Triggered Immune System to Blame for Chronic Illnesses

Many people with chronic illnesses think that their symptoms are being caused by some “disease”, or some pathogen. Though this appears to be true to the common individual, the reality is, the symptoms are being caused by your own immune system.

When people develop a chronic illness, it is a result of several years of daily triggering before the disease manifests. Even if the person couldn’t feel they were being triggered, the immune system was becoming more and more aggravated overtime. The most common ways for the immune system to be triggered is through the what you are putting in your mouth, what you are inhaling, and stress. If you have a chronic illness, the truth is, you’ve been triggering yourself in one of these three areas repeatedly for an extended period of time.

Immune System Memory Explained

When the immune system is triggered repeatedly, it becomes conditioned to secrete inflammatory molecules on a circadian rhythm. In addition, the mast cells grow in population which increases their inflammation inducing potential. Overtime, this inflammation compounds into symptoms, but that’s not the end of it. Even after the stressor is no longer present, the immune system will still continue to fire inflammatory molecules. This is because it has been conditioned to secrete these because of the extended history of triggering.

To be able to eliminate the symptoms in a chronic illness, you must balance the immune system. If it has an extended history of being aggravated, there is only one way to be successful. What is it? You must identify all of the things which are triggering your immune system in your diet, environment, and lifestyle. If done correctly, this cannot only recondition your immune system, but it can improve symptoms rather quickly.

Recondition the Immune System

To be able to overcome your illness, you MUST recondition your immune system. This is quite a difficult task unless you know exactly what you are doing. To be successful in retraining your immune system, you must do 3 things: remove everything that is irritating your immune system, takes supplement that are proven to modulate mast cells/Tregs and retrain the limbic system. In the section below, I will cover the 3 stages of this healing process.

3 Stages of Healing Immune System

Stage 1: Eliminate All Immune Irritants

Diet: If you are eating foods that are not being properly digested, proteins can leak into the blood and cause an immune response. This can take hours to develop after eating. For this reason, most people don’t associate the foods they are eating with the symptoms they are experiencing. To be able to overcome chronic illness, you must be fully aware of how the foods are eating are affecting the way you are feeling. This is one of many things I help people accomplish when I am coaching them.

To learn about how to accomplish this, read more about the plant-based elimination diet. You first create a foundation of safe foods, and then you add foods that are riskier back one at a time to see how they affect your symptoms. You then eat only the foods which agree with your immune system. Sounds simple right? Well it is, but it takes a lot of work and willpower. Nonetheless, the benefits are priceless.

Environment: If you have a chronic illness, you MUST rule out mold as a potential reason. Despite what most people think, indoor air quality is a major component of your health. If you are already dealing with a chronic illness, inhaling mold toxins can make things MUCH worse. You can do various types of tests for mold in your home, but NONE of these tests will tell you how sensitive your immune system is to it.

The reality is, mold testing has some value, but it’s NOT full proof at all. My favorite methods of testing are the petri dish test, ERMI if done properly, mycotoxin urinalysis, and the home mycotoxin swab test. To learn more about mold illness, search my website. There are plenty of articles on the topic.

Stress: There are various forms of stress. It can be physical, emotional, due to poor sleep, trauma related and more. The goal is to remain in balance at all times. With this in mind, you must observe how these various forms of stress affect your thoughts and the way you feel. If there is something in your life that is a persistent stressor, you must either remove it or change your story surrounding it.

To heal from chronic illness, persistent stressors must be eliminated unless you utilize healthy coping mechanisms like slow deep breathing. If you perform this before or after certain stressful activities, it can insulate you from the stress. I will discuss this in further detail later in this article.

Key Point to Remember: This step in your healing journey cannot be taken lightly. It is the foundation to your success. You cannot expect supplements to fix immune dysfunction when you are being constantly triggered. In my experience, the majority of progress comes from identifying these triggers, not from simply taking supplements. They both are important, but the supplements cannot be fully effective when the irritants are still present. Make the commitment to yourself to make the changes as you become aware of these things that are causing you problems. Don’t let your preferences or cravings dictate your decisions, let your body guide you back to normalcy.

Stage 2: Take Immune Modulating Supplements

Probiotics: You must be careful with probiotics when you have a chronic illness. Many of these strains actually increase histamine which can be an issue. My favorites are Bifidobacterium strains, Lactobacillus rhamnosus. Lactobacillus plantarum and bacillus subtilis. Though I do see benefit in taking these, I find that prebiotics are more critical.

Prebiotics: The reason prebiotics are more important is because they feed a diverse range of species in the gut. My favorite prebiotics are inulin, acacia senegal, arabinogalactan, bee propolis, colostrum and apple pectin. If taken in a proper rotation, these can feed the immune-modulating bacterial communities, which are so important for reducing inflammation and symptoms.

Binders: People with chronic illnesses often have a significant toxic burden. To improve symptoms, you have to increase elimination through the bowels and remove some of these toxic substances. The best way to accomplish this is by using binders, which can remove mycotoxins, heavy metals, and other synthetic irritants. My favorite binders are listed in this article: best mycotoxin binders.

Phytonutrients: Certain plant-derived phytonutrients can modulate the immune system and improve gut health. My favorites are baicalin, apigenin, chlorogenic acid, resveratrol, and naringin. You can also get these in superfoods, and some medicinal herbs.

Other: There are also several superfoods that people forget about. My favorites are raw colostrum, chlorella, cocoa powder, wild blueberries, broccoli sprouts, dark honey, and more. Your goal should be to fill yourself up with high-fiber, nutrient-dense foods to continue supporting your goal of reducing inflammation.

Key Point to Remember: All of the supplements you choose to take must be proven to calm the immune system down. Specifically, they need to have a balancing effect on the mast cells or regulatory T cells(Tregs). If they do not have this property, then it is likely to be a risk. In addition, be careful with any supplement that is not plant-derived. Though it may seem like it helps a lot initially, eventually your immune system realizes it’s NOT the real thing. At that point, it often creates a low-grade sensitivity to it.

Stage 3: Retrain Limbic System

Though this is listed as the third stage, you are welcome to start retraining your brain early on. My favorite method for retraining is performing an ultra slow deep breath while listening to binaural healing frequencies. This is the method I used to overcome my PTSD symptoms. It only took about 1 hour daily for two weeks to see incredible results. The longer I did it, the more the benefits compounded.

Within six months, the things which would typically cause me to have a PTSD episode where no longer triggering me. It was nothing short of miraculous. Trust me, this is the optimal way to retrain your brain, increase your stress resistance, and wipe out the cellular trauma from the past. Out of everything I’ve tried everything for over 20 years, NOTHING can compare to it.

Once you get used to performing the slow breathing technique two times per day as mentioned above, it’s time to use it in another productive way. Anytime you notice your body getting stressed, remind yourself to start performing the slow breathing technique until you feel better. This can be done in nearly any setting, including while you’re at work, driving, listening to someone, watching television, walking in the park, or while doing nearly anything else.

The key is to remain aware of your breath as often as possible throughout the day. When the reminder comes to your awareness, take a few deep breaths until you feel the stress fully released. This will eventually recondition your body to a low-stress environment, dramatically reducing inflammation. In addition, it will increase your resistance to stressors.

Interested in learning how to perform this slow breathing technique? Take a look at the section below. It covers it all step-by-step. if you want even more information on it, read my article- Slow Deep Breathing – Healing through Breathwork.

Breathing Technique Instructions

So, how do you perform this life-changing breathwork exercise? It’s simple. You breathe in through your nose as slowly as you can until no air is left. This can take 8-20 seconds depending on your experience level. You then hold your breath from 2-5 seconds, and release the air through your nose until there is NOTHING left. As you release out, you can envision stress leaving your body through your legs, one side of your body at a time. You can picture this stress as a vapor leaving your body as you exhale until there is NO more air left.

Once you are done with the breath, repeat it continuously for 25-30 minutes. This should be done twice daily, ideally first thing in the morning and last thing at night. If you have severe health issues, you may need as long as 40 minutes twice daily to gain full control of your symptoms. Regardless, it’s a small price to pay for the symptom relief.

If you need some audio to stay focused, you can use binaural beats. These frequencies have been shown to have a positive effect on the brain. In my experience, combining these frequencies with slow deep breathing practice can be immensely powerful. Refer below for one of my favorite healing frequencies:

Frequently Asked Questions- Healing from Chronic Illness

Can this approach work for all chronic illnesses?

It has the potential provide relief for nearly any chronic illness. All chronic illnesses are driven by the same thing, inflammation. The inflammation is caused by your own immune system. If you can identify why your immune system is being triggered and make changes, then you can reduce symptom severity, and increase your quality of life.

Can food sensitivities trigger my illness symptoms?

Absolutely. Most people who have chronic illnesses have hidden food sensitivities to things they are consuming on a regular basis. Until they eliminate the foods with the highest allergy potential, it is very difficult to see how much they are playing apart in their symptoms. This is why I recommend the plant-based elimination diet. Though it may be difficult to transition to initially, it is priceless in terms of what it can do for your health.

How is it possible to identify all of your triggers?

