The Autoimmune Doc Podcast w/ Dr. Taylor Krick

This is an important episode. When you understand what could be driving your autoimmunity, you have your solutions - STOP SCRATCHING! (listen to the episode if that doesn't make sense!) Many things have been associated with the onset or exacerbation of autoimmune disease, but this easy-to-understand concept (as originally taught by Dr. Tom Culleton DC) really simplifies The 5 Drivers of Autoimmune Disease, which are:
1 - Foods and Gut Health. It's now well-established that leaky gut and food sensitivities can cause or contribute to autoimmune disease, and this is an important first place to start. This can be addressed through lab testing or dietary protocols such as an Elimination Diet or Autoimmune Paleo Protocol, as discussed in this episode, and on several related videos on our website.
2 - Toxins. Toxins disrupt the immune system, create a stress response, and lead to inflammation. Toxins can both induce and exacerbate autoimmunity, including Mercury, Aluminum, BPA in plastics, air pollution in general, mold and mycotoxins, and many more. These can be tested through Cyrex Array 11 or through various other testing forms that are discussed in the episode. Detox Detox Detox!!
3 - Stress. Almost anyone with an autoimmune process going on can tell you that stress makes it worse. Stress can't be avoided, but it can be MANAGED. Stress is not just job, life, bills, relationships, but there is also physical stress (head trauma or other injuries, sedentary lifestyle, overtraining) and toxic stress (see #2) that triggers the same stress response from the pituitary that will flare inflammation, decrease immune defenses, and make autoimmunity worse.
4 - Hormones. Hormone fluctuations can cause autoimmune flares, especially CORTISOL (and epinephrine aka adrenaline - the stress response), INSULIN and blood sugar spikes and/or crashes, and ESTROGEN, which is why autoimmunity often flares around puberty, pregnancy, and peri-menopause.
5 - Infections and Pathogens. Bugs such as COVID, influenza, Epstein-Barr Virus, Herpes Simplex Virus, Cytomegalovirus, Parvovirus, Lyme disease, Yersinia, H. Pylori, and many more are associated with autoimmunity. It's not always an "infection" like a weekend flu though.
“In many cases it is not a single infection but rather the ‘burden of infections’ from childhood that is responsible for the induction of autoimmunity.”

Infections and autoimmunity - friends or foes? Trends Immunology 2009 Aug 30(8) 409-14 Kivity et al.

Each autoimmune puzzle is different, but all 5 of these drivers need to be addressed for success!

Parasites are interesting. That word means different things to different people, some people are terrified of the idea of worms living inside their body, but at the same time parasite cleanses are super trendy on Instagram and social media, and yet some people think that parasite cleansing is the solution to all health problems....which one is it?
Parasites are paradoxical in the research world, many areas of the world that have endemic parasitic infections have virtually no autoimmunity, and helminth therapy is actually an incredibly promising treatment for certain autoimmune cases. The reason that parasites are so relevant in the population of people that I see is because of our junk food supply, the toxins everywhere, and the rampant metabolic and immune disruption - - but they aren't always the ONLY culprit, they show up more often with the presence of heavy metals, Candida, SIBO, mold and other toxins. When they are recognized as bad, they elicit a strong and specific immune response that I talk about in detail in the podcast, triggering a Th2 immune response via IL-4 and activating mast cells and histamine, and often keeping someone stuck there (sound familiar??) as they become allergic to more foods, chemicals, and more sensitive to their world. They can also drive inflammatory bowel processes, cause liver and gallbladder issues, disrupt neurotransmitters, infect the brain, and much more.
While I certainly do NOT believe that parasites are a piece of every person's health puzzle, I do think "parasite cleansing" can be incredibly helpful in the right situation. In this podcast I share my personal opinions and personal experiences that I have had with parasites (including when I passed one!) and many stories of helping people with them, and they are pretty drastic stories. I also talk about the testing available and what I personally look for, as well as the supplements and protocols I recommend for people and how those are given, and basically everything that I know and think about parasites!
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Long Haulers UPDATED (video)

