The Autoimmune Protocol (AIP)

Which are Autoimmune Diseases?

Autoimmune diseases such as hashimoto’s, arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, eczema, etc, constitute the most prevalent diseases in the US. And estimated 50 million Americans have this and you may know how overwhelming it can be. There are more than one hundred confirmed autoimmune diseases and many more diseases that are suspected of having autoimmune origins
(complete list here – https://20314-presscdn-pagely.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/ThePaleoApproach-List-of-Autoimmune-Diseases.pdf )

Your body attacking itself

Autoimmune disease is caused by the immune system losing the ability to differentiate proteins belonging to your own body with proteins belonging to a foreign invader (like a bacteria, virus or parasite). This (according to the medical community) causes your own immune system to attack those cells. Which proteins/cells are attacked is what separates once disease from another. In Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, the thyroid gland is attacked, mimicking thyroid issues. In Rheumatoid Arthritis, the tissues of your joints are attacked. In psoriasis, proteins within the layers of cells that make up your skin are attacked. However, the root cause is the same.

Typical Treatments

Western medicine treats autoimmune diseases with immune-suppressing and anti-inflammatory medications, which work by shutting down the immune system. These treatments are a Band-Aid they know is a temporary solution, just to mask the symptoms, and suppressing your immune system is downright dangerous, as it leaves you vulnerable to attack from a host of other illnesses and infections.

Leaky Gut

The latest theory of autoimmunity suggests that a leaky gut (literally, tiny holes in your gut wall) lies at the root of virtually all autoimmune diseases. [2] It happens when tiny particles of food, bacteria and other gunk from inside of your intestines can escape through a leaky gut and trigger your immune system to produce inflammation. If the leaky gut never heals, the inflammation becomes ‘chronic’, and can eventually result in tissue damage, otherwise known as autoimmune disease.

By sealing up the holes in your gut wall, the immune system can finally take a break and quit producing inflammation. By healing your leaky gut and stopping chronic inflammation in its tracks, you may very well be able to heal your autoimmune disease(s) putting it into remission without drugs. The autoimmune protocol diet can help.

Will this work?

The Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) Diet This is a temporary plan until your symptoms go away and you heal the holes in your gut. Depending on the severity of your gut issues this can be done for up to 2 months. See links below for sources, more info, and books on the topic, including cookbooks. This diet is not something that will cure autoimmune but it will help to manage it and support other treatments. More importantly not doing a diet such as this and eating the foods that should be eliminated below will definitely fuel the autoimmune problem making it worse.

Stress

This should be done in accordance with other treatments such as herbs, essential oils, acupuncture, meditation to cut anxiety and get your pH back to alkaline and as many other natural treatments you can until you find what works. I have noticed stress to be the biggest factor in autoimmune across the board. If you have stress and cannot cut it down significantly, you will have an impossible time eliminating the problem.

Foods to Eliminate

• – Grains – wheat, rice, corn, sorghum, spelt, Kamut, oats; and pseudo-grains (millet, quinoa, amaranth, teff, buckwheat.)
• – Legumes – all beans including peanuts, black beans, pinto beans, hummus, etc. (You can research eliminating Leptins found in grains and legumes especially)
• – Dairy – all sources of dairy, even raw or fermented
• – Nuts and seeds – all nuts and seeds including cashews, almonds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, seed-based spices, chocolate, coffee.
• – Eggs – especially the white part of the egg, which contains inflammatory proteins. It’s also important to avoid eggs as they feed all viruses and pathogens in our body.
• – Industrial seed & vegetable oils – pretty much all liquid oils, except for olive, avocado, coconut oils
• – Processed foods – basically anything that comes out of a package
• – Alcohol – it is well established that alcohol induces a leaky gut. [4]
• – NSAIDs – Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as Ibuprofen, aspirin, and naproxen, which cause holes to form in the gut and stomach linings. [5]
• – Sugar, starches, fruits, yeasts, FODMAPs – Sweet, starchy, and yeast-containing foods can contribute to imbalances in the gut microflora (dysbiosis) by feeding unfavorable bacteria in the gut. They are best limited or restricted especially at first on the AIP.
• – Non-nutritive sweeteners (yes, all of them, xylitol, mannitol, even stevia)
• – Emulsifiers, thickeners, and other food additives including carrageenan, MSG, benzoic acid, sulfates, nitrates, gums (guar gum, tara gum, gellan gum, gum Arabic)
• – Gluten cross-reactive foods – Rye, Barley, Spelt, Polish Wheat, Oats, Buckwheat, Sorghum, Amaranth, Quinoa, Corn, Rice, Potato, Hemp, Teff, Soy, Milk (including Whey Protein), Chocolate, Yeast, Coffee, Sesame, Tapioca (a.k.a. cassava or yucca), Eggs – to learn more about these click here – https://www.thepaleomom.com/gluten-cross-reactivity-update-how-your-body-can-still-think-youre-eating-gluten-even-after-giving-it-up/

What to Eat (in summary the rules)

• Vegetables of all kinds (including nightshades) as much variety as possible and the whole rainbow, aim for 8-14 cups per day
  • Green vegetables as well as red, purple, blue, yellow, orange and white.
  • Cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, kale, turnips, arugula, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, watercress, mustard greens, etc.)
  • Sea Vegetables (dulse, spirulina)
  • Edible Fungi, like mushrooms
  • Herbs and Spices
  • Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, tomatillos, eggplants, several spices and hot peppers, cayenne, red pepper, tomatillos,
• Fruit – apples oranges especially
• Quality Meats (grass-fed, pasture-raised, wild as much as possible) (poultry in moderation due to high omega-6 content unless you are eating a ton of fish)
• Quality Fats (pasture-raised/grass-fed animal fats [rendered or as part of your meat], fatty fish, olive, avocado, coconut, palm [not palm kernel])
• Probiotic and fermented foods (fermented vegetables or fruit, coconut milk, coconut milk yogurt)
• Fish –  (Only wild Alaskan salmon or sardines)
• Source the best-quality ingredients you can.
• Eat as much variety as possible.