You must first be convinced that these triggers are playing a part in your health problems. If you are, then it’s time to start documenting things closely. For example, I have my clients create a dietary/symptom log to document how they feel, what they take, and any other observations they may have. We then go over the flareups that occurred during the week and identify what caused it.

This allows us to modify our approach and reduce the frequency of flareups. As we flare up less and less often, the immune system becomes more resistant to stress. This is the basis for my approach for healing the immune response. The less you aggravate the immune system, the more it will normalize on its own. If you want to beat your illness once and for all, you MUST perform the detective work to identify the causes of your flares.

Why is the elimination diet so important?

The elimination diet allows you to identify which foods are agreeing for you, and which ones are causing you issues. The reason this is so important is the foods that are low-grade triggers are often the ones that are preferred or craved. The only way to be able to see the truth about a food is to create a solid foundation of plant-based safe foods, and then re-introduce one food at a time after it has been removed for at least 10 days. After you reintroduce the food, you then monitor symptoms to determine if it’s a match or not.

If symptoms get worse, then that food is not to be consumed for an extended period of time. Eventually over time, you find a diet that keeps you full, but also doesn’t aggravate your immune system. This is the foundation for success in your battle to overcome your chronic illness. Without it, the supplements have far less potential.

Is mold sensitivity common in chronic illnesses?

Yes! Indoor air quality issues are VERY common amongst those with chronic health complaints. If you have headaches, brain fog, chronic fatigue, neurological issues, breathing or lung related problems, sinus problems, skin disorders, etc., this can all be caused by mold exposure. Though it doesn’t directly cause many of these things, it can set the immune system off like nothing else can. The reason is, mold toxins can make the body attack its own tissues. This causes it to malfunction in various ways and in little time, the problems pile up.

What are the most common problems for people with chronic illnesses?

Most people with chronic illnesses have a dysfunctional mast cell response, imbalanced regulatory T cells, digestive insufficiencies, gut microbiome issues, neuroinflammation, and/or a detoxification impairment. Though you must approach each case differently with the supplements, the initial phase of identifying irritants is pretty much the same. In my experience, this is where most of the relief comes from anyways . Though you may have to get people over the hump with the supplements, you can get them out of the frequent flareups by making changes in diet, environment, and stress.

What similarities do all chronic illnesses have?

Every condition you have ever heard of has one thing in common, INFLAMMATION. Studies have shown that inflammation is the primary cause of all symptoms people experience. The funny thing is, our own immune systems cause this inflammation. When the immune system recognizes a threat or stressor, it responds by secreting inflammatory molecules. If this threat or stressor is persistent, it will continue to send out more and more inflammatory molecules until you experience chronic symptoms. This is the cascade of inflammation that we must stop by identifying all of the triggers and making the proper lifestyle choices. Though it may seem intimidating, this approach is both sustainable and rewarding.

Why am I so confident about this approach?

I have seen this work on myself, my daughter, and plenty of clients. Though everyone had been diagnosed with different conditions, the commonality amongst us was chronic inflammation. Once the underlying triggers were identified and eliminated, progress became notable. Overtime with more changes to our diet, environment, and lifestyle, the immune system was able to balance itself out. I tried to beat my chronic illness for 15 years with supplements, and then realized that this approach provided more relief in just two years. By targeting the immune system, it has been a complete game changer.

Heal Immune System to Beat Chronic Illness

To be able to heal yourself from a chronic health issue, you must identify what is triggering it to worsen and then be willing to make the changes. Like Hippocrates said “ Before healing someone, first ask them if they are willing to stop doing the things that made them sick”. Ask yourself the same question? Are you willing to investigate everything you’re doing and identify how your decisions are playing a part in your symptoms? It takes a special person to want to do something like this. In my experience, if you give it your all, you eventually get to where you wanted it to be.

Do yourself a favor, don’t get lost in the diagnosis that has been placed upon you. Think of your condition as a chronic inflammatory issue, not whatever it has been called. This allows you to look at it differently, attempting to figure out what is driving the inflammation so that you can regain control of this situation. From there, you can assist your healing with supplements that calm the immune system down and do not compromise any other part of the body. After that, you retrain your brain from the extended stress it has experienced. This is a true recipe for healing. Give it a try and see just how profound this change in thinking can be for your health.

If you are struggling with a chronic illness or have any questions related to health, don’t hesitate to reach out. My purpose in life is to help people in this situation and I feel blessed to have the opportunity to do it.

Happy healing everyone!

Matt Nedin, B.S.
Certified Holistic Nutritionist
EndSickness, Founder
Phone: (734) 846-8619
WhatsApp: +17348468619
Email: endsickness@gmail.com