What is the Antigen and How are we going to get RID of the antigen?
You will learn that, by definition, an autoimmune disease is a disorder where your immune system is creating antibodies of self-tissue. Whatever you have antibodies for, be it a bacteria or your thyroid tissue, your killer side of your immune system will destroy it. I don’t think ANY autoimmune patient that I have ever consulted over the decades has had this addressed by their doctor! It is crucial to know what the antigen is, and as you’ll see through this book, a person cannot have an autoimmune condition without initially having an antigen that the immune system originally was trying to kill.
When this question is posed to the doctor by the patient – “Doctor, if I have an autoimmune disease, what is the antigen?” – The blank stare and awkward pause that follows should be a sign that the discussion probably won’t end well. Immunology 101 states that the immune system does many things but the single-minded focus of the cell-mediated, TH1 response (more on this later) is to KILL the foreign invader – AKA the ANTIGEN.
In autoimmune disease, the immune system is killing self-cells but it didn’t start this way. Initially, it was attempting to kill a pathogen and LATER started creating antibodies to self-tissue – usually because the antigen was able to HIDE inside the patients cells! We’ll discuss this as we go.
As long as the antigen remains in the patient’s body, there is NO way to correct the situation. The immune system may be likened to a viper that will never let go until it has killed its prey. You NEED to find out WHAT the antigen IS and then RID it from your body!
