What If?

[Celiaction]

What if the relationship between wheat ingestion and a host of auto-immune diseases could be explained this way? The offending gliadin protein found in wheat was never adapted to in the 2-3 million year evolution of recognizable humans. What if the last 1500-4000 years of Neolithic development unleashed a protein into human consumption that cannot actually be used?

What if these proteins mimic the one

[Teacher1958]

Your theory makes sense. Many medical studies are funded by the drug companies, though, so anyone who would dare to try to investigate this hypothesis would run into problems, at least in this country where so much is profit driven.

Just as an aside, both my father and grandfather had particularly virulent forms of Alzheimer's Disease. My father suffered psychosis, vivid hallucinations, etc. Interestingly, he also had stomach problems most of his life. I don't really know anything about his dad's medical history, as he was of a different religious persuasion than we were, so I only ever met him one time when his mind was still intact.

[burdee]

See Open Original Shared Link Dr. Fine of Enterolab also believes that celiac disease is just one manifestation of a whole host of autoimmune diseases caused by gluten intolerance. Many studies show high correlation between gluten intolerance and autoimmune diseases like MS, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, lupus, etc. However most research is funded by drug companies. Dietary cures for autoimmune diseases won't give profits to drug companies. Drug treatments which allow the diseases to continue while drugs relieve symptoms are more profitable for drug companies. The whole traditional medical community must dramatically change how it 'treats' (rather than cures) diseases in order to consider the real cause of autoimmune diseases.

BURDEE

[alamaz]

a woman i know who had MS and started on dr. mercola's program says she hasn't taken an ms drug in six years. she deviated from the diet once and her ms flared up again. his diet calls for a total elminiation of grains. many people believe there is a stong link between grain based diets and diseases. however, as burdee said, there is no money in eating right. and the economic ramifications of people not eating grains go far beyond the pharmaceutical companies. I believe there is a book called "The No Grain" diet or something along those lines you could check out.

[kevieb]

it's funny you posted this today----i have fibromyalgia and recently the fatigue is almost overwhelming. just today i have decided to try (once again) to change my diet and see if i can find some relief from the pain and fatigue. i don't have celiac (3 of my girls do) but i keep having a tendency to wonder whether or not i should avoid gluten anyway. there are wheat and chemical ingredients in so many foods!!! i wonder if maybe people would have never gotten to the point of intolerance if our diets had not been overwhelmed with these ingredients----quite often unknowingly.

[burdee]

Read "Dangerous Grains" by Ron Hoggan. He also describes how gluten consumption affects autoimmune disease symptoms.

BURDEE

[UR Groovy]

What if it is not a disease, but rather an appropriate response to a poison?

This is how we look at it (my husband and I). We've joked that I'm just a superior human being and that my body has the tendency to kick stuff it doesn't like to the curb.

I'm not necessarily Celiac. I don't know if I would test positive or not, but I would tend to agree with this theory. I have gotten to the point where I don't think of it as a disease, but as an ability of the body to protect itself from dangers.

[miles2go]

What if the relationship between wheat ingestion and a host of auto-immune diseases could be explained this way? The offending gliadin protein found in wheat was never adapted to in the 2-3 million year evolution of recognizable humans. What if the last 1500-4000 years of Neolithic development unleashed a protein into human consumption that cannot actually be used?

What if these proteins mimic the one’s in meat and are not so much consumed, but form building blocks in structures throughout the body. What if these inappropriate proteins are then stripped by our own immune systems causing fibromyalgia in muscles, MS in nerves and (new info) Alzheimers in brains, etc?

What if we Celiacs are lucky to have gut level sensitivities which go to extreme measures to rid our bodies of this stuff before it causes greater damage. What if it is not a disease, but rather an appropriate response to a poison?

Monsanto will have already taken over the world by the time that's figured out.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Margaret

[tarnalberry]

but for some of us, maintaining a strictly gluten free diet does nothing to alleviate those autoimmune conditions, which exist in areas where wheat consumption is significantly different than here. not everyone has everything get better going gluten free.

it may be part of the story, but the genetic basis for these other autoimmune conditions leads me to believe that it is not the whole story. (there's interesting theory that t1 diabetes actually developed, genetically, as an adaptation to a freak, extreme, cold snap, as higher levels of sugar in the blood help the body deal with extremely cold temperatures better. and in a situation like that, tens of thousands of years ago, the quantity of starches people have available now that create the deadly side effects with the condition would not have been available.)

