First of all, many of you have asked me if I used a Medical Specialist to get well. The answer is, I did not. After seeing numerous doctors over and over again to no avail, I realized that I had to try a different approach. I decided that a holistic health care provider, someone who understood the body as a whole, had to be more capable of helping me get to the root cause of the problems I was having.

Unfortunately, I lacked the finances to see even an alternative health care practitioner, since of course most treatments labeled "alternative" are not covered by insurance. A few years ago I did manage to come up with the money to see a homeopathic physician. One year and several thousand dollars later I was still sick, still in pain, and I was no closer to having a healthy body than I was before.

In the end, it was probably a good thing that I was unable to find help from the health care profession, either alternative or mainstream. It forced me to read as much as I could and to try many different approaches on my own, and to come up with a plan that ultimately worked for me.

Autoimmune - The Cause and The Cure identifies the cause and the cure for a wide range of autoimmune disorders including: Chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, lupus, Sjogren's, rheumatoid arthritis, Raynaud's, rosacea, myasthenia gravis, Hashimoto's, type 2 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and more.

Written by Anness Brockley and Kristin Urdiales, this book is a must read which has brought together scientific research from around the world, which uncovers the cause of autoimmune disease. This collective evidence offers valid proof, not only of the cause of autoimmune disease, but also the only possible way to cure it. Every symptom of autoimmune disease can now be clearly and traced back to its origin.

The evidence proves that these diseases share a common source, and that this source is not viral, bacterial, or genetic, but originates with a fundamental lack of nutrients that are essential to the functioning of your body. Autoimmune - The Cause and The Cure offers a personalized account of suffering that has resulted in life-saving knowledge for autoimmune sufferers everywhere.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't work with a health care professional, because there are many wise and wonderful practitioners out there. I'm simply stating that taking responsibility for my health, researching and reading everything there possibly was to read and trying new things on my own is what ultimately saved my health.

So while I'm not promoting not having a doctor, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that doing all the research I did and trying new things on my own is what ultimately got me well again.

So if you have not been fortunate to find a good health care practitioner, all is not lost. I got better on my own without one, and it is definitely conceivable that you can too. Knowledge is power, and with informtion you can take your own action.

If limited finances are a problem for you as they were for me, just know that there are many lifestyle changes you can make that cost virtually nothing at all, and some natural detoxification products and supplements that can can help your immune system rebalance itself that cost about as much as one trip to your General Practitioner.

Secondly, I wish to make it very clear that I do not believe that healing your autoimmune condition is a fast and simple undertaking. By following the suggestions on this web site you will hopefully start to feel much better in a short time, but the nature of healing is such that there may be setbacks along the way.

In other words, healing does not proceed in a linear fashion; you may start to feel really good, better than you've felt in a long time, and then all of a sudden just when everything seems to be going so well, the old symptoms may reappear. Why this happens I don't really know for sure, I just know that for the majority of us, this is what we can expect to experience. But the good news is, if we know that healing is a "two steps forward, one step back" proposition, we will not be too discouraged when the setbacks inevitably come.

Just to illustrate, I had both a severe case of inflammatory bowel disease, followed some years later by a severe case of intersitital cystitis, a very painful inflammatory condition of the bladder. I would start a healing program, and in both those instances I had periods where I would go along feeling wonderful, thinking I had conquered the final health frontier, and then be inexplicably hit by a setback, or flare-up, as it is called. With the IBD the flare-ups sometimes lasted as long as three weeks.

The good news was, I slowly started having more good days than bad, and then the flare-ups occured only about three times a year, and then not at all. With the interstitial cystitis, the flare-ups tended to be shorter but more frequent, until they too disappeared. Today I experience only very mild transient symptoms about once or twice a year, which lets me know to be a little more careful with my diet and to take extra colostrum, colloidal silver, and any other things I feel may be helpful to my body.

Today I would say that my autoimmune symptoms are 95 percent improved, some 100 percent. I can and do live like a normal person again. However, every once in a great while when I experience those transient symptoms, I take it as a warning that I will probably have to be on some kind of sensible wellness program for the rest of my life. Autoimmunity is a condition that seems to be a part of me, something my body goes through when I am hit by a combination of stress, poor diet, or whatever the case may be.

Even though we may share similar global symptoms, we are all different, and the things that worked for me may not work for you. But the approach to healing is the same - Research as much as you can about your condition, and then take specific action steps to propel yourself in the direction of healing.

And know this - no matter how long you have been sick, no matter how many doctors you have seen, no matter how many "experts" who have told you that your condition is incurable and you will just have to live with it - just know this - you can get better, your symptoms can improve, and whether or not you are ever really "cured" or simply in permanent remission - you can definitely feel a lot better than you do today. I know, because I've been there, me and many others. So I can tell you without a shred of doubt that there is hope for you too.

So now it is time for me to share my program, the program I used to regain my health, and for you to begin to create your own autoimmune disease recovery plan.

Yours in health,

Andrea Nichols, MSW (Community Health)
Natural Health Consultant

How can a hair analysis help one achieve better health? If we consider that diet is what we consume and nutrition is what we retain, then we can see that discovering what the body needs when it needs it is a valuable tool in creating health.

A hair analysis can determine which essential minerals the body is needing more of and which toxic elements it needs to eliminate. It also provides valuable insight into the body's metaoblism and what dietary changes would be most helpful for recovery.

What is Autoimmune Disease?
Autoimmunity is, simply put, the process by which the immune system attacks its own healthy tissues and organs.
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Causes of Autoimmune Disease
Autoimmune diseases do not have one specific cause; rather, there seems to be a combination of factors involved.
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Symptoms of Autoimmune Disease
Although the different autoimmune diseases vary widely in terms of symptomology, the following are the most commonly experienced symptoms.
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Sterols and Sterolins
These immune supplements have been shown in clinical trials to have anecdotal usage to provide nutritional support for autoimmune diseases.
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Author's Autoimmune Disease Experience
Author shares her own personal experiences with autoimmune diseases and how she found her way back to health.
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Resources and Consultants
This page lists some autoimmune resources and consultants that may be helpful to you.
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