Autoimmune Disease (Immune Balancing)

You depend on your immune system to fight off diseases and keep you healthy. When it is out of balance, you need an infectious disease specialist like Dr. Noosha Shambayati, NMD, at ANS Healing. She uses her extensive training and experience to identify the type of infectious disease causing immune dysregulation and autoimmune disease affecting you and create a customized wellness plan to stop & reverse the autoimmune reactivity. You receive the care you need, whether it comes from conventional, natural, or alternative therapies. To schedule an appointment, call the offices in Herndon and Ashburn, Virginia, or book an appointment online today. 

What are Autoimmune Diseases? 

Immunology is a medical specialty focusing on the immune system and things that affect it, typically causing immune dysregulation. Your immune system protects you from illness, disease, and bad pathogens that tend to invade like viruses, bacteria, fungi overgrowth, and parasites. When the system malfunctions, you may have:

Weakened immune system

Your immune system may become weak and powerless to fight disease. When it can’t mount an immune response, you may develop a type of immunodeficiency disease. Immunodeficiencies may develop due to a genetic disorder or an underlying health condition like a chronic infection. Most suffering from a weakened immune system also have a protein deficiency; if you may think this is you - don’t wait to book an appointment!

There are hundreds of primary immunodeficiency diseases, each with defining symptoms. However, all immunodeficiency diseases make you vulnerable to infections, causing common illnesses such as:

• Frequent or recurring infections
• Ear infections
• Lung infections 
• Eye infections
• Sinus infections
• Meningitis
• Gastrointestinal infections: N, V, Diarrhea
• Gastritis

One of the most common immunodeficiency conditions causes recurrent upper respiratory infections that resemble allergies.

Overactive immune system

Your immune system may get overactive and cause disease. For example, allergies develop when your immune system overreacts and mistakenly identifies a safe substance as something that will harm your body.

What autoimmune diseases does Dr. Noosha help manage??

Autoimmune diseases begin when an overactive immune system starts to attack and damage healthy tissues in your body. There are more than 100 autoimmune conditions. A few of the most common include:

• Thyroid disease (Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis)
• Lupus
• Psoriasis
• Celiac disease
• Inflammatory bowel disease
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Multiple sclerosis
• Scleroderma
• Sjögren’s syndrome

If you have one autoimmune disease, you have a higher risk of developing a second one because the mechanisms are very similar and the root causes are all the same.

What symptoms occur due to autoimmune diseases?

Your symptoms depend on the type of autoimmune disease. As a group, these diseases cause:

• Fatigue
• Recurrent fever
• Muscle aches
• Inflammation
• Skin rashes
• Joint pain and stiffness
• Gastrointestinal problems
• Abdominal pain
• Insomnia

Many autoimmune diseases also have distinct symptoms.

How are autoimmune diseases managed?

When you have a complex autoimmune disease causing chronic inflammation and a range of symptoms, you need a naturopathic doctor like Dr. Noosha. She takes time to evaluate all the factors that may contribute to your disease, including your physical health, lifestyle, and environmental/toxic exposures and dives into your microbiome.

You will also need functional lab tests that reveal problems often associated with autoimmune diseases, like microbiome analyses, heavy metal toxicity, nutritional deficiencies, and hormone imbalances. When your evaluation is finished, Dr. Noosha creates a customized plan to heal each problem. 

If you have symptoms of an immune-related problem, don’t wait to seek holistic care at ANS Healing. Call the office or book an appointment online today.