What is Lupus, and how can food & Lifestyle choices help?

Imagine you cook spaghetti – this action represents your organic function, digestion, energy source, and waste production. You fill your sink with water; this now represents your current bodily fluid household. When the spaghetti is fully cooked, you use a colander with too large holes through where the cooked pasta escapes, falling into the sink and mixes with the water. This represents the wastage, instead of being separated, mixing with your liquid matter. This “pasta” is loaded with bacteria, parasites, and fungus causing damage to your body. Lupus. Adding to the dilemma, your natural defense mechanism becomes confused and attacks your healthy tissue instead of clearing the waste…!

The word lupus (from the Latin word for wolf) is attributed to the thirteenth-century physician Rogerius, who used it to describe erosive facial lesions reminiscent of a wolf’s bite.

I was hoping you could bear with me; the above analysis will make sense later. The problem here is simple; you could have used a thin meshed strainer. The “strainer story” above is to symbolizes your immune system and your connectivity tissue. If the skin of your digestive tracks is overtly porous, the toxic matter will escape and cause havoc in your tissue: sepsis. Sepsis occurs when chemicals released in the bloodstream to fight an infection trigger inflammation throughout the body. This can cause a cascade of changes that damage multiple organ systems, leading to failure, sometimes even death.

With lupus, not only the skin of your digestive lining is compromised, your muscles are not sufficiently connected with your ligaments; weak ligaments detach from calcium-deprived, brittle bones while infected fat particle-rich blood transports lesser oxygen, causing your skin to be nourished insufficiently. The liver will work overtime to detoxify, and your kidneys can’t filter blood from toxins fast enough. Lupus not only stresses the body, but you will also suffer anxiety, insomnia, develop rashes, hives, and hair loss…

Either you are born with a large-holed strainer (inherited condition) or difficult-to-pinpoint causes that damage your filtering tissues (external or internal reaction). The goal is to separate the pasta from the water effectively and restore your strainer to be less porous. Healthy tissue can transport and discharge toxic waste from your body. This helps to restore damaged bones, skin, and self-confidence.

Lupus is an autoimmune disease where the body begins to attack itself, causing tissue damage anywhere in the body. It can develop rapidly into a severe condition because it attacks and destroys the body’s connectivity tissues and vital organs. It always affects the blood vessels. Reynaud’s disease is common with lupus: A chronic inflammatory disorder of the connective tissue. Lupus appears in two forms: discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE), which damages the skin, and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), which generally affects other organs and the skin. It can be fatal and is characterized by remissions and flare-ups, often misdiagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis.

Modern research indicates that a person’s genes may increase the chance of developing lupus. It takes some environmental trigger to set off the illness. Ultraviolet rays (sunbeds), sulfa drugs, tetracycline drugs, penicillin and antibiotic drugs, viral infections, and maybe stress itself… Although there is a common scientific list of such triggers, I am personally convinced it could be simply your toxic private environment: toxic household cleaners, artificial air fresheners, body products, and, foremost, your food choices. I will elaborate on the latter below.

There are three “professional” theories as to the cause of SLE. First, SLE is an abnormal reaction of the body to its own tissues and is caused by a breakdown in the autoimmune system. Second, certain factors may make a person more susceptible to SLE, such as stress, streptococcal or viral infections, parasites, exposure to sunlight, immunization, pregnancy, or genetic predisposition. Third, SLE may be aggravated by certain drugs, such as anticonvulsants, penicillin, sulfa drugs, and oral contraceptives. There are more than one hundred different drugs that may cause lupus.

There are more than 6000 food products that may cause lupus. There are more than 2000 household products that may cause lupus. You live in a toxic world!