Long Haulers Mechanisms (video)
SARS-CoV-2 and the gut-brain-lung axis (video review of a research paper)
From the onset of the pandemic through the last (almost) 3 years, we have continued to find out new things about how people respond after coronavirus infection. Not surprisingly, there is more and more research coming out indicating that an increased autoimmune response may be responsible for many of the lingering symptoms.
Early on in the pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 was nicknamed "The Autoimmune Virus" because it appeared to be triggering more of an autoimmune response than other viral infections. As science has continued to evolve our understanding, it turns out that COVID infection is absolutely associated with increased autoimmunity - both exacerbation of existing autoimmunity as well as new autoimmunity.
Autoimmunity is the process in which the body "loses self tolerance" for tissues of the body and begins to initiate an immune "attack" against self-tissue (thyroid, joints, brain, gut, etc) as if they were a foreign invader - which leads to chronic inflammation, tissue damage, and a gradual loss of function, and can eventually become a diagnosed autoimmune "disease" like Type 1 Diabetes or Rheumatoid Arthritis.
One of the ways that viruses can trigger autoimmunity is by means of "molecular mimicry", or what can be described as a case of "mistaken identity". In this podcast I describe it like this - I have a blue F150 pickup truck, extended cab, long bed. There are many blue F150s on the road, so what if the police were looking for a blue F150 and they accidentally pull ME over instead of the bad guy they are looking for? That's a case of mistaken identity. Well COVID antibodies can also misdirect their immune attack, and they can accidentally attack many tissues, and in this episode I go through dozens of different autoantibodies that have now been associated with COVID - - thyroid autoantibodies, neurological autoantibodies, mitochondrial autoantibodies, and more.
We now know that COVID infection can lead to a myriad of symptoms, and they can all be described as the "long-haul", but the mechanisms can be all quite different, so they are NOT all the same thing, and it's not fair to group everyone together as "long-haulers". You could have POTS, dysautonomia, clotting/coagulation, neurological (depression, brain fog, and TONS of anxiety...), digestive changes, fatigue, or you could develop post-COVID diabetes or arthritis.....as science continues to learn more are we going to find that it's ALL autoimmune in nature?? Only time will tell, but I believe that treating any condition as if it were an autoimmune case is never a bad approach - decrease inflammation, balance the immune system, and look for (and remove) any root cause triggers!

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So - yup, toxins are a big problem. We are exposed to tons of them, and if our bodies aren't detoxifying properly, they can accumulate or cause damage to our cells, organs, and systems and wreak havoc on our lives. So how do you make sure you aren't overflowing your bucket? Here are 10 Important Concepts:

1. Bucket Theory explains everything - keep this in mind if things are NOT getting better. SOMETHING is still filling the bucket from somewhere if you are actively trying to detoxify and leading a non-toxic life and you aren't improving. You have to empty the bucket faster than you are filling - you either aren't emptying it well, or you are still exposed somewhere.
2. Breathing - There are only a few "exits" for things to get out of the body, breath is one of them. Think about a roadside alcohol test - you breathe out toxins to get rid of them.
3. Peeing - this one is more obvious that you are "getting rid of waste", but the kidneys filter toxins and toxic metabolites, and you pee them out, so that system has to be working well too.
4. Pooping - This one is the most obvious - - waste is bad so you want to get it out of you!! Your poop is how you get rid of MANY MANY toxins, and if your gut is not moving well, everything else backs up.
5. Sweating - You are slightly limited on how much you can speed up your breathing, peeing, and pooping, but you can always open the other exit - sweat. Many toxins have been found excreted in the sweat - mycotoxins, BPA, parabens, metals, etc, so sweating is crucial for detoxification.
6. Liver/Bile Flow - The liver filters toxins (through many processes - phase I and II, cytochrome P450 enzymes, glutathione, conjugation, glucuronidation, methylation, etc). These toxins are then put into bile, which is stored and released by the gallbladder. You have to have good liver function to filter the toxins, and then you have to have good gallbladder function and bile flow for the toxins to get into the gut, then you have to be pooping for them to get out.
7. Lymph Drainage - The lymphatic system is one way that toxins and waste products are transported around the body to be excreted, and your lymphatic system has to be moving, it can't be stagnant.
8. Cell Membranes - Toxins damage your cell membranes (including mitochondrial membrane), causing lipid peroxidation, stiffening, and poor membrane fluidity. Then toxins can also STORE in the cell membranes, so you need good healthy cell membrane support - this can be really important for detoxification.
9. Mitochondria - THEY DO IT ALL!!!! Toxins store in the mitochondria, they damage the mitochondria, they affect fatty acid beta oxidation, Kreb's Cycle, Oxidative Phosphorylation, all the things - and mitochondria power detoxification in the liver, organs, cells, etc. It's all mitochondrial!
10. Relevant Genes - There are a lot of relevant genes in detoxification, and it's super important. Many of them relate to "methylation", like MTHFR, COMT, PEMT, HNMT, but there are many others that regulate processes like glutathione recycling, cytochrome P450 activity, and many many more.

It's common in the alternative medicine world to hear people talk about "how high their antibody levels are/were". But in practice I see people with high antibodies who are doing fine, while someone with low antibodies might feel like they are dying. What's up with that?!? Do antibody levels matter??
The answer is that they do matter and they don't matter. Antibodies can be used to monitor progression, but high levels don't necessarily correlate to disease symptoms or progression.
In this episode I briefly explain thyroid antibodies seen in Hashimoto's - Thyroid Peroxidase (TPO, or microsomal) and Thyroglobulin (TG), and I go through several examples to explain the interplay of antibody levels, symptom severity, and disease progression.
The goal of this episode (and this podcast) is to help you manage your own case, review your own labs, and take better control of your autoimmune journey!