Immune system diseases are no joke. You know this if you suffer from one. When they flare up, they begin attacking your own tissues, which is as uncomfortable as it sounds.
While autoimmune diseases are very good at attacking your own systems, they leave you unable to fight back against incoming illnesses. Picture your first line of defense sitting around drinking beer with a slingshot in hand while the intruders kick the door down toting shotguns.
Autoimmune diseases take the fight out of your immune system, and you’re left to feel the effects of seemingly every illness that comes your way.
There are over 80 types of discovered autoimmune diseases, but we’ll look at just two in this article: rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
Table of Contents
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory condition. While it’s most commonly associated with joints, it can harm your skin, lungs, eyes, and other parts of the body. It causes the lining of your joints to become inflamed, so much so that it can even cause your bones to erode.
With rheumatoid arthritis, it’s common to end up with a lot of pain in your joints and limited joint mobility (especially in the mornings). Little things like peeling an orange or twisting a doorknob become darn near impossible. You might also feel tired, develop frequent fevers, and lose your appetite.
Lupus
Lupus is also an autoimmune condition where the body’s immune system unintentionally targets healthy tissue in various body areas. The severity of a person’s symptoms might range from minor to full on “God hates me” when you’re in the flare-up zone.
Symptoms include joint pain and swelling, fever, chest pain, hair loss, mouth ulcers, enlarged lymph nodes, fatigue, and random red rashes (often in the form of a butterfly on your face, but they can occur elsewhere on the body, too). Lupus can also cause headaches, discoloration of the fingers and toes (usually turn white or blue when you’re cold or stressed out), and dry eyes.
Lupus is really tricky to diagnose because it mimics many other diseases. And your lupus symptoms may not look like anyone else’s lupus. It takes on countless forms.
Holistic Treatments for Autoimmune Diseases?
Many people are done with modern medicine. They’re sick of synthetic pills with a barrage of side effects. They’re sick of the “cure” making them sicker.
If you’re nodding your head in agreement, there is another option for you, and that’s where holistic treatments come in. Holistic treatments are becoming more and more popular as people see the pitfalls of traditional Western medicine. They offer fewer side effects, and can often elevate overall health–not just the one pain or strain you’re treating.
Cannabidiol (CBD) is among the most popular holistic treatments. It’s not new…science traces it back thousands of years. There’s even evidence showing it was a mainstay in Hebrew culture with luminaries like Moses and Jesus Christ using it for healing and anointing. And CBD is particularly effective with inflammation. Study after study has shown the merits of CBD for autoimmune issues. It can help relieve the painful, debilitating effects of inflammation that make autoimmune diseases so devastating.
What’s CBD’s superpower? It lies in its ability to activate/deactivate the neurotransmitters that regulate inflammation in the body. By “talking to” neurotransmitters in the body, CBD can affect the function of the nervous system and immune cells.
What does that mean for you? It means there’s hope for that chronic pain that comes with your RA and lupus. It means your joints and chest and head may not have to throb and gnaw forever. It means there may be options for you to feel like a normal person again without all of the “oh yeah…buts” that come with prescription pills.
Side bonus: Help for Anxiety and Depression
A lot of autoimmune conditions come with mental health issues. Walking around feeling like your RA has all of your joints in a twisting, turning vice isn’t just bad for the body…it’s bad for your emotions. In fact, 30% of people begin to experience depression within several years of being diagnosed with RA.
As for lupus, about 25% of sufferers report depression, and nearly 40% report anxiety. CBD has been shown to be beneficial for anxiety and depression. Without adding another pill to the mix, CBD offers a natural boost to your mental outlook as you weather the challenges of autoimmune disorders.
At 101 Hemp, we might not have believed in the effects of CBD if we hadn’t seen how it helped our son and his chronic neurological condition. Since then, we’ve heard from countless customers telling us how CBD oil has allowed them to minimize their laundry list of medications and reap the benefits of a natural treatment.
We’ve seen the best results from the raw, unfiltered form of CBD: CBDa. Contact us to find out how we harness the power of the miracle plant in our CBDa-infused sublingual drops, creams, and rollers.
