In this solo lecture, Dr. Singh explains the concept of molecular mimicry, describing how acute or chronic infections—such as COVID‑19, influenza, or gastrointestinal bugs—can cause the immune system to mistakenly target the body’s own tissues, leading to autoimmune conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and lupus. He illustrates the mechanism: pathogen proteins resemble host proteins, confusing immune cells and prompting an antibody response against self‑cells. Dr. Singh stresses that maintaining a strong, optimized immune system through functional‑medicine strategies reduces the risk of this misdirected response. He also highlights the value of early antibody profiling to detect sub‑clinical autoimmunity before a formal diagnosis, urging listeners to take preventive steps now rather than waiting for disease manifestation.
Chapters
It's not just a coincidence, you know, when people suffer from infection and then an autoimmune disease trigger after that. I encounter so commonly people come to me, hey doc, I was completely fine, just COVID hit me, and then here I am, you know, my joints are hurting and I'm diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Hey doc, you know, I was all well, I just got sick one day, you know, I had to get like a bad flu or like a bad, like a stomach bug, and And after that, my thyroid went down. I'm having this Hashimoto thyroiditis now, or having now lupus developing and all that. So what's happening here, guys, there's something called molecular mimicry. As I told you earlier, the immune system is very complex. They continuously need to test out what is good, what is bad, and they have to develop certain tolerance. What happened is those chronic infections or acute infections, they mimic your own body cells. So immune cells get confused. They feel like, oh, this is a virus, is a bad bacteria, but actually it's like a thyroid cell or it's a joint cell. And then they start attacking, they develop autoimmunity, the antibody response against those body cells, which they should not have developed. That's where a strong, robust, fully optimized immune health is so important for everyone. Better your immune health is, lesser the chances of them going the wrong way or start to misbehave. So those are the important aspects where your immune health How well you have maintained that, all the things, you know, we focus on in the functional medicine, it takes care of those areas. It's so important, guys, so important. Everyone, for everyone, even somebody has developed autoimmunity, or many people, they don't even know that they have autoimmunity developing in them. They have— you check their antibody profile, they have antibody positive, but they haven't developed a diagnosis yet. So don't wait too long, take steps today. All right guys, stay tuned.