[Celiaction]

All,

Thank-you all for your kind and insightful responses to what has been for me a wild, self-created idea. Right or wrong I'd rather feel like a victor than a victim. Your thoughts have been a boon to my sense of finding a worthy cause in a demeaning devastating illness.

Oddly it seems up to we laymen to comprehend and lay groundwork for a personal as well as larger scale response to a syndrome poorly if not intentionally neglected by the pharmed establishment.

David

[Celiaction]

Tiffany,

I understand the basis of diabetes

[psawyer]

David,

Type I diabetes is an auto-immune disease. I have it. The body produces antibodies which attack the cells in the pancreas which create insulin. Without insulin, death is inevitable. Insulin injections are required. I take at at least four per day, and sometimes as many as six. It can occur in young children, and was once called juvenile diabetes for that reason, although it can occur at any age. I was 31 when diagnosed.

The exact cause of type 1 diabetes is not known, although there is a definite statistical correlation between celiac disease and type I diabetes (also known as insulin dependent diabetes--IDDM). Genetics seem to play a role, although the specific factors have not been identified.

Type II diabetes is quite different in cause, although the symptoms and treatments may be similar. Type II diabetics are typically older adults who are overweight. The pancreas produces insulin, but the cells in the body resist it, requiring help from oral drugs, or insulin.

Type II is much more common than type I. Life threatening diabetic coma Open Original Shared Link is rare in type II. Because of the blood-sugar lowering effects of both injected insulin and oral diabetes drugs, Open Original Shared Link is a risk in both types.

[Guest Doll]

See Open Original Shared Link Dr. Fine of Enterolab also believes that celiac disease is just one manifestation of a whole host of autoimmune diseases caused by gluten intolerance. Many studies show high correlation between gluten intolerance and autoimmune diseases like MS, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, lupus, etc. However most research is funded by drug companies. Dietary cures for autoimmune diseases won't give profits to drug companies. Drug treatments which allow the diseases to continue while drugs relieve symptoms are more profitable for drug companies. The whole traditional medical community must dramatically change how it 'treats' (rather than cures) diseases in order to consider the real cause of autoimmune diseases.

BURDEE

I have to respectfully point out that there have been other (not gluten) triggers implicated in all of the autoimmune diseases listed above. The current idea is that they are likely linked because of the leaky gut and shared genetic overlap, NOT because of gluten. Yes, these diseases are linked, but they are linked genetically, just like Down's Syndrome is linked with heart defects. I am on the gluten free casein free diet (2 years now), and I still have Type 1 diabetes and Hashimoto's. And neither "improved" in any way. Not that I expected them to... I have seen NO evidence to suggest that a gluten free diet entirely prevents or "cures" an autoimmune disease. Dr. Fine refuses to publish his data, so I have nothing to support his claims.

People still get autoimmune diseases even if they have never had gluten. And children/people on the diet still go on to get more autoimmune diseases.

Some people are *misdiagnosed* with MS and really have Celiac Disease. Their symptoms *will* go away on the diet. Someone with MS and not Celiac likely will still remain symptomatic even on the diet. We don't know what the trigger for MS is yet.

I'm not going to touch the issue of Big Pharma here. I don't disagree. Same idea that disease charities never will find a cure for anything...why would they put themselves out of a job and part with their constant tide of donations?

What I will say is that if you have autoimmune disease in your family (or high risk genes perhaps), your children should be gluten free/casein free from birth. It can't hurt, and may help.

I *personally* just find it questionable for a researcher to make statements and not have the data public to prove it. I question his motives, especially when he is selling a product, just like Big Pharma. I'm not trying to be offensive, just pointing this out.

[Guest Doll]

but for some of us, maintaining a strictly gluten free diet does nothing to alleviate those autoimmune conditions, which exist in areas where wheat consumption is significantly different than here. not everyone has everything get better going gluten free.

it may be part of the story, but the genetic basis for these other autoimmune conditions leads me to believe that it is not the whole story. (there's interesting theory that t1 diabetes actually developed, genetically, as an adaptation to a freak, extreme, cold snap, as higher levels of sugar in the blood help the body deal with extremely cold temperatures better. and in a situation like that, tens of thousands of years ago, the quantity of starches people have available now that create the deadly side effects with the condition would not have been available.)

