healing Immune dysfunction 

If you have chronic inflammation, autoimmune patterns, or allergies, you know a few things from experience:  Stress makes it worse, so does depletion. Natural and alternative approaches help a lot, but benefits are not long lasting. You don’t want to stay on meds. It’s frustrating. 

Healing immune dysfunction that has progressed to a chronic condition is going to require some consistency and time. It’s a lifestyle upgrade to healthier patterns, which requires dedication. 

When you have chronic conditions, mustering that dedication and consistency is challenging. I’ve experienced the loop of flaring and feeling better, and want to share the two approaches which changed my immune function the most.

Interestingly, these are also two root causes of immune dysfunction which are most overlooked. Your doctor won’t guide you to these, but your immune system will thank you. 

If you choose to work on improving these two aspects of your life, you have nothing to lose, and only good stuff to gain. Your immune system can always be better supported. 

Here’s to healing root causes and taking less pills, 

Dr. Siva

Emotional Immunity

It’s the immune system’s job to detect when something is potentially harmful, and to protect and recover from the exposure. 

Think about those same functions on the emotional plane: detect, protect and recover. 

If you have chronic inflammation, autoimmune patterns, or allergies, consider reflecting on the health of your emotional immunity. 

Here is a self inquiry that may reveal an opportunity to heal an emotional root cause of your physical symptoms:

1. Are you well able to detect when a person or situation does not have the capacity to meet your emotional needs?  If they do not have this capacity, you will experience emotional harm. This is akin to the detection functions of the immune system.
2. Once you realize you are in patterns of regularly feeling hurt, are you well able to protect yourself?  Healthy self protection is rare. It requires that you are able to communicate well and to detach from people and situations you may be attached to, as a part of self preservation. 
3. Is part of your recovery process being clearly informed on how to prevent future emotional pain due to repeating patterns?  This requires not running away from the pain pattern, but growing yourself to not recreate the pattern.  Evolving a new informed response is what the immune system excels at. This is what keeps us alive in a world of so many pathogens.

Micro-environmental Toxins

Functional medicine practitioners love to test for heavy metals, because they have anti-chelation therapies (often pricey and take a while). You can pay hundreds for a hair mineral analysis and hundreds more for all the supplements it reveals you need. 

Detox treatments and supplements will not protect from the degree of chemical toxic exposure most have on a regular basis. But, dramatically decreasing that toxic exposure will. 

Ayurveda pioneered a low-toxicity lifestyle that is essential to surviving a high-toxicity world. I often describe Ayurveda as permaculture for your body, including the emotional and spiritual layers. The downstream effects of stress lead to toxic build up by disabling natural detox and immunity.

We have to be healthy for our many natural detoxification processes to function well. This is where biohacking to optimize cellular metabolism, joyful connections, and frequency treatments come in.

Check in on your regular toxic exposure with the quick self inquiry below. Inherent in the questions are the suggestions for decreasing your daily micro-environmental toxins.   

• Do you use chemically coated nonstick pans? 

• Are you drinking out of a to-go coffee cup regularly (10,000x the daily rec BPAs in just the lid)?

• What do you wash your clothes and sheets with?

• How much time do you have in Nature on a weekly basis (powerful natural detox)?

• How much packaged food do you eat compared to fresh food?

• Are you taking in microplastics with your daily water intake?

Related Resources

Dr. Siva's Natural Remedies for Colds and Allergies

Rapeh Workshop - herbal Amazonian plant blends for the sinuses and mind

Smoking Flowers Workshop - herbal healing smoke blends