4. Immunological Diseases

We all know that citrus fruits contain vitamin C; however, few know that broccoli, spinach, and brussels sprouts are among the most complete foods in terms of the supply of this specific vitamin. In my country, there is no shortage of the famous chicken foot soup when it comes to raising the defenses and fighting any kind of ailment. This extra-collagenous preparation has many benefits at an immunological level and, above all, at a bone level. If you are adventurous, dare to give it a try. As you have realized throughout this book, garlic is one of the foods with the most properties, so of course, it improves the immune system. Whether you start adding it to your food, drink it as a tea, or take it in capsules if you don’t like the taste, it will give you all the benefits this food provides. Garlic capsules 500 mg, Dosage: 2 daily Acai is a fruit I was familiar with in the Amazon. They use it for many purposes, from food to ornamentals. I had seen this fruit many times growing on the palms one finds on the beach. However, I had never paid attention to it, so I didn’t even know it was edible. They say this fruit strengthens and restores your defenses if you’ve been in the rain or in the river for a long time. Its consumption is also indicated in the elderly and in people with muscle or joint pain. It can be eaten fresh with the skin, and it tastes great. A few years ago, it became very popular in the world of fitness as it is considered a superfood that provides excellent nutritional and health benefits. From that moment on, this fruit has been named much more in preparations such as smoothies and fruit bowls. Where fresh fruit is not available, there are liquid, capsule, and powder supplements that will also give you the benefits of the fruit. Acai capsules 300 mg, Dosage: 2 daily Finally, I must mention that rest is absolutely necessary to maintain good health, not only immunological but general health. Some techniques that I recommend are establishing the time of sleep and trying to achieve a routine in which you sleep at the same hour every night and/or do activities before you go to sleep that send your body the message that it is getting close to the time of rest. Try to stick to it as much as possible, and you will see very positive improvement.

There are some diseases that are the result of abnormal functioning of the immune system and are known as autoimmune diseases. In these cases, the cells that are supposed to protect you from foreign agents do not recognize your own tissues. For this reason, they attack your tissues and create inflammatory reactions against completely normal organs. One of the hardest to face is when antibodies are created against the fetus that then attack the embryo product of fertilization. These diseases are of unknown origin, and many of them develop in adulthood due to external factors that trigger a latent disease. They are not completely curable, but with treatment, they are controlled enough so that the person can have a good quality of life. Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is one of these diseases. It is characterized by the patient’s immune system attacking various types of tissue in the body. There are very aggressive varieties and lighter ones. The fact that it does not selectively attack one tissue earned it the nickname “great mimic” since its symptoms mimic other diseases, leaving SLE as the default after other diseases are ruled out.

Most patients with SLE have skin symptoms, with a rash appearing on the face that is acute in the more common forms of the disease. There is a skin form called Discoid Erythematous Lupus, in which true scars are formed. A well-known face with this variety of the disease is the British singer Seal. Joint and heart symptoms are also frequent, with cardiovascular deficiencies being found in the inflammation of the outermost layer that covers the heart and in the inflammation of the joints in a reaction similar to that of rheumatoid arthritis but not as severe. Kidney damage is not common, but cases of kidney symptoms involving tissue destruction leading to failure are reported. One of the most challenging patients you can have in medical practice is a patient with undiagnosed SLE.

The symptoms are actually so nonspecific that they involve too many differential diagnoses. It’s no surprise that it’s called “the great imitator”. In the hospital, I had the opportunity to see a couple of cases that presented with palpable lymph nodes as the first symptom. In those cases, we did the biopsy of the node thinking it was an infectious disease only to realize that each node had severe inflammatory characteristics. It’s like being at a crime scene and finding absolutely no evidence.