-2x/week for 10 sessions initially.

The 1st 5 treatments:
The patient may develop flu-ish symptoms (die-off effect) because the Ozone would initially break down and flush out the infectious agents and toxins into the blood stream.

6th to 10th treatment:

This effect will gradually subside and will not require additional treatments. You can use symptoms like chills, low grade fever, achiness as a yardstick of improvement.

After 10 treatments:
A follow up consultation needs to be booked with me, so I can analyse your progress and revise your treatment plan if necessary.

Food Allergy

Foods are foreign substances until they are broken down into basic ingredients that look like the body’s own parts.  If all the foreign imported letters can be broken down into single alphabets and strokes, our ‘language police” would not ostracize them as foreign invaders.  If food particles get into our gut not fully processed by our digestive system, immune responses are aroused once coupled with leaky filters”, like what some people have in their gut walls.  This causes colitis at the bowel wall.  The extra “unarrested alien” that got into the blood stream will even arouse systemic immune responses or inflammation at distant sites causing arthritis, dermatitis, etc.

Unconventional treatment:
Identifying food allergies will eliminate many arthritic conditions.  Use of digestive enzymes and natural remedies that seal the leaky gut often settle many inflammations of the body.

Heavy metals
Heavy metals such as lead (example: from lead pipes), mercury (from amalgam fillings) enter our bodies as contaminants.  When they get attached to our tissues, usually at receptor sites normally used by their proper activators. The extra “horns” will attract the body’s “anti-terrorist” forces to attack the “horned slices”.

Chelation Therapy:
Using agents that have the ability to “magnetically bind” to these heavy metals will free the body of these contaminants.  In this case, the body does not need to send defenses to attack it’s own tissues.  It is wise to remove these heavy metals because they compromise normal body functions. (http://www.drhui.com)

Other supplements

Low dose Naltrexone

In conclusion, the medical profession needs to take these concepts into consideration instead of using stronger and harmful immunosuppressive drugs as their main method of dealing with autoimmune diseases. .  I am suggesting strongly, that there are, in some cases, more natural, less harmful ways of ridding the body of disease, than by the use of heavy handed medications, and these methods are not being given center stage, as they should.

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* Dr. Shiela Torabi provides top internal medicine care to the following communities: Seven Oaks, Grapevine, Visalia, Tulare, Shafted, Dela, Alame, Lamo, Edison.

* For up to a 1.5 hour visit, Dr. Sheila Torabi charges $525 per visit and she accepts Medicare and some private insurances. Please bring your previous labs to your appointment.