Beat Autoimmune

The 6 Keys to Reverse Your Condition and Reclaim Your Health

Palmer Kippola

• Publisher: Citadel Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780806538945
• eBook ISBN: 9780806538952
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Alternative & Complementary Medicine

Reverse your negative health trajectory and start the journey towards healing and resilient health with Palmer Kippola's groundbreaking plan to erase the effects of autoimmune disease. "An empowering and actionable guidebook that simplifies the steps back to health. Highly recommended!"
—Izabella Wentz, PharmD, FASCP and#1 New York Times bestselling author of Hashimoto's Protocol Palmer Kippola is on a mission to make autoimmune disease history. When she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis at age 19, she began a journey toward healing that resulted in a complete reversal of her symptoms. Now, with the help of leading medical experts, including renowned specialists in immunology and longevity from UCLA and Stanford medical schools, as well as leading practitioners in the field of autoimmunity and functional medicine, Kippola wants to help you find freedom from disease too. This comprehensive book is the first to explore all six of the critical lifestyle factors that are the root causes of autoimmune conditions—and the sources of regaining health: * Discover the foods that can trigger disease as well as healthy solutions to fit your personal nutritional profile *Explore the impact of common, often-undiagnosed infections and ways to optimize your immunity naturally *Learn how gut health is the key to recovery *Gain insight on how hormone imbalances can disrupt healing and how to assess your hormone levels *Eliminate environmental toxins in your home and body, and learn how to live a detox lifestyle *Reduce stress and build resilience Drawing on her own inspiring return to resilient health, as well as the healing stories of a dozen medical doctors and practitioners, plus years of research with autoimmune experts, Palmer Kippola gives readers the tools to beat autoimmune disease—and the hope that relief and healing are possible. "An excellent resource for those who want to use an integrative and functional medicine approach to support their healing journey!"
—Terry Wahls, MD, author of The Wahls Protocol: A Radical New Way to Treat All Chronic Autoimmune Conditions Using Paleo Principles

CHAPTER 1

Start with Food

Food is how we get terribly sick; or it’s how we can restore our health.

—TERRY WAHLS, MD

The importance of food in autoimmune diseases cannot be overstated and yet is often hard for people to understand. How could something so ordinary, so ubiquitous, so simple and so basic be a cause or remedy for such drastic and debilitating conditions? If this seems counterintuitive to you, you are not alone. I had no idea that my “pretty healthy” diet, low in fat and high in whole grains, could have been a major contributing factor in my developing MS. But our daily bread, so to speak, can be the cause of our debilitating autoimmune conditions—and, conversely, the very remedy our bodies need to heal. It was fortunate that I found out I had non-celiac gluten sensitivity, and crazy to me that by removing that one culprit I was able to turn the tide on a twenty-six-year course of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, largely by changing what I ate.

Can it be so simple? That complex, chronic, and often debilitating autoimmune conditions can be reversed or significantly healed by removing a few foods? The short answer is yes, for many people. What I’ve learned from dozens of practitioners and by observing my own clients is that people with autoimmune issues often heal 60 percent to 100 percent just by changing what they eat. For some, like me, it can be 100 percent.

You may be thinking that giving up your favorite foods sounds too daunting to even attempt. But taken one step at a time, any journey, no matter how steep, is surmountable. That’s where the Healing Foods Toolkit comes in handy. My step-by-step guide will help you to approach the process one manageable bite at a time—with me by your side. Need more convincing? Let’s examine food’s essential role in our health.

What’s Wrong with What We Eat?

Answering this seemingly simple question requires a quick review of human evolution and the advent of chronic disease. For the vast majority of our time on planet Earth, we humans were hunter-gatherers, eating fresh, whole foods harvested or hunted in the wild. There were few grains, no pesticides, no herbicides, few processed foods, and no genetically modified foods. The topsoil teemed with beneficial organisms, plants grew at a natural pace, and trace minerals were recycled back into the soils for next year’s season; plants and animals provided nourishing, nutrient-dense food; and chronic disease was virtually nonexistent.

