7 ms·

Fun fact. Many autoimmune issues can be triggered / worsened by diet. There is an auto immune protocol diet that is all about reducing inflammation. Spend a

Fun fact. Many autoimmune issues can be triggered / worsened by diet. There is an auto immune protocol diet that is all about reducing inflammation. Spend a few months on any of the support forms and you’ll see a pattern where people take years to be diagnosed. Most have a mystery illness for several years before it’s diagnosed. Then they go through years of various medication options with mixed results. Eventually many end up going to diet as a solution. Many of the various low sugar tend to be fairly close. So a lot of people dealing with autoimmune via diet without realizing it.

themodelplumber 5y ago
I was on the AIP diet for a while, quite a long time ago. It wasn't the end-all solution for me that others proclaimed it was, but it was nice to have something new to try.
- urban_strike 5y ago
  For what it's worth, I had a similar experience trying a strict AIP diet for a few months - some improvements in my autoimmune symptoms (some psorasis I've had since childhood), but nothing definitive. When I tried a strict carnviore diet, basically cutting out the vegetable and fruits allowed on AIP, my existing patches of psoriasis disappeared over a few weeks, and no new ones appeared. Since then I've gone on and off of strict carnivore, but anytime I reintroduce vegetables and/or some other carb sources, I'll start to see new patches of psoriasis pop back up within a 2 or 3 weeks usually. So I usually balance on that line now, returning to carnivore if my symptoms start to bother me too much.
  - treeman79 5y ago
    I’ve heard this a few times. I’ve tried all meat before and I get crazy weak. If I recall my pain level dropped a lot though. Maybe because not eating enough meat. My wife gets crazy energetic, all her pain goes away and she’s way happier.
WaxedChewbacca 5y ago
epgui 5y ago
While it is true that diet can have a big impact on inflammation, I would caution against pushing this idea too far in the context of auto-immune diseases. I won't go into the details or talk about any specific condition because it's a complex topic, but you're better off combining a mediterranean / Indian / varied diet (the American diet is notoriously bad) with proper medication as prescribed by your treating physician. If you have an auto-immune disease, do not try to replace drugs with diet changes. (I'm a biochemist)
- Broken_Hippo 5y ago
  So. Much. This. I have Multiple Sclerosis, and there are slews of sham diets out there. None, of course, have been actually proven effective even though one specific person definitely claims to have cured their MS through diet. It isn't even that I mind folks trying diets out - but the only thing (so far) that tends to lessen the disease over time are medicines. These medicines are expensive and tend to have side effects. There is no good reason health care systems (private or taxpayer funded) would cover the drugs if they could just pay for someone's diet and get results instead. Note: Not saying diet will never be part of treatment, mind you, but we aren't there yet.
  - treeman79 5y ago
    There is a good argument for “why not” with food. Has the fewest side effects. Do an elimination diet. If it doesn’t help. Well you ate boring food for a month. That sucks. If your symptoms ease up. Well then yea!
    - Broken_Hippo 5y ago
      That's not really helpful. Realistically, many forms of MS have symptoms that happen (suddenly), then heal up quite a bit, generally leaving differing amounts of nerve damage. In other words, if you do nothing, it will get better. Until it stops doing that, and if you aren't on medicine, your outlook isn't so wonderful. Unless you are lucky, that is. I'm fairly lucky. I have few day to day symptoms. I was half blind once, though, and I've had fingers so numb that I had to inspect my hands after washing them to see if I did it correctly. Currently, if I bend my head down, I get an electric shock in my legs. It isn't really bothersome though. If I go on a diet, I might not know anything changes. Well, until next year when I get my next MRI. I expect it to have no changes even if I don't diet, though, because modern medications are pretty wonderful.
Melatonic 5y ago
I have a lot of personal theories on this but if you have what I think you might have I would highly recommend trying a Japanese fermented food called Natto. It is some real weird stuff in terms of texture and smell but the benefits are massive at least for myself. I tried everything out there and saw tons of doctors and while some things helped consistently eating this stuff keeps my immune system in check better than anything else I have tried. Most asian grocery stores will have it.
- epgui 5y ago
  Please don't give medical advice on the internet, especially without specifying what the advice is for, or without knowing what condition the other person has. It's obviously well intentioned, but incredibly reckless.
  - QasimK 5y ago
    Do you really think someone is going to read that, start ignoring their doctors, throw all their medicine in the bin, and become some kind of natto evangelist? It’s a common Japanese food and he just said give it a go.
    - epgui 5y ago
      Yeah actually, that would be an unsurprising (but clearly bad) layperson's reading. If the last two years should have taught us anything, it's that even otherwise intelligent people will interpret perfectly reasonable, specific and precise health advice in the worst possible way.
    - Broken_Hippo 5y ago
      Do you really think someone is going to read that, start ignoring their doctors, throw all their medicine in the bin, and become some kind of natto evangelist? Most folks don't become an evangelist! The rest, though - yeah, it happens. People get sold sham cures and diets all the time and dismiss proven treatments. Even when folks do not dismiss modern medicine and are doing things that aren't actively harmful, alternatives tend to delay proven treatments. Additionally, if you cannot afford medical treatment and you are presented with some "cure" that seems be a small fraction of the cost, it gets easier to justify whatever sham cure the person is trying to push. 'just try it out' comes with responsibility when you are talking medicine as it can snowball into something else.
imtringued 5y ago
The gluten in wheat causes leaky gut syndrome which lets other substances go into the blood stream for which people may have an auto immune disease.

themodelplumber 5y ago

I was on the AIP diet for a while, quite a long time ago. It wasn't the end-all solution for me that others proclaimed it was, but it was nice to have something new to try.

urban_strike 5y ago
For what it's worth, I had a similar experience trying a strict AIP diet for a few months - some improvements in my autoimmune symptoms (some psorasis I've had since childhood), but nothing definitive. When I tried a strict carnviore diet, basically cutting out the vegetable and fruits allowed on AIP, my existing patches of psoriasis disappeared over a few weeks, and no new ones appeared. Since then I've gone on and off of strict carnivore, but anytime I reintroduce vegetables and/or some other carb sources, I'll start to see new patches of psoriasis pop back up within a 2 or 3 weeks usually. So I usually balance on that line now, returning to carnivore if my symptoms start to bother me too much.
- treeman79 5y ago
  I’ve heard this a few times. I’ve tried all meat before and I get crazy weak. If I recall my pain level dropped a lot though. Maybe because not eating enough meat. My wife gets crazy energetic, all her pain goes away and she’s way happier.

WaxedChewbacca 5y ago

epgui 5y ago

While it is true that diet can have a big impact on inflammation, I would caution against pushing this idea too far in the context of auto-immune diseases. I won't go into the details or talk about any specific condition because it's a complex topic, but you're better off combining a mediterranean / Indian / varied diet (the American diet is notoriously bad) with proper medication as prescribed by your treating physician. If you have an auto-immune disease, do not try to replace drugs with diet changes. (I'm a biochemist)

Broken_Hippo 5y ago
So. Much. This. I have Multiple Sclerosis, and there are slews of sham diets out there. None, of course, have been actually proven effective even though one specific person definitely claims to have cured their MS through diet. It isn't even that I mind folks trying diets out - but the only thing (so far) that tends to lessen the disease over time are medicines. These medicines are expensive and tend to have side effects. There is no good reason health care systems (private or taxpayer funded) would cover the drugs if they could just pay for someone's diet and get results instead. Note: Not saying diet will never be part of treatment, mind you, but we aren't there yet.
- treeman79 5y ago
  There is a good argument for “why not” with food. Has the fewest side effects. Do an elimination diet. If it doesn’t help. Well you ate boring food for a month. That sucks. If your symptoms ease up. Well then yea!
  - Broken_Hippo 5y ago
    That's not really helpful. Realistically, many forms of MS have symptoms that happen (suddenly), then heal up quite a bit, generally leaving differing amounts of nerve damage. In other words, if you do nothing, it will get better. Until it stops doing that, and if you aren't on medicine, your outlook isn't so wonderful. Unless you are lucky, that is. I'm fairly lucky. I have few day to day symptoms. I was half blind once, though, and I've had fingers so numb that I had to inspect my hands after washing them to see if I did it correctly. Currently, if I bend my head down, I get an electric shock in my legs. It isn't really bothersome though. If I go on a diet, I might not know anything changes. Well, until next year when I get my next MRI. I expect it to have no changes even if I don't diet, though, because modern medications are pretty wonderful.

Melatonic 5y ago

I have a lot of personal theories on this but if you have what I think you might have I would highly recommend trying a Japanese fermented food called Natto. It is some real weird stuff in terms of texture and smell but the benefits are massive at least for myself. I tried everything out there and saw tons of doctors and while some things helped consistently eating this stuff keeps my immune system in check better than anything else I have tried. Most asian grocery stores will have it.

epgui 5y ago
Please don't give medical advice on the internet, especially without specifying what the advice is for, or without knowing what condition the other person has. It's obviously well intentioned, but incredibly reckless.
- QasimK 5y ago
  Do you really think someone is going to read that, start ignoring their doctors, throw all their medicine in the bin, and become some kind of natto evangelist? It’s a common Japanese food and he just said give it a go.
  - epgui 5y ago
    Yeah actually, that would be an unsurprising (but clearly bad) layperson's reading. If the last two years should have taught us anything, it's that even otherwise intelligent people will interpret perfectly reasonable, specific and precise health advice in the worst possible way.
  - Broken_Hippo 5y ago
    Do you really think someone is going to read that, start ignoring their doctors, throw all their medicine in the bin, and become some kind of natto evangelist? Most folks don't become an evangelist! The rest, though - yeah, it happens. People get sold sham cures and diets all the time and dismiss proven treatments. Even when folks do not dismiss modern medicine and are doing things that aren't actively harmful, alternatives tend to delay proven treatments. Additionally, if you cannot afford medical treatment and you are presented with some "cure" that seems be a small fraction of the cost, it gets easier to justify whatever sham cure the person is trying to push. 'just try it out' comes with responsibility when you are talking medicine as it can snowball into something else.

imtringued 5y ago

The gluten in wheat causes leaky gut syndrome which lets other substances go into the blood stream for which people may have an auto immune disease.