Excerpt
You Can Fix Your Brain
1Autoimmunity: How It Affects Brain FunctionAutoimmunity refers to the mechanism in which your immune system attacks the organs and tissues in your body and brain. Whenever we are exposed to any environmental toxin that triggers an immune response (foods such as gluten, or toxic chemicals, or infections), that substance is now categorized as an antigen, something that our immune system is activated to protect against. This immune response can occur at any time, day or night, and it’s designed to work in the background of our lives so we don’t notice it happening. You don’t feel it, see it, taste it, smell it, or experience it in any way, yet your body is silently protecting you. If this initial immune response is not strong enough, then the immune system releases antibodies, a more powerful weapon for dealing with an antigen. If this mechanism continues long enough, damage to body or brain tissue will occur, and wherever the damage occurs, that organ can no longer function as it’s meant to. This usually begins with the mildest of irritations, like a runny nose, sore muscles, or brain fog. If the antigenic response continues, damaging the tissue, eventually you will develop a disease related to that tissue. It doesn’t matter what tissue we’re talking about: This mechanism occurs in every and any tissue in your body, including the brain. Now you’ve developed a disease.
There are more than 70 recognized autoimmune diseases and more than 300 autoimmune conditions. Common autoimmune diseases include Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cardiovascular ailments, strokes, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, scleroderma, and dementia. You may be wondering how it is possible that these diseases run such a gamut, and why so many affect the brain. The reason is that all of these diseases are linked to the same by-products of an autoimmune response: elevated antibodies and inflammation.
Immune System BasicsYour immune system acts like the armed forces in your body—it’s there to protect you. It’s composed of five different branches that work together. There is a metaphorical army, navy, air force, marines, and coast guard (which are referred to by doctors as autoimmune responses, or the antibodies IgA, IgG, IgE, IgM, and IgD), each of which has a distinct role. There are also four different immune systems in the body. Each of these systems operates separately, but all follow the same owner’s manual and communicate with each other. The largest one is found in the gastrointestinal tract (the gut), where 70 to 85 percent of your immunity resides. There is another immune system in the liver called the Kupffer cells. The third comprises the white blood cells found in the bloodstream.
Finally, the most potent immune system in the body is in the brain and made of glial cells. These cells act as sentries standing guard with high-powered rifles just inside the blood-brain barrier, which is the filtration system of what gets into the brain. Glial cells are the most powerful immune response in the body: These guys don’t walk around with just six-shooters; they have bazookas. Any foreign matter that gets into the brain activates the glial cells to fire chemical bullets.
From an evolutionary perspective, humans thrive as the dominant species on the planet because we can reason and other species cannot. The “thinking” area of the brain, the cerebral cortex, allows us to reason, and as a result, it’s most important to our survival. We know this because there are 60.84 billion glial cells protecting the cerebral cortex, making sure that if anything gets past the blood-brain barrier, there is an army there to address it. There are only 16.34 billion neurons that comprise the cerebral cortex, giving this large region a glial-to-neuron ratio of almost 4 to 1 (actually it’s 3.72 to 1—sorry, I am a geek!). These thinking cells need to be protected at all costs. It’s the reverse in the cerebellum, the more primitive muscle and motor command center in the brain, where there are more neurons than glial cells. This may be why so many autoimmune diseases that affect the brain affect your motor function, as is the case in Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis (MS), and others.
Each of the four immune systems has at least two arms: the ancient arm of the immune system, found in all living creatures, called the cellular, or innate, immune system, which acts as the protective handguns firing chemical bullets and creating inflammation to destroy a threat; and the humoral, or adaptive, immune system, which is the heavy artillery that’s called in when you need to produce even stronger inflammation as a backup support system.
When faced with an environmental exposure, whether it is bacteria, a virus, a parasite, offensive dietary proteins and peptides, or even chemicals or medications, the innate/cellular arms produce cytokines, the biochemical bullets I refer to as the first responders. These cytokines recognize and then destroy whatever they consider threatening. There are a number of different types of cytokines, and the immune system determines which one to launch depending on the threat.
If the cellular arms’ defensive strategy cannot get the job done, the immune system calls up the big guns. This is when the humoral/adaptive immune system kicks in and its soldiers launch targeted missiles called antibodies. Antibodies work like trained assassins; they go after a specific target. Anywhere the antibodies find an invader, they fire their missiles at that specific invader. If you’ve ever received blood test results with the words “elevated levels of antibodies,” or an “H” next to the antibody marker, this refers to the fact that the basic immune system is overwhelmed, and now the big guns are working overtime to contain a perceived threat. These antibodies circulate in the bloodstream looking for the environmental exposures they’ve been trained to attack.
And here’s the kicker: Even after the offending bug or food has been destroyed, along with the damaged cells, antibodies continue to inhabit your bloodstream for an additional 2 to 6 months. Even when you have no symptoms, elevated antibodies are a signal that the immune system is working with its last option to respond to a perceived threat before the development of disease.
Elevated antibodies can also occur when our innate immune system (the first responders) becomes depleted and ineffective. Our immune system can get worn out just by responding to the way we live our hectic lives and the food choices we make. Whether the continued unrelenting antigen is biochemical (food sensitivities, environmental toxins, etc.), structural (poor posture, intestinal permeability), emotional stress (stinking thinking), or electromagnetic, it can deplete our first responders (the innate immune response) so that they are no longer effective. How many years did you smoke, or drink soda, or eat sugary foods? The damage from those habits, or others, might now look like recurring colds (“I get the flu once or twice a year, and I’m out for a week”), or forgetfulness (“Where did I leave my keys?”), or a 3:00 p.m. energy crash. These subtle but annoying health problems are suggestive of a worn-out innate immune system.
