Something I’ve heard from many of you is that in addition to EBV, you also have an autoimmune condition. An autoimmune condition is one where the immune system attacks your healthy cells, causing inflammation that affects many different body systems.
Usually the immune system has protections in place to prevent this from happening, but somewhere in the disease process, it becomes “confused” and turns against your own cells. There can be many reasons for autoimmunity to develop and EBV and viral infections can be one reason.
How Does EBV Cause Autoimmunity?
There are a few things going on in the development of autoimmunity caused by EBV. It can involve genetic T cell deficiency, impaired antiviral T cell activity, and genetic expression that turns T cells into autoreactive cells that end up attacking your healthy cells.
Those who develop autoimmunity may have a genetic predisposition to a T cell deficiency. A deficiency can also develop based on environmental factors. One factor that makes this problem worse is a lack of sunlight and vitamin D deficiency. If you live in the Pacific Northwest like me, you know all about this!
In my last post I talked about how EBV controls a type of immune cell called a B cell and prevents it from self-destructing when it's infected. EBV can also do the same to your T cells. T cells provide antiviral protection, but you lose that protection due to EBV’s control.
Over time, these cells become autoreactive, meaning they turn on your own cells. EBV has a protein called EBNA2 that starts this process. It can change the gene expression in both the virus and your own cells and this leads to the development of autoimmune diseases including lupus, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, type 1 diabetes, juvenile idiopathic arthritis and celiac disease.
Even with all this talk about genes, it’s important to remember that just because you have a gene for something, it doesn’t mean that you’ll develop the disease. Your environment also plays a role and, fortunately, it’s one that you can control. How you live can determine whether these genes get flipped on or off.
Proactive Things You Can Do
There are a few nutrients and herbs that can help regulate your T cells. These include vitamin D and the adaptogenic herbs astragalus, ashwagandha, and schisandra. I often recommend these herbs as part of an adrenal protocol as part of EBV therapy.
When it comes to environmental factors, one of the best things you can do is reduce your exposures and minimize the amount that your body has to deal with. Environmental exposures can be from pollution, indoor air, health and beauty products, our food or our cleaning products. If you don't use them already, start replacing products you use at home with non-toxic alternatives.
Activities that you can do to promote toxin elimination are sweating either through exercise or sauna and skin brushing. Exercise and skin brushing will also improve blood flow through the liver and kidneys where toxins can be put into the stool and urine.
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-Dr. Jamie
Resources
Environmental Working Group Database: https://www.ewg.org
Fett, R. (2014). It starts with the egg: How the science of egg quality can help you get pregnant naturally, prevent miscarriage, and improve your odds in IVF. Franklin Fox Publishing.
Kines, K. (2018). The Epstein-Barr virus solution: The hidden undiagnosed epidemic of chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and autoimmune disease - how to heal and regain your life. Holistic Nutrition Press
This website is not intended for the purpose of providing medical advice. All information, content, and material of this website is for informational purposes only and are not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider.
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