Latest / Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson / Autoimmune Diseases and Charlatans

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Autoimmune Diseases and Charlatans · Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson

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  >> Dr. Terry Simpson: Hey, welcome back to Fork U Fork University, where
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  we make sense of the badness, bust a few myths and show
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  you how food may not be medicine, but it is
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  important. I am your chief medical
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  explanationist and host, doctor Terry Simpson.
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  Today we're going to tackle the topic that is both timely
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  and critical. We're going to talk about why
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  chiropractors and other functional medicine practitioners
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  take stool samples and recommend rather
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  restrictive diets for autoimmune disease like Hashimoto's
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  thyroiditis, rheumatoid arthritis and
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  others. Let's start with the simple truth.
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  Autoimmune diseases are complex,
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  chronic conditions that require careful
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  management. Conditions like Hashimoto's
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  thyroiditis, where the immune system attacks the thyroid
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  gland leading to hypothyroidism, are
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  not easily fixed by dietary changes
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  or gut health gimmicks. Yet there are people
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  out there, often without a medical degree,
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  claiming they can diagnose and treat these
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  serious conditions by analyzing your
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  stool or putting you on a restrictive
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  diet. Let me be clear, these
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  folks are quacks.
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  Now don't get me wrong. Diet does
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  play a role in your health, and there's growing
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  evidence that our gut microbiome is important to
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  overall well being. But when it comes to autoimmune
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  disease, the science is far more
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  nuanced than what these so called experts would have
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  you believe. Let's break it down.
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  First, let's talk about the chiropractors and other
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  alternative health practitioners who claim they
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  can diagnose autoimmune diseases
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  and their treatments by analyzing stool
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  samples. The idea here is by looking at the
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  bacteria in your gut, they can identify
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  imbalances or what we call
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  dysbiosis, which claims to be the root
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  cause of your autoimmune disease.
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  They will tell you by adjusting your gut bacteria,
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  usually with expensive probiotics, supplements
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  and restrictive diets, you can cure or
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  manage your disease. Heres the problem.
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  While its true that our gut microbiome influences
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  many aspects of our health, the science
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  of specific gut bacteria to
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  autoimmune disease is in its
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  infancy. We do not yet have a
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  clear understanding of how to manipulate the gut
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  microbiome and treat autoimmune
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  diseases effectively. The studies
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  that do exist are often preliminary,
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  done with mice or rats, or based
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  on small sample sizes of human beings,
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  and to extrapolate that limited amount of
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  data into broad claims that gut health
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  can cure or significantly
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  change autoimmune disease is just
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  not only premature, it's
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  irresponsible. I'll give you an example.
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  A study published in Nature Reviews Immunology in
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  2015, highlighted the complexity
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  of gut immune interaction and noted
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  that the gut microbiome likely plays a role
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  in the development of autoimmune disease, but we are far
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  from understanding how to target it for treatment.
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  More recent research, such as that from the Journal of
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  Autoimmunology in 2021
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  supports that view, acknowledging that
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  while gut dysbiosis is associated with
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  autoimmune conditions, there is no one size fits
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  all pattern, no one solution to fixing it
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  through diets or gut probiotics.
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  Furthermore, recent
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  studies show that stool samples
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  may not be helpful in termining the
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  gut microbiome, especially in the context of
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  determining autoimmune disease. A study by Lew
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  et al found that fecal bacteria
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  significantly different from the swab and tissue
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  microbiota in patients with irritable bowel
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  syndrome versus if we lavage the
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  gut with like a colonoscopy so we can get
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  truer to where anatomically
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  the gut microbiome is. Let's be clear,
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  the chiris factors will have you take a stool sample.
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  However, the microbacteria which are in your
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  gut that might be affecting it are going to be
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  completely different if you go up further into the colon,
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  as if you use a colonoscopy.
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  Leviathan et al demonstrated stool samples
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  are a poor proxy for what we call
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  the inner colonic microbiome, or the bacteria of your
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  gut. Their study showed that those samples that were
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  taken very carefully significantly
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  differ from those in a stool sample.
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  It's just not the same
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  thing. So in summary, stool samples may not be
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  helpful for determining gut microbiome, as if gut
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  microbiome could actually fix autoimmune
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  diseases. So when someone takes
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  your stool sample and say they can cure your
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  hashimoto's or your lupus or your rheumatoid
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  arthritis by tweaking your diet and selling you rather
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  expensive stuff, theyre selling you
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  snake oil. The truth is, managing
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  autoimmune diseases requires a
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  multifaceted approach and typically involves
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  medications such as synthetic thyroid hormone. In the case of
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  Hashimoto's and close monitoring by
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  healthcare professionals, this is something that these
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  people have no clinical idea about. They weren't
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  trained clinically. Let's be clear, a
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  chiropractor doesn't have the extensive
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  clinical training that
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  a physician does. Consider this. Your average medical
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  student not only spends two years studying basic clinical
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  medicine in a textbook, they then go on to the wards
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  of hospitals where they see the most complex
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  patients on the planet treated by the most
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  well known physicians on the wards, then they
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  go out and do a three year internal
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  medicine internship in some of the brightest
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  hospitals in the nation, taught by some of the best scientists.
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  Then they go on to do a fellowship in rheumatology.
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  Compare that to a chiropractor who has two years
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  of neck cracking. Let's move on.
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  Let's talk about the restrictive diets that are pushed by these
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  practitioners. You've probably heard of the autoimmune protocol,
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  or the AIP diet, which eliminates a wide
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  range of foods, from grains and legumes to
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  nightshades, dairy, eggs, nuts and seeds.
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  The idea is that these foods could trigger some
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  immune response, and by eliminating them, you can reduce
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  inflammation and manage your autoimmune disease. Sounds
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  promising, right? The problem is that the AIP
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  diet is based on very, very weak
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  science. While some people report
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  feeling better on these diets, we have to ask,
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  why? Is it limited