I have personally helped a dozen people cope with this dilemma, and they all experienced a positive result. Let me be obvious: I DO NOT claim to have a solution, nor do I have the expertise to comprehend lupus. I can adjust your lifestyle with a few basic TCM principles. My friends affected by this illness have improved their condition, and some even managed to stabilize their wellbeing to a comfortable level. The long-term goal is to eliminate or minimize the use of cortisone that causes a whole slew of horrid side effects. I strongly believe that the increasing number of degenerative diseases are side effects of many immunizations people have been given over the past few decades. Immunizations have the effect of oppressing your immune system to recognize whether a substance in the body is it is own or whether it comes from outside. Simplified, with SLE, your body’s ability to remove accumulated waste is hindered and retarded by a constant buildup of parasites. This waste causes toxicity, and your body can’t discharge it timely, inviting internal infections and protein not being distributed sufficiently. Your whole cycle of balance becomes disrupted. You react, you flip out, you fall apart – you die.

From the perspective of TCM, I encourage you to prepare with a preventative approach, reduce your immediate toxic environment, eat natural rich antibiotic and immune-boosting choices, add sleep and avoid stress.

Learn about all the products you consume: Learn how to have a relationship with the food you consume – This is my most powerful advice!

Meditate! If you experience lupus, consult your doctor and discuss a few of my suggestions: Clear your home from all toxic cleaning products. Even with a claim of “environmentally safe.” Get used to clean with vinegar-diluted water, maybe chlorine for extreme dirt, and find comfort in using non-perfumed simple soaps and body products that have an expiration date of fewer than two years. When you vacuum clean, open all windows and avoid inhaling your fibrous carpet dust blowing out of the machine. Wash your cloth and sheets with hot water. Wear nothing that needs dry-cleaning or can’t be washed hot. Pack your fancy dresses away until your body has recovered and is strong enough to tolerate them.

Allow yourself a minimum of 7 hours sleep in summer and eight hours in winter. Do not watch much TV. Void the computer screen within an hour of bedtime. Sleep with your cell phone away at a healthy distance.

Do not microwave anything.

Do not drink fluoride-laced water from the faucet.

Now get a simple but effective diet: Never drink carbonated drinks, healthy or not. Most people with heartburn will discover that this is my best advice. No artificial sweetener. If you have diabetes, listen to NO ARTIFICIAL SWEETENER! Science has clearly linked them to be lupus activators!! No dairy products, no meat, and limit your intake on the pre-made products to a few items like canned tomatoes or beans. Any packaged product with a shelf life of over two months is most likely not healthy for you. No eggs and no nightshade plants. Limit your chicken meat and purchase free-range, less loaded with penicillin and hormones. Limit wheat and stay away from commercial baked bread and pasta. Sorry, but limit your chocolate intake.

I have come across articles where people are being treated with GoatMilk to counter lupus effects: That’s bizarrely weird and wrong. Goats milk given to infants has been shown to cause electrolyte imbalances, and this is one of the main troubles for people with lupus (or sports fanatics)!

Start finding pleasure with honey. Sugar is better than any sweetener, including Sustiva and Agave syrup. Eat daily a few black walnuts, drink daily decaf hot teas with honey – preferably passionflower, mint, Taheebo Tea, and Black Fennel Seed Tea. Drink fresh juices whenever you have a chance. Fresh means consumed within one hour of squeezed, pressed, or centrifuged. Do not juice vegetables; they must be blended and consumed with fiber. Eat a diet that includes onions, garlic, and lots of quick-blanched greens and legumes. Do not eat raw spinach and raw broccoli; they are stressful on your system. Eat a variety of colors, chew longer, enjoy simple flavors, and allow yourself the pleasures of a bite of sweets when appropriate.

Add bee propolis to your supplement intake. You will discover it as a powerful additive in fighting the side effects of lupus! Propolis has the ability to energize the body and restore vigor and stamina. It boosts the thymus glands and aids with sleep and mental strength. It is one of nature’s most effective antibiotics!

Please, share with me if you found help in this blog. For a personalized consultation, contact me in person.

TCMchef Raphael