At present, medical statistics suggest that well over half of all adults will be diagnosed with a chronic or degenerative disease and that almost half of all children tested show early signs of chronic disease.

• • • Cardiovascular Disease,
    • Asthma and other respiratory problems;
    • Diabetes,
    • Depression,
    • Alzheimer’s Disease,
    • Ulcers,
    • Irritable Bowel and Inflammatory Bowel diseases are becoming “normal” conditions. 

Other illnesses like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, and Cancer are becoming frighteningly prevalent, especially in more developed countries.

Autoimmune conditions have skyrocketed in the last few decades.

At present one-in-five people have some form of autoimmune disease. That is something to think about the next time you are in a big crowd or sitting in a coffee shop doing a little ‘people watching.’ That statistic is based on the fundamentals of disease classification as of 2020.

If you have not read the article, What is Autoimmunity? – Tap HERE

If medical research and application keep going in the direction it seems to be headed, conditions like Cardiovascular Disease, Morbid Obesity, Cancer, and Alzheimer’s will be understood to be Autoimmune in nature. If we, as a society, shift some basic assumptions about chronic illness, the statistic becomes one-in-two people who are will be living their lives while suffering from the complexities of Autoimmune Dysfunction.

Many of these diseases take years to develop.

Because of our culture’s lack of time to reflect on the “little” things in life, it is common for people to ignore or suppress their symptoms with pharmaceutical medications until most of their vitality has been diminished. With such depleted resources, many people have less of a chance to return to a healthy life than living a life of being chronically ill. This is the biggest danger to your health. You may not know that you are becoming chronically ill until you are too depleted to completely heal.

Your body stores nutrients and other resources just like you put money in the bank. 

Day-to-day, you write biochemical cheques to live and occasionally you have to write bigger cheques to repair injuries, have children and recover from minor infections. Hopefully, less often, you may need to draw on your body’s resources to recover from trauma, loss or unexpected and profound change.

Eventually, if you are not careful, you may end up in a state of overdraft. It can happen to anyone. Not only would your body be stressed and depleted but you would also have to pay back some interest. Until you pay off the debt and the interest, it is unlikely that your health will improve.

Your personal health and your country’s health care system can no longer be taken for granted. Living in an industrial culture has given us an industrial system of medicine or what I like to call “back to work” medicine. Here is an example of our industrial approach to “health care”.  In most medical journals, the second paragraph describes the number of work hours lost to all industries because of that specific disease. There is little mention of the individual human cost and suffering.

I mention this because we, as the receivers of modern drug-based and surgery-based health care, need to demand more for our money.

Many of the most common modern and scientific treatments are designed to mask the symptoms of pain, insomnia, irritating symptoms like fatigue and emotional distress that are so commonly experienced in chronic and degenerative diseases.  In our fast-paced world, it does not matter how each of us is really doing or really feeling, what matters is showing up to work or school.

At present, it seems more honest to call our health care system an illness management system.

In the last few years, there has been a growing consensus among medical researchers and front-line health care providers. This consensus suggests that all Complex, Chronic, Degenerative and Autoimmune Diseases, PTSD, and other Trauma issues like Addiction, share some very important similarities. This new medical model suggests that there are several primary components behind all chronic illnesses. By learning about these fundamental components, you can do a lot to improve your health by investigating each of these aspects of illness in your own life. If you feel that one or more of these components is limiting your ability to heal, what follows may help you make more decisive choices on your Healing Journey towards a life of vitality.

Sixteen Driving Forces behind Autoimmune Dysfunction

Each of these influences can determine the progress of almost every chronic disease in existence. They are many others, but the following 16 changes in your life history, health and lifestyle choices are the most likely to drive an autoimmune condition towards chaos and self-destruction.

Some of these are common sense, some are a bit technical and one is existential.

I will link each of these influences to specific articles as they are published.

I hope this list inspires you to learn more about your health and gives you some hope if you are feeling out of options. If you feel that one or more of these components are significantly impacting your health, talk with a knowledgeable health care provider and begin your journey towards better health.