I have heard of this theory, but I respectfully disagree with it. Type 1 diabetes kills within weeks to months if untreated. It can even be fatal within days (acute fulimant onset). If I don't have insulin within 4 hours, I'm in a coma. I had a virus at age 2 and was in the hospital almost in a coma with Type 1 diabetes a week later. I highly doubt that anyone with the "high blood sugar levels" and ketones (makes the blood acidic) found in Type 1 diabetes would have survived very long, and would not have reproduced. Type 1 diabetes (formerly called Juvenile Diabetes), also usually starts in childhood. Death would occur within the year *at most* from onset. Type 1 diabetes was a quick death sentence before insulin was discoverd. Death from undiagnosed and untreated Type 1 diabetes can occur within days to weeks in many cases.

I think this reporter mixed up Type 1 diabetes with TYPE 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is the common form that is preventable and caused by obesity, poor diet, and lack of exercise. It has different genetics and casues than Type 1 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is insulin resistance at a cellular level, and Type 1 is an autoimmune disease.

[gfpaperdoll]

but for some of us, maintaining a strictly gluten free diet does nothing to alleviate those autoimmune conditions, which exist in areas where wheat consumption is significantly different than here. not everyone has everything get better going gluten free.

aha, but are they grain free & dairy free? Big difference. I for one am not going to waste not eating the wheat goodies only to destroy my body with other gluten free grains.

celiaction, I love your theory & it is right on with what I think & with what others have studied.

In addition to that I think that the reason the current U.S. population is getting sicker at a younger age is because wheat has at least 50% more gluten in it today than it did 50 years ago. & people eat more processed foods (wheat, sugar, saturated fat) than they did 50 years ago. We also have genetically modified corn and rice in our food supply. (not supposed to be, but it is, oops) There was an article in the local paper yesterday about getting some legislation passed to set guidelines for genetically modified chickens, pigs, cows so that the people in that business would then be able to attract investors to invest in a commodity that had a certified approval. well the article did mention that they were not sure how the population would object, or if they would. My guess is no one would pay any attention, except maybe a few people like me that is already paying a lot of attention to my food.

The book mentioned is "The NO-GRAIN Diet" by Dr. Joseph Mercola

[Guest Doll]

The grain free diet may help. I don't disagree with that. But I have never heard of any autoimmune disease being actually put into total remission by someone being on it (aside from Celiac). That would also make it a treatment and not a true cure. The leaky gut/defective immune response is still there.

I am interested though, is there anyone on this board that has RA, MS, Lupus, etc that is "in remission" drug free for at least 5 years due to a grain free diet? Likely dietary triggers do play a role, but what about the viruses that also have been linked with these autoimmune diseases? Has anyone actually been put into complete long-term 100% remission through diet? Any articles?

gfpaperdoll, I also agree we eat way too much processed and unatural junk. Too much meat, juice, sugar, carbs, grains, fat...the list goes on and on....

Back to growing your own garden, I say.

[gfpaperdoll]

There is a lady that does not have MS any longer trying to get the word out to the MS people.

She was posting on another board.

You might check some of those boards for the specific illness...

Most people, hard to believe though, are not on the internet. I know a lot of celiac people that are never on the internet. At the last dining out group (gluten-free of course) I attended, about 35 people & no one posted to the internet.

My vet friend that was mis dxd chrons is not on the internet, she is too busy with being a vet, her booming gluten-free cake business, remodeling her house, driving her very cool vehicle, & then her personal life...

Most of the people that I know are so disgusted with the medical community, that once they are not an invalid they are too busy doing fun things to bother about posting on the internet, although it seems that they are telling everyone they meet - sometimes whether they want to hear it or not.

I will say that a couple of years ago that an aquaintance of mine, that had a mutual hobby, was on total disability & had been for years, partly bedridden, had serious migrains & her daughter was also sick. After talking to me & remembering that when she had been on a diet eating no carbs etc that she had been the healthiest that she had ever been in her life. well she just went gluten-free with no testing, & GOT WELL, almost immediately ( with migrains she was probably DQ1). & she had her grown daugher also on the diet. Well let me tell ya, she just about dropped our friendship like a hot potato & I knew why. She was afraid that I would turn her in for not being disabled anymore. I bet there are a few people out there that have found the gluten-free secret & are just not getting an official diagnosis because they do not want to lose their disability benefits.

[Rachel--24]

Just the other day one of my Dr.'s was discussing diet with me....mainly with regards to dairy products. He said that dairy has been linked with Type 1 Diabetes in studies as recent as 2006.

