Host Ben Greenfield critiques the common use of immunosuppressant drugs and steroids for autoimmune disease, highlighting increased risks of severe infection and cancer when the immune system is broadly suppressed. He recommends pursuing targeted testing and consulting a functional medicine practitioner to identify root causes rather than simply masking symptoms; he also notes some labs require a physician order.
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And typically, what modern medicine we'll do is they'll give you an immunosuppressant drug or a steroid, right? So you'll see, like hydrocortisone or there's any number of different immunosuppressant drugs that they'll give you. But the problem is that if you simply shut down the immune system without addressing what is causing the issue in the first place, you get rid of the autoimmune issues, but you increase the risk of two things. A severe infection, right? Like, you're going to be way more susceptible to stuff like MRSA and staph and influenza when you shut down the immune system because you're taking an immunosuppressant. And then the other thing is cancer. Immunosuppressant drugs can cause cancer or increase your susceptibility to tumor growth. So there are other things that you should, you should consider doing if you have an autoimmune disease. And this is where Phil's question about testing fits in, because you can't just say, I'm going to cut out dairy and I'm going to cut out gluten and I'm going to cut out soy, and I'm going to cut out eggs, and I'm going to go move to a Himalayan mountaintop and live inside of a giant bubble just because that's. I mean, that would theoretically work, but in the era that we live in where we can test this stuff, it's a better idea to test. And blood testing is useful for some stuff like identifying, say, like cholesterol, you know, HDL versus LDL versus LDL particles, or identifying, like, your, your thyroid hormone production or your vitamin D. But it's not that great if, if you suspect that you might have an autoimmune disease. And instead, there are some other things I'd recommend that you have tested. Now, the very, very first thing that I should say is insert disclaimer here. I'm not a doctor, and this is not to be misconstrued as medical advice. If I suspected that I had an autoimmune disease and I couldn't figure the number one place that I would go would be to find a functional medicine practitioner. These are physicians who are well versed in actually identifying the root cause rather than, say, covering things up with an immunosuppressant drug. So you go to functionalmedicine.org I'll put a link to that in the show notes. But there's a practitioner search page on there, and that would be something prudent to do if you. If you didn't want to just take it all into your own hands. And one of the lab tests I'm about to tell you about. Actually, the first lab test I'm going to tell you about, you have to have a doctor order for you anyways, so you're going to have to have to hook up.