Moderate your intake of the following:

• – Omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid–rich foods (such as poultry and fatty cuts of industrially produced meat)
• – Black and green tea
• – Coffee
• – Coconut

Following AIP

Yes, this is limiting but only temporary. After removing all of these foods, you are pretty much left with animal protein and vegetables. Yes, it makes eating out and dining with others difficult but nothing compared to these issues getting worse.

Keep in mind, there are varying levels of autoimmune disease. While the AIP may be the best way to combat extreme cases of autoimmunity, not everyone with an autoimmune disease needs to follow it to the dime in order to put their symptoms into remission. I’ve seen many patients do quite well by just removing a few of these foods (particularly grains, legumes, and industrial seed oils).

It’s important to note that there are many non-dietary influences that can also trigger a leaky gut. It can be also caused by:

• – Imbalanced hormones,
• – Stress – People with skin issues have told me they can feel their skin burning when angry.
• – Inadequate or inconsistent sleep – you might notice pain or flare-ups every time you don’t get 8 hours.
• – Drugs and alcohol
• – Lack of exercise
• – Too much exercise – This could be more than 2 hours a day or more than 4 days a week depending on your body’s reaction.
• – Toxic relationships – This causes stress, hormones, lack of sleep and more.
• – Imbalanced gut bacteria, including the full moon, as the eggs of the bacteria or parasites hatch during the full moon. I suggest taking fermented foods and a supplement called “restore”

Heal & Restore Hormones

In Dr. Sara Gottfried’s experience, author of “The Hormone Reset Diet,” she says it makes much more sense to address hormonal imbalances first and foremost, as many people improve their autoimmune symptoms dramatically just by bringing their bodies into balance.
She offers an easy-to-follow plan to eliminate the major food culprits that commonly lead to hormonal issues. There are also hormone balancing shakes to jump-start the healing process of restoring order to your endocrine (hormone-producing) glands. Balancing your hormones may be enough to put your autoimmune diseases into remission.

She says most of her patients also benefit from making some adjustments to their lifestyle by bringing balance to their exercise, stress, and sleep routines. She has 5000 people who’ve completed The Hormone Reset Diet report weight loss of up to 15 pounds, increased metabolic rate, a drop of 21 points in blood sugar, and loss of 4 inches off their waist.

Useful Supplements: (links for supplements I use here)

•  CHECK with your doctor before taking stomach acid supplements! or an all-in-one type digestive support supplement)
• B-12
• L-glutamine helps restore gut barrier function
• Magnesium (especially, if you have unmanaged stress)
• Optimizing Vitamin D levels is very important
• Vitamin C (if you have unmanaged stress)
• Lemon Balm

Essential Oils

Essential oils for autoimmune include frankincense essential oil (effective at reducing inflammation, take three drops three times daily in water, in honey or in capsule form), helichrysum oil (supports the nervous system and can help reverse autoimmune reactions, take internally or applied to neck area), lavender and geranium oils (used to treat skin inflammation, add three drops to carrier oil and rub into skin), and ginger oil (used for digestive issues, take three drops internally two to three times daily).
These two blogs have an extensive list of oils for autoimmune:

www.planttherapy.com/blog/2014/11/05/essential-oils-auto-immune-disease/

www.theessentiallife.com.au/theessentialblog/2014/essential-oils-and-autoimmune-disease

If this diet is not helping see this link here for possible undiagnosed problems that could be creating your symptoms:

Watch this video for more info on this: https://youtu.be/9kTw7uG_9T0

Books:

https://www.thepaleomom.com/book-review-the-autoimmune-paleo-cookbook-by-mickey-trescott/

DISCLAIMER

Note: If you are taking medication check with your doctor before making any changes or taking any herbs, essential oils or supplements. None of this is medical advice just my non-professional opinion as I am not a medical professional. Information from this blog is entirely for informational purposes only. Uses of this information are entirely the responsibility of those who choose to apply this information for their personal health and/or wellbeing. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. This information is not intended as medical advice, prescription, prognosis, treatment or diagnosis for any disease or illness, and should not be used as a replacement for any medical treatment you may currently be undergoing.

By utilizing the information presented on this site, you agree to and understand that author, Bill Farr is not a doctor or any other type of certified health care professional, and his opinion is not a substitute for professional medical prevention, diagnosis, or treatment. Please consult with your doctor or your other health care providers concerning your symptoms and medical requirements before following any of the remedies or other suggestions he offers. His opinion is based on his own research and is to be used for educational purposes only. Bill Farr’s wellness plans and advice are meant to be used in conjunction with standard allopathic or osteopathic medical treatment and care.