I havent look into it but heres what he told me. I already posted this in another thread so I'm just copying it here to save time.

He said theres an increasing understanding that the immune reaction begins as a legitimate response to something that is bad for us.

It was just published last year that studies showed that milk is a cause for Type 1 Diabetes.... antibodies are developed which then destroy the pancreas.

The antibodies destroying the pancreas arose originally as a reaction to milk. A low level allergic reaction was formed against the whey or casein in the milk.

Then there is the "antigen" (casein) and there is also the antibody which the immune system is producing against it. Those two things together form a unit which is called "antigen antibody complex".

That complex is floating around in the body and then the immune system sees *that* as another foreign thing and then makes another antibody against that.

Now the immune system is also attacking the "antigen antibody complex" but that complex happens to look just like the eyelet cells of the pancreas. So then the immune system goes and attacks those cells in the pancreas....destroying them.

So he said the antibodies formed against my thyroid may very well have originated as a legitimate immune response to some toxin, infection, vaccine....something like that.

That was already my belief about how autoimmune disease develops but I had never heard of the studies linking dairy to Diabetes.

So yeah....he doesnt want me eating dairy because my body doesnt like it. He said the proteins are what causes the immune response and he doesnt see how it would be good for me to take the whey protein.

I do believe 100% that the autoimmune diseases are triggered by things in the body which the immune system sees as a "threat"......virus, bacteria, fungi, toxins, mercury, etc.

Apparantly in the case of T1 Diabetes....milk is found to be a trigger.

Type-1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease leading to insulin deficiency. Its occurrence is influenced by genetic and environmental factors. The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region on chromosome 6 accounts for 45% of the genetic susceptibility for the disease, mainly the HLA-DQB1*0201 and HLA-DQB1*0302 alleles. Among the environmental factors involved, early exposure to cow

[burdee]

I have seen NO evidence to suggest that a gluten free diet entirely prevents or "cures" an autoimmune disease. Dr. Fine refuses to publish his data, so I have nothing to support his claims.

I *personally* just find it questionable for a researcher to make statements and not have the data public to prove it. I question his motives, especially when he is selling a product, just like Big Pharma. I'm not trying to be offensive, just pointing this out.

Actually I heard Dr. Fine speak about his research findings (with supportive data) at a local celiac support group meeting last April. He IS in the process of summarizing his data for publication, which he hopes will occur in 2008. He has soooo much data that the summarizing/writing process is very time consuming. Meanwhile he wanted to make tests (based on his research) available to people who suffer from celiac disease or gluten intolerance. Rather than waiting years to publish data to impress the slow to impress medical community, he chose to start using his research findings to help the people who needed it. You can read part of his conclusions in that link I provided in my first post in this thread (Open Original Shared Link). I for one am very glad that he did not wait to publish before providing Enterolab testing to people who did not want to eat gluten for a blood test to prove what I already knew. (Elab tests don't require eating gluten for positive results.)

BURDEE

[Guest Doll]

There is a lady that does not have MS any longer trying to get the word out to the MS people.

She was posting on another board.

You might check some of those boards for the specific illness...

Most people, hard to believe though, are not on the internet. I know a lot of celiac people that are never on the internet. At the last dining out group (gluten-free of course) I attended, about 35 people & no one posted to the internet.

My vet friend that was mis dxd chrons is not on the internet, she is too busy with being a vet, her booming gluten-free cake business, remodeling her house, driving her very cool vehicle, & then her personal life...

Most of the people that I know are so disgusted with the medical community, that once they are not an invalid they are too busy doing fun things to bother about posting on the internet, although it seems that they are telling everyone they meet - sometimes whether they want to hear it or not.

I will say that a couple of years ago that an aquaintance of mine, that had a mutual hobby, was on total disability & had been for years, partly bedridden, had serious migrains & her daughter was also sick. After talking to me & remembering that when she had been on a diet eating no carbs etc that she had been the healthiest that she had ever been in her life. well she just went gluten-free with no testing, & GOT WELL, almost immediately ( with migrains she was probably DQ1). & she had her grown daugher also on the diet. Well let me tell ya, she just about dropped our friendship like a hot potato & I knew why. She was afraid that I would turn her in for not being disabled anymore. I bet there are a few people out there that have found the gluten-free secret & are just not getting an official diagnosis because they do not want to lose their disability benefits.

