Who Here Has an Autoimmune Disease(s)?

Post Reply New Topic

Are allergies considered autoimmune?

No, but I mentioned mine because it's an example of the immune system going haywire over something benign.... essentially the same bad behavior, just not directed at one's own tissues.

Okay, that's what I thought. I just got confused because it was mentioned. lol

I have a ton of allergies and sensitivities. Mostly to food.

Actually, allergies ARE considered autoimmune.

Tenzin has allergies, asthma, chemical sensitivity, and gluten intolerance.

In my opinion there is a definite connection with autism, but not for everybody. Unless people have undetected

issues that will arise later in life.

Oh... well then.

I'm lactose intolerant.
I have an anaphalactic reaction to: raw pineapples, kiwis, and cucumbers.
I am sensitive to: blueberries, yams, grapes, and melons.

I'm probably forgetting something in there somewhere. :-\

I'm not sure what the reason is why us aspies also have autoimmune disorders. I myself have fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, and severe seasonal allergies.

I do want to share something that I found that has really kicked the RA and fibro in the backside. It is a derivative of the herb cat's claw, called "samento". It is used mostly by people who suffer from Lyme Disease. What I have learned from my research is, many of our autoimmune disorders are caused by something called a mycoplasma (mycoplasma fermentans).

Mycoplasmas are nasty little germs without a cell wall. They get into each and every cell and hide there, and are exceptionally difficult to detect. Antibiotics typically destroy cell walls, so they are useless to fight this. In our cells are things called mitochondria, which are the energy factories. Mycoplasmas like to eat the cholesterol that the mitochrondria need to use for fuel, hence we get exceptionally tired at the cellular level. Some people only get chronic fatigue syndrome, others fibromyalgia, others RA, still others MS, ALS, etc. They are slow-growers and it may take a few years to get the full-blown effects. I have read that the autoimmune trouble comes from the excrement of this bug. Yuck.

Here is the bad part.....mycoplasma fermentans is patented by the United States Army. They found a way to "weaponize" it (put it in bombs, or spray it from an airplane on a certain population...they even have a dried crystalline version). Google this: United States Patent 5,242,820 Lo September 7, 1993 Pathogenic mycoplasma Abstract. Read Jim Marr's "The Trillion Dollar Conspiracy" for a real mind-blower, especially the chapter on this subject and gulf war syndrome.

Anyway, my point is not to freak y'all out (although, after doing lots of research, I am quite weirded-out over the information), but to share my experience with samento.

I decided to try samento after changing my diet, exercising regularly, and taking lots of vitamins and immune-stimulating herbs, which gave me good success, but I still had bouts of exhaustion and my finger joints are quite painful and starting to get deformed. I have been on samento one month and here is what I found:

My energy level has gone through the roof. I took one capsule the first day, BIG MISTAKE. I was so spastic and wired-up that I was up for a day and a half. I then took the capsule apart and only took 1/4 of it, slowly building up to 3/5 of a capsule as of today's writing. I did have some herxheimer reactions at first, mostly psychological in nature (panic attacks, confusion, sleeplessness, mood swings), some physical (joint swelling and pain, muscle aches, transient aches that came and went, short bouts of extreme exhaustion). I figured that, if I didn't have the mycoplasma bug, I wouldn't feel any different, but I feel much different. Those effects are now fading rapidly.

I have a lot more energy now. I find that my muscles are stronger. I also find that I no longer suffer from trouble speaking and locating words, particularly nouns....you know, when you're talking to somebody, and you say, "Please hand me my....my....um....that thingie there...you know..." and you CAN'T locate the name of it in your brain and you feel incredibly stupid. That has completely vanished. I also speak more quickly and my husband states that I am more animated and energetic than I was previously.

My joints have stopped hurting and my allergies are much more manageable.

Samento works by modulating the immune system, kicking it into high gear and enabling the T-cells and the macrophages to do their thing. I used to get sick constantly, but a flu bug circulated around here last week, my daughter got very sick, and I didn't get it. Normally, I would have gotten sick too, but not this time.

Dr. Lee Cowden (Ft. Worth, Texas) has a whole "Lyme Protocol" for treating autoimmune disorders. It is all herbal in origin. He uses other herbs that I haven't tried yet (cumanda, banderol, quina). I just wanted to try the samento to see if my illness was caused by a nasty bug. I now believe that it is, based on my success with the samento. I bought it off Amazon.Com, the brand I bought was made by Nutramedix. If you do try it, start with only a little bit and work your way up. Herxing is caused when the little buggers die off en masse (just like with strong antibiotic therapy) and it will make all your symptoms flare up badly. It's a sign that it's working.

Do your own research on the subject. I had refused to give up trying to beat this thing. It's worth checking into, because these little buggies don't just come from ticks. They can now be passed PERSON TO PERSON and by mosquitoes. This is where I think the US government has the ultimate culpability, due to their weaponizing of this thing.

I've gone down the rabbit hole on this subject, and it only gets darker and uglier the more I check out. It is no coincidence that Lyme Disease was first noticed in Lyme, Connecticut, because a large number of children were coming down with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.....and what is across the bay from Lyme, CT? Plum Island research facility owned by the US government.

In my family tree there's lupus, psoriasis, and Parkinson's (? don't know if that's an autoimmune thing). I've lucked out and don't have any of those (save some pre-psoriasis looking areas, but so far they've never turned into the real thing)

...Unless CFS/fibro turns out to be autoimmune, in which case add 3 cousins and myself with that.

Apple In My Eye, all those afflictions you mentioned (including Parkinson's) are considered autoimmune disorders. In Parkinson's, the substantia nigra in the brain stem starts to die, and they don't know why, but they do highly suspect an autoimmune component. Same thing with Alzheimer's, even diabetes (type 1). Myself, my mother, her sister, and my two cousins all have fibromyalgia.

Mycoplasma is contagious! It can look like many different diseases.

No, I don't think so. Allergies are an overreaction to some external thing like pollen. Autoimmune is sort of like an allergy to yourself.

Yeah... I got tired of the different responses so I looked it up myself. You're right. It's an allergy to your own body.

Autoimmune diseases don't reduce immune function. "Auto" means self, "immune" means immunity (duh!), so autoimmune means your immune system tries to make you immune to yourself. Your own leukocytes (white blood cells) attack your tissue, usually because a pathogen that had previously invaded had an epitope that was very similar to one of your own antigens. Your leukocytes (specifically your B-cells) undergo somatic hypermutation so the antibody directed toward the previous pathogen is changed just enough to bind to your own cells' antigens. These antibodies activate the classical complement system, induce Antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity, and act as opsonins. This kills or seriously damages your cells. You would get better if your defenses were weakened, as your immune system wouldn't have enough "energy" to keep attacking you.

In short, you're wrong.

That was established long before your snarky reply, stonecold.

I have adrenal insufficiency, and variations of it can be autoimmune. I most likely don't have the autoimmune kind, but I did take immunosuppressants for about two years.

My apologies for the wrong information contained here. There are some pages on the internet that do refer to allergies as being an autoimmune condition, but looking further I see that they are considered an immune disorder, not classified under autoimmune disease.

And, I want to expand on my suspicion that there is a relationship between faulty immune functioning and autism for a significant population of people.

This appears to be the case.

I have psoriasis. I may have some food issues as well (gluten/celiac/something) due to the fact that I've gained a lot of weight and can't seem to lose it...but that's just a theory. But the psoriasis for sure. Which is much better when my stress levels are lower...