Conventional medical treatment usually involves some form of powerful immune-suppressing anti-inflammatory medication such as steroids and “biologics”. While these treatments may be extremely effective at decreasing the pain and swelling, and in the case of biologics, reducing psoriatic skin plaques, and in so doing, possibly for some, improving quality of life, severe side effects are common. Indeed, anti-inflammatories like Advil, or steroids, or immune suppressants like methotrexate, or TNF alpha blockers, can result in an overwhelming infection, intestinal bleeding, depression, psychosis, kidney failure, muscle loss, osteoporosis, diabetes, and even cancer.
Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, conventional treatment does not address the underlying causes, and what might be creating the problem. For example a certain toxic chemical could be a trigger to your disease or may exacerbate it. If this chemical is not removed from your environment, its continual presence could be responsible for repeated flare-ups and tissue destruction in the process. As Dr. Mark Hyman says “That’s like taking a lot of aspirin while you are standing on a tack. The treatment is not more aspirin; the treatment is removing the tack!” Remember, that the more tissue that is destroyed, the less likely it will be for your health to improve. So, if all you are doing is suppressing the symptoms, your disease will continue to progress. Consequently, not only do we need to have a definitive diagnosis but we also need to know the triggers. The latter is often ignored.
Moreover, as different conditions affect different organs, you might be shuffled from one specialist to another e.g. a rheumatologist for rheumatoid arthritis, and endocrinologist for Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and Graves disease, or a dermatologist for psoriasis. However, autoimmune conditions should be looked at holistically, as it’s the immune system, rather than the target organ, that is the issue.