Hehe...you didn't report her...did you? ;p

Rachel-24, thanks for bothering to post all that info. You are the queen of data! I actually have heard of this already (one of the reasons I decided to also go casein free...it can't hurt and might reduce any islet autoimmunity I still have).

The studies I have seen have been conflicting, but I think anyone with a history of Type 1 diabetes should at least *try* a gluten free/casein free diet from birth for their children.

[Guest Doll]

Actually I heard Dr. Fine speak about his research findings (with supportive data) at a local celiac support group meeting last April. He IS in the process of summarizing his data for publication, which he hopes will occur in 2008. He has soooo much data that the summarizing/writing process is very time consuming. Meanwhile he wanted to make tests (based on his research) available to people who suffer from celiac disease or gluten intolerance. Rather than waiting years to publish data to impress the slow to impress medical community, he chose to start using his research findings to help the people who needed it. You can read part of his conclusions in that link I provided in my first post in this thread (Open Original Shared Link). I for one am very glad that he did not wait to publish before providing Enterolab testing to people who did not want to eat gluten for a blood test to prove what I already knew. (Elab tests don't require eating gluten for positive results.)

BURDEE

That would be great to get my hands on some of his data. I'm just confused and questioning some of his ideas and motives, since they conflict with other research and data. I'll give him a fair shot for sure, I just hate not having any data to verify his "unorthodox" claims. 2008 is not that far away though....hehe...yikes! I'll already be a married women!

I'm still not sure how he's going to validate stool testing (many false positives and negatives), or explain why people still get additional autoimmune diseases on the gluten-free diet from early on, or why those who have never eaten gluten still get autoimmune diseases.

If he is suggesting that food proteins play a role in autoimmune diseases, this I can agree with. I don't know about the rest of his ideas. Willing to hear him out though....

[tarnalberry]

I have heard of this theory, but I respectfully disagree with it. Type 1 diabetes kills within weeks to months if untreated. It can even be fatal within days (acute fulimant onset). If I don't have insulin within 4 hours, I'm in a coma. I had a virus at age 2 and was in the hospital almost in a coma with Type 1 diabetes a week later. I highly doubt that anyone with the "high blood sugar levels" and ketones (makes the blood acidic) found in Type 1 diabetes would have survived very long, and would not have reproduced. Type 1 diabetes (formerly called Juvenile Diabetes), also usually starts in childhood. Death would occur within the year *at most* from onset. Type 1 diabetes was a quick death sentence before insulin was discoverd. Death from undiagnosed and untreated Type 1 diabetes can occur within days to weeks in many cases.

I think this reporter mixed up Type 1 diabetes with TYPE 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is the common form that is preventable and caused by obesity, poor diet, and lack of exercise. It has different genetics and casues than Type 1 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is insulin resistance at a cellular level, and Type 1 is an autoimmune disease.

It's not a reporter who wrote the book. It's a research doctor.

The idea that he's talking about is that if you're on a *very* calorie restricted diet (heck, you're in the middle of a mild ice age), and you're not consuming much of anything to raise blood sugar levels very high. In addition, because it's so cold, the stores of brown fat (which can directly burn sugar) go up (it has to be very cold for this to happen) which can burn the elevated, but not extraordinarily high, levels of sugar in the blood stream to create heat. Apparently, rats in very cold temperatures (at least freezing) do become insulin resistant, and diabetes diagnoses go up in cold seasons, just as do diabetics blood sugar levels. (p. 45-46, "Survival of the Sickest", Dr. Moalem, Sharon.)

He's not saying that it's proven, just a possibility of environmental pressures driving a genetic change during a *much* different time period.

[Guest Doll]

It's not a reporter who wrote the book. It's a research doctor.

The idea that he's talking about is that if you're on a *very* calorie restricted diet (heck, you're in the middle of a mild ice age), and you're not consuming much of anything to raise blood sugar levels very high. In addition, because it's so cold, the stores of brown fat (which can directly burn sugar) go up (it has to be very cold for this to happen) which can burn the elevated, but not extraordinarily high, levels of sugar in the blood stream to create heat. Apparently, rats in very cold temperatures (at least freezing) do become insulin resistant, and diabetes diagnoses go up in cold seasons, just as do diabetics blood sugar levels. (p. 45-46, "Survival of the Sickest", Dr. Moalem, Sharon.)

He's not saying that it's proven, just a possibility of environmental pressures driving a genetic change during a *much* different time period.