While our ancestors may not have lived long lives (due to infectious illness and trauma), they were mostly free of inflammatory and degenerative diseases. This phenomenon has been chronicled by anthropologists like Weston A. Price, a Canadian dentist who sought to understand how traditional cultures avoided both tooth decay and chronic disease. Turns out that people of traditional cultures who ate local food were naturally healthy and fit. Had they not succumbed to tuberculosis or the elements, they might have lived to seventy or beyond.

Modern Foods and Human Biology: An Evolutionary Mismatch

Fast forward to the Industrial Revolution, which eventually ushered in mass agriculture and machinery for large-scale production to feed a growing American population after World War II. Vast quantities of processed cereal grains like wheat, corn, rice, and soy provided a cheap and easy source of calories. Procuring fast, frozen and packaged foods, after all, is way more efficient than foraging for sustenance.

But convenience has come at a cost.

As we’ve become great mass-producers of grains, oils, and animals, we’ve also gotten really sick. Today, chronic illnesses afflict nearly half of all adults, cause the most deaths and disability in the United States, and are a leading driver of health care costs.¹ Most tragically, these diseases, once rare or associated with old age, now affect children and especially women in their prime. Food sensitivities, mysterious and frequently debilitating symptoms, insulin resistance, obesity, and chronic illnesses are becoming the norm.

It turns out that our modern lifestyle is at the root of autoimmune conditions; and modern foods are one of the biggest culprits. As people have shifted from eating a diverse diet of foraged foods to eating only a few staple crops, the population has experienced an overall decline in health and longevity. We have also shifted from intermittent food availability to constant food availability (packaged, processed foods), and from seasonal eating to year-round obtainability (imported or greenhouse-grown) foods. The shortcuts provided by fast and cheap packaged foods are not a good match for human biology. Our bodies are rebelling against these unnatural foods, and we’re developing modern, chronic diseases that were extremely rare or absent prior to the agricultural era. Some call these modern, chronic illnesses “mismatch disorders” for that reason. In other words, the standard American diet (SAD)—a.k.a. Western diet—loaded with sugars and chemically produced products, is a fast track to insulin resistance, obesity, cancer and autoimmunity.

The Return to Health

The great news is that a return to health and vitality usually follows a return to more traditional ways of eating. Often in a short time, too.

We know that people from traditional cultures who adopt Western diets suffer the same health consequences as people who grow up eating a Western diet. Even a temporary SAD diet can lead to diabetes, obesity, and heart disease—each risk factors for autoimmune conditions. Nutrition researcher Kerin O’Dea studied Australian aboriginals who had left their native home in the bush for the more Westernized town of Derby, Australia. With access to refined carbohydrates and a more sedentary lifestyle, it wasn’t long before they became obese and diabetic. O’Dea conducted a seven-week study to see what would happen if the aboriginals returned to their bush habitat and their customary diet of fish, shellfish, birds, kangaroo, tubers, and bush honey. Sure enough, as the aboriginals returned to eating their native foods, they lost weight and experienced remarkable health improvements. Markers of inflammation and diabetes all improved or resolved, in just seven weeks!

Does this mean you’re going to have to sharpen your spear and roam the wild to find your own food? Metaphorically speaking, that’s the right direction. Practically speaking, you’ll just need to become a savvy, modern-day huntress-gatherer to find the most evolutionarily appropriate foods for you. As you align your food choices to those be...

Table of contents

• Praise
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• FOREWORD: YOU HAVE THE KEYS TO YOUR HEALTH
• INTRODUCTION - My Story
• CHAPTER 1 - Start with Food
• CHAPTER 2 - Heal Your Gut
• CHAPTER 3 - Clear Infections
• CHAPTER 4 - Minimize Toxins
• CHAPTER 5 - Address Stress
• CHAPTER 6 - Balance Your Hormones
• CHAPTER 7 - Keep Moving Forward
• APPENDIX A - 30-Day Food Vacation Recipes
• APPENDIX B - Food Symptom Tracker
• APPENDIX C - What’s Your ACE Score?
• APPENDIX D - Advanced Considerations and Practitioners
• APPENDIX E - Find a Practitioner and Become a Practitioner Yourself!
• APPENDIX F - Resources and Recommended Reading by Chapter
• ABOUT THE PRACTITIONERS PROFILED IN THE BOOK
• ENDNOTES
• GRATITUDE
• Notes