Chronic conditions are some of the most challenging we deal with as doctors and as patients. I know because I’m both. I’m a Functional Medicine doctor who lives with multiple autoimmune conditions, including arthritis and Hashimoto’s autoimmune thyroid disease.
The reason these cases are so challenging is that chronic conditions can become incredibly disruptive to everyday life, putting limitations on all areas of life, but there’s usually not a ‘cure’. Treatment is usually about managing and minimising symptoms which can be difficult when conventional treatments fail to provide some patients with relief from symptoms.
My own efforts to more effectively manage the symptoms of my chronic conditions is part of what led me to Functional Medicine. I’ve been able to replicate the health improvements I’ve experienced myself when treating patients at the clinic. With all of our patients, we start with evaluating their biochemistry and adapting their diet to minimise their symptoms. We know from long experience that food and chronic illness can be closely connected.
How Will Changing What I Eat Improve My Condition?
What would you think if I were to tell you that when I don’t eat gluten, dairy and soy, the symptoms of my chronic illnesses go away? If I accidentally eat gluten, I will get brain fog straightaway, and 3 to 4 days later, symptoms of arthritis will return, such as joint and back pain. Eating soy or dairy causes skin problems and sinus inflammation. I’ve experienced the correlation between not eating gluten, dairy and soy and feeling better, as well as the reverse – eating gluten, dairy and soy and my health going downhill.
How can food cause health issues?
We know that gluten is linked to a lot of autoimmune diseases. One issue with gluten is that it makes the gut lining more permeable. With increased gut permeability, undigested food ‘leaks’ out of the gut and into the bloodstream around the digestive tract. This part of the body has a heightened immune response and is supposed to look out for foreign invaders that could cause infection. The undigested food is seen as a potential threat that needs to be neutralised – leading to the creation of antibodies to commonly eaten foods.
When antibodies are in the bloodstream for a long period of time (which will occur if they are made to attack the food you eat regularly), they can become cross-reactive and trigger the immune system to start attacking tissues in the body (this is auto-immunity). This can lead to a diverse array of symptoms – from arthritis to alopecia.
How food can resolve issues
We can undo this process by identifying the foods that are damaging the gut of the individual patient. It is different for everyone (although gluten is often a common player). We remove the most statistically inflammatory trigger foods from the diet and pack loads of anti-inflammatory foods in their diet instead. This allows the gut to heal, preventing food from leaking out of the gut. Inflammation subsides as the body stops attacking food and bodily tissues, reducing symptoms. A careful process of food reintroduction and symptom monitoring can then be used to identify trigger-foods.
If we can find and remove trigger foods, a patient will still have their chronic condition, but the symptomatic impact can often be minimised and food with therapeutic qualities are introduced to help healing and reduce inflammation.
Why Functional Medicine Is So Effective In Managing Chronic Illness
The Functional Medicine approach can work well in the treatment of many chronic conditions – even when conventional methods haven’t worked for a few reasons:
Root-Cause Approach
If I told the average person that I don’t eat gluten, dairy and soy in order to prevent joint pain, they’d probably be quite confused – because they don’t seem connected. However, the Functional Medicine methodology is based on relieving symptoms by identifying and treating root causes. For me, having identified these foods as the initial trigger for my inflammation means I am able to enjoy a pain-free life without the need for medication or pain-killers.
When dealing with chronic conditions, long-term and sustainable solutions are more suitable because patients are relying on the treatment for years – or even for the rest of their lives. Root-cause treatments are generally more sustainable in the long term. I’d prefer not to eat gluten, dairy and soy than take pain medication or immune-suppressing drugs every day for the rest of my life. So, if a chronic illness is proving to be treatment-resistant, it may be time to look for the root cause.
Highly individualised
We don’t give out a one-size-fits-all food plan to our patients. It isn’t effective, and it doesn’t make sense for the long-term management of chronic illness. To get the best results, we need to find out what exactly is going wrong for the individual.
The list of foods that can potentially trigger inflammatory reactions is long. Gluten, dairy and soy are some of the most common, but some people have a bad reaction to eggs, nuts, seeds, legumes, tomatoes, peppers, aubergine, and the list goes on. Actually, bananas are one of my trigger foods!
If we were to tell patients to cut out every food that could potentially trigger them, not only would we be making life very difficult for them, but we would be unnecessarily cutting out sources of nutrients. Instead, we find out what foods trigger individual people. Usually, it’s no more than a handful of foods. We take them out and leave everything else in. This is not just convenient but highly beneficial to keeping the gut healthy and so inflammation at bay. The gut is full of lots of different healthy bacteria that process the food we eat. Each type of bacteria feeds off different food, so a varied diet keeps the gut happy. Once we’ve pinpointed the food to avoid, patients see a noticeable difference in a matter of weeks or months.
Holistic
We know that there are so many factors that impact general health: The health of the gut, hormone and mineral levels needed for normal bodily processes, and the intensity of chronic illness symptoms. It only makes sense to look at our patients as whole people and investigate what else is influencing their health.
We’ll look at sleep and stress because a lack of sleep and high-stress levels are known to be disruptive to healthy functioning. We even look at toxins from food, water and the environment. While the effect of pollutants might not be noticeable to most people (even though they’re not good for anyone!), some people with chronic conditions can be very sensitive to them. Anything that can inflame the gut is best avoided.
Movement is another contributing factor to health. However, as we take an individualised approach, we don’t tell all our patients to exercise more. In fact, we tell some of our patients to move less. In severe cases of chronic illness, too much exercise can take a big toll and slow the healing process. Or these patients it makes sense to preserve energy for healing and build up to movement. The general benchmark is to save 20% of your energy for healing. It’s all about looking at the bigger picture.
Being diagnosed with a chronic condition can feel like a limitation has been set on your quality of life, especially if you have been through the frustrating process of trying but failing to find a treatment that makes a positive impact on your experience of symptoms. At Functional Nexus, we completely understand that feeling and are passionate about helping you reach your best possible health despite your diagnosis.
Some of our team live with chronic conditions, and we all work regularly with patients to manage symptoms of chronic illness. We have found an approach that works in the short-term and in the long-term on an individual level. For expert guidance on taking a holistic approach to managing chronic illness, book a consultation at the clinic or join the next cohort of the Functional Foundation Programme.