Insulin resistance is a factor of Type 2 diabetes, not Type 1. See why I am confused? The problem with this is that once the autoimmune attack seen in Type 1 diabetes begins, it progresses rapidly. Soon, the beta cells (insulin making cells) are so destroyed that the person cannot even make enough basal insulin to live. This means *without* any food. We all need a small amount of insulin while fasting. This is called basal insulin. This is to keep our heart beating and our lungs breathing. Type 1 diabetics could eat nothing and quicky still progress into a coma within hours and die shortly after that without insulin. They don't make any notable insulin at all to stay alive, even for fasting.

I think this is another case of a researcher getting confused or the data coming out wrong. You know how lots of people here knock doctors for their lack of Celiac knowledge? Well, I feel the same way about Type 1 diabetes.....hehe It's *TYPE 2* diabetes that is a true metabolic disorder. Type 1 is an autoimmune disease that results in a lack of insulin.

People carrying the disposition to Type 1 diabetes may have evolved similar to how people with Sickle Cell Anemia have protection against Malaria. Type 1 diabetics may be immune to some communicable disease that may or may not still be present. If you have both genes for SCA, you will get SCA and potentially die from it. But if you have just one, you are protected from Malaria. There is possibly a similar mechanism here. Or not. But it's fun to speculate.

See, the science gets messed up here with the "Ice Age" theory. The author is clearly describing Type 2 diabetes from all accounts. He then takes the fact that *Type 1* diabetes is more common in Northern Europeans. What is missing in this link is that he is drawing a conclusion based on his ideas, even though it doesn't make much sense (Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes are totally different diseases). Those with Northern European ancestory often have genes that put them at risk for ALL autoimmune diseases, not just Type 1 diabetes (Type 2 diabetes is NOT autoimmune). Futhermore, a gene linked to red hair (Viking/Scandinavian ancestory) has been linked to a mutation in Vitamin D processing. Poor Vitamin D processing has been linked to autoimmune diseases, including Type 1 diabetes. So it's like he took two forms of bread that were linked and made his own sandwich with something else.

In fact, those with the highest genetic disposition for insulin resistance, Type 2 diabetes, obesity, etc. are NON-WHITES, not Northern Europeans! These people survive much better when there is a lack of food.

P.S. I went and checked out the Amazon site...someone mentioned *Type 2* diabetes as the type of diabetes he is referring to. That makes more sense, but it is Type 1 diabetes (Juvenile) that has been linked with Northern European ancestory. People with Type 1 diabetes would in almost all cases never live to reproduce, and their children would not survive even if they managed to become pregnant and carry a baby to full term. An untreated Type 1 diabetic and/or her fetus would likely die during pregnancy. Or the baby would have severe defects. Type 1 diabetes is the severe form of diabetes that always needs insulin, Type 2 is generally considered to be "mild" in most cases and usually does not. For Type 1 diabetic men, recent studies have shown that their sperm count is reduced and they have higher rates of infertility. And if they got Type 1 diabetes at the typical age, they would be long dead before puberty....I dunno about this theory....

But maybe it's only me who questions this.... ?????

I do agree with the vast majority of everything else I have seen from this book though. It's right up my alley!

[lonewolf]

I am interested though, is there anyone on this board that has RA, MS, Lupus, etc that is "in remission" drug free for at least 5 years due to a grain free diet? Likely dietary triggers do play a role, but what about the viruses that also have been linked with these autoimmune diseases? Has anyone actually been put into complete long-term 100% remission through diet? Any articles?

gfpaperdoll, I also agree we eat way too much processed and unatural junk. Too much meat, juice, sugar, carbs, grains, fat...the list goes on and on....

I was diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis, (which is almost exactly the same as RA) about 11 years ago by a rheumatologist, not just self-diagnosed. A second opinion got the same diagnosis. I was told it was autoimmune. I have been in remission for most of the past 10-1/2 years after going on a gluten-free (for the most part), dairy, soy and egg free diet. I tried to reintroduce gluten in the form of spelt a few years ago and developed a kidney disease. The doctor told me it was autoimmune. (Minimal Change Nephrotic Syndrome - proven by biopsy.) The arthritis had started back a little bit too. I discovered the correlation between gluten and my kidney problem, went gluten-free and the kidney disease has been in remission for over 3 years now. I also have thyroid problems and have been able to cut my medication in almost half over the past 3 years. Maybe it's just a coincidence.

But anyway, I am someone who is in 100% remission from at least 2 autoimmune diseases.