Part 1/5

By Terry Willard ClH,PhD

In these confusing times, many people are having a hard time balancing traditional beliefs with current affairs. If our body reflects our environment, is the conflict between our old beliefs and our new environment responsible for the increase in autoimmune diseases? This is the first of a multi-blog series in preparation for a lecture at the on-line Canadian Herb Conference Nov 3-6 2022. 

In this multi-blog series, we will look at autoimmune hypothesis and discuss clinical protocols to help both practitioners and patients to overcome these obstacles. There will be a deep dive into medicinal mushrooms, specific cannabinoids, flower essences, and lifestyle applications. 

Case studies

Sabina had always enjoyed good health. She worked part-time in her family’s busy Italian restaurant, studied music at university, took voice classes, and had a small role in an opera. Sabina loved to sing and was sure it was her destiny to become a great opera singer. She was prepared to make whatever sacrifices were demanded. She first came to me thinking she had a bad bout of flu and since I had helped other members of her family, she wanted the right herbs to make her well again. Sabina was determined to get back to her busy life and more importantly, the stage.

My initial examination did not indicate flu, and I suggested to her that she needed some relaxing herbs with a tonic action and at least a one-month vacation. This was not what she wanted to hear, so she took neither the herbs nor the much-needed rest. Six months later she came to see me again, this time with a diagnosis from her MD of chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, and wanted to know: could I fix her?

I started her on a program that consisted of Reishi extract, chlorella, beta-carotene, vitamin C, and St. John’s wort as well as a whole-food diet that eliminated refined fats, sugars, and flours. Sabina started the supplement and diet program. Since chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia are often associated with personality traits, I suggested she also investigate psychological counselling and begin writing a daily journal. Motivated by the constant muscle pain and fatigue, Sabina was now willing to reflect on her physical and emotional habits. Six months later she was not only on her feet but was auditioning for new singing roles. Within one year, she was back on the stage. Five years later, Sabina was married with one child and another on the way. She was happy taking small parts in the opera until her children were a little older.

Maria

Maria suffered from debilitating rheumatoid arthritis (RA). She had a hard time walking more than a block without pain. Her hands ached when she tried to make the fresh pasta that she and her husband enjoyed so much. She was also sixty pounds overweight but could not exercise because of her arthritis. What was she to do? Maria had a strong body and was also quite emotionally sensitive. After discussing her personal life, it was easy to see that she tended to hide her emotions behind a rigid point of view to protect her sensitivity. In addition to working on the mechanics of arthritis, she would also have to learn to calm down and not take everything so seriously: she needed a more flexible outlook.

It took almost one year, but after completing a series of cleanses using herbal and nutritional supplements, and eventually some regular exercise, Maria’s arthritis was gone. She had also lost forty-five pounds. Gradually, with the help of flower essences, she also broadened her perspective and became more adaptable. At first these changes came about through her new diet; however, as much of her stress was released, change expanded into other areas of her life.

Cindy

Thirty-six-year-old Cindy came to my office with a diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). She had been referred by her doctor who had no solution for IBS and had seen many of my patients recover on a herbal and nutritional protocol. After examining her, I found that her overall health was excellent: she worked hard and enjoyed a full life. Everything was fine except for the frequent diarrhea, followed by weeks of constipation. She was now in a constipated stage, not having had more than two bowel movements a week for three weeks. She felt bloated and some of her clothes no longer fit. I put her on a herbal detoxification program and started on the process of changing her intestinal tone and normalizing the ecological balance of internal bacteria. She was doing fine for about six months until her daughter came home with a bad report card, then the IBS started acting up again. She asked how something as simple as her daughter’s report card could set off her IBS, when everything seemed to be going so well.

What do these patients have in common? In each case, the patient had an exceptionally strong body that, it appeared, had turned against itself, resulting in a type of autoimmune disorder. In other words, the immune system launched an attack in a coup attempt on its own body, thereby interrupting daily life, and making it impossible to function normally. Each patient also had strong internal, negative dialogue. How did I help the patients turn things around?

Well, in Sabina’s case I didn’t have a clue, as that was early on in my learning process back in the 1990’s. I stumbled across a solution without even knowing it. By the time I came to the other cases I had more solid protocols or health programs.

When Maria and the others came to see me, I knew which key elements would help direct them back to their true healthy selves. The IBS, as with other GIT issues, are such a common health issues that I already had protocols for to treat them. 

These cases and many others helped me fine-tune my treatment programs. How did I find these protocols? The answers came after several years of wandering down various treatment paths, many of them therapeutic dead ends, to understand these disorders and to arrive at the various programs—some of which are presented in this talk. In the end the answer was clear and simple: it was a matter of creating body harmony by increasing free-flowing communication between various parts of a person’s life to stop the stagnation of energy and move toward coherence. 

Several common factors underlie many types of autoimmune conditions. In this blog series, we will examine some of these factors, while looking at botanical medicines and other modalities that can help in the management of such conditions. Because, if we use the traditional metaphor and liken our immune system to an army, most of my patients with autoimmune disorders have a stronger than average army on standby. What we need to do is manage the army to make sure it is working in harmony with the body.

The Body’s Strong Immune System Attacks Itself

• How can we give a strong immune army respect and the power to protect without letting it overtake the body in a coup? This coup is an autoimmune response: the body attacking itself. 

• Can the health and functioning of our immune system be a reflection of the quality of our social interactions? 

• Is the immune system like a tuning fork (a resonator) that reflects the harmonics of the way we perceive our environment? 

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Be ready for some controversy as we look at health and the immune system in a different way. I personally consider that we humans are multidimensional beings. As Elon Musk has stated, “There’s A ‘One In Billions’ Chance We Don’t Live In A Computer Like Simulation” at Vox Coding Conversance 2016. Many physicists, and other holistic thinkers believe that we are really holographic projections of higher dimensions.  

In our next blog, we will discuss what autoimmune conditions are and how to spot them.