REMEMBER: Consult with your doctor when taking medicinal herbs that can interact with your prescription medications!
One of the most prevalent diseases of our modern age, autoimmune disease occurs when your immune system attacks certain tissues of your own body. The results? Degeneration of the tissues in concern as well as a boatload of painful symptoms resultant from the inflammation. Though many have heard of certain popular adaptogenic herbs helping this issue, there are 2 extremely promising herbs that you likely have not heard of yet. Looking at the studies, these herbs are far more promising than anything I have yet discovered.
In the case of autoimmunity, the body fails to recognize tissues that are or are not itself. This results in the immune cells attacking the healthy cells of ones own body. It is this immune response which must be modulated in order for the body to regain order and heal its damaged tissues.
I have been writing about healing the gut lately, and though there are certain foods that I recommend to heal the gut, sometimes the bodies immune reaction has gone haywire. In order to heal from this, the immune response must be down-regulated. All the gut healing foods will not help if the body continues to attack the gut.
Though modern humans are dealing with an epidemic of gut autoimmunity such as Crohn’s disease, IBS or any inflammatory bowel syndrome, autoimmune diseases also include arthritis, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis and asthma among many others.
Fortunately, for those trying to down-regulate their various autoimmune responses, regulating specific few types of immune killer cells will relieve all autoimmune disorders.
The main problem immune cells in autoimmune and allergenic disorders involves the TH2/TH1 immune cell imbalance. TH2 always works in balance with TH1 cells in the body. More TH2 means less TH1 and visa versa. An excess of TH1 cells can result in, or be a symptom of autoimmuninty such as Crohn’s disease, arthitis or lupus. Meanwhile, a TH2 overload will result in allergies, asthma and increased infections from low TH1 count.
So what is the goal? Keep TH1 and TH2 killer cells in balance and you will have a healthy immune system.
Herbs That Balance Autoimmune Response Via TH1/TH2 Modulation (Herbs With Silly Names)
1. Kalawalla (polypodium leucotomos)- A fern native to South America, Kalawalla has been studied by Harvard among other medical schools for its promising results in balancing TH1 and TH2 immune cells and alleviating autoimmune diseases as a result.
Multiple studies show that after 2-5 months of supplementation, the majority of subjects suffering from various autoimmune diseases noted a ~40-95% reversal of their autoimmune symptoms with average dosages of 120-300 mg of kalawalla extract per day.
The most promising studies used kalawalla against the autoimmune diseases multiple sclerosis and lupus. It has also proved to be effective against Crohn’s disease, vitiligo, eczema and psoriasis among others.
Kalawalla in certain studies has shown potently anti-carcinogenic effects and appears to be a particularly effective anti-aging agent in skin and brain cells.
Here is a compilation of clinical studies that demonstrate the immune modulatory effect and down regulation of problematic immune cells.
2. Hydrangea root- Though you may know Hydrangea as a beautiful addition to your flower garden, this herb has prominently been used for thousands of years in Traditional Chinese Medicine as an effective remedy for autoimmune disease.
Earlier we talked about balancing TH1 and TH2 killer cells to alleviate autoimmune dysfunction. Though these cells play a major role in autoimmmunity, TH17 cells also play a major role in inflammatory autoimmunity.
New autoimmune drugs are being created from a natural compound in Hydrangea called halofuginone. Halofuginone (HF) has been widely studied to effectively block the development of the harmful autoimmune TH17 immune cells without hindering the bodies overall immune strength.
As quoted from the Harvard medical news site, “Th17 cells are “bad actors,” implicated in many autoimmune diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and psoriasis. The researchers found that minute doses of HF reduced multiple sclerosis in a mouse model.”
Here is a study demonstrating the immunomodulatory effects of a water extract of Hydrangea.
What is exciting is that in both kalawalla and hydrangea, in studies it appears that only small dosages are needed to provide the observed benefits of reversing cellular autoimmune activity.
Conclusion
Most people have never heard of either one of these herbs but research is now showing us that each herb effects unique immune pathways that dramatically dampen the harmful autoimmune pathways in the mammalian body, without lowering overall immune strength. Animal and human studies appear to support this under a wide variety of autoimmune dysfunctions.
In my research, these are the 2 most powerful auto immune shields available to us today, seeing as they individually target two separate, and most problematic autoimmune white blood cells, it is my recommendation that using the combination of these two herbal compounds is the highest hope for those wishing to reverse the symptoms of inflammatory autoimmunity.
If you suffer from autoimmune disease, talk with your doctor about stacking both of these herbs into your supplement regimen. Try them for 6+ months if you can tolerate them and see they don’t relieve a significant burden of your inflammatory symptoms.
Good luck with your health journey, I wish you find comfort and success!
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