When you hear the term "Autoimmune Disease" what does it conjure up in your mind? Fear? A disease with no cure? Reduced quality of life? Autoimmune Diseases include conditions like type 1 diabetes, celiac disease, multiple sclerosis, Grave's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, among many others. There are more than 100 different autoimmune conditions and they are all serious chronic diseases caused by an underlying problem with the immune system.

Autoimmune diseases can affect almost any part of the body, including the brain, blood vessels, nerves, skin, heart, eyes, joints, lungs, muscles, kidneys, glands, and the digestive tract.

Of course the classic sign of an autoimmune disease is INFLAMMATION, which can cause heat, redness, pain, and swelling. If you want to cool off inflammation in the body, you must find its source. As they say, treat the fire not the smoke. In modern medicine doctors mostly are taught to diagnose disease by symptoms, NOT by their underlying cause.

Functional medicine, the emerging 21st century paradigm of systems medicine, addresses the CAUSE, not just the symptoms. It asks the question WHY you are sick, not just WHAT disease do you have.

No matter where you are at or what specific condition you have been diagnosed with, it is never too late to take action and seek an alternative approach.