The Challenge to our Immunity

Immune dysregulation occurs whenever the immune system can no longer function as it is meant to, and fails to adequately protect us.  There are many reasons for this:

• Autoimmune disorders occur because of simultaneous multiple challenges to the immune system. Having a bacterial infection and a fungal infection at the same time for instance. Have you ever been sick, been given an antibiotic, feel better for a while and then symptoms return? This may be due to there being more than one infection contributing to your symptoms.

• The significant rise in atopic allergies, which are predispositions that are genetic or from early in life. This rise is due to the digestive health and immune strength of the parents that contribute their life experience in the form of genetics. The health of the parents truly does determine the potential health of the child.

• The chronic use of antibiotics, particularly during a child's immune system developmenthas drastically and often permanently changed the natural protective bacteria (flora) of the body, allowing a rise in C. Diff (Clostridium difficile) and other opportunistic infections.

• During the development period of a child's immune system, we have instituted habits that stunt the growth of the immune system while exposing the child to chronic illness. Some of these habits include frequent hand-washing with antibacterial agents, numerous new vaccinations that do not allow normal exposure to illness, insufficient breast-feeding time or non-vaginal birth transit.

• We have created modern epidemics of bacterial strains that are resistant to antibiotics and viruses that are capable of jumping species (Mad Cow Disease or Avian Bird Flu).

• Immunosenescence ... this is a word that used to mean the gradual deterioration of the immune system with age, such as the atrophy of the thymus gland. But now we are seeing age-related illness striking people in their 20's, autoimmune diseases that were only common in people over 60 are not unknown now in teenagers. The "senility of the immune system" is occurring in younger and younger populations.

Some Examples of Immune Dysregulation

Immune dysregulation affects every cell of every tissue in the entire body.  Some tissues become the target of immune destruction, while others succumb to pathogens that are uncontrolled by a weakened immunity.  This means that just about any symptom in any system can actually be an immune dysregulation disorder.

Immune dysregulation has many different disguises and many of our most recent diseases are actually dysregulation of the immune system.  Just by looking at the name of a "disease" you can see that the cause is unknown and the name is simply describing the symptoms.  Anything ending in "itis" is inflammation, anything with "algia" is pain, describing something as "systemic" while a "syndrome" is simply saying there are a group of symptoms that happened concurrently. 

Here are some examples of diseases that are Immune dysregulation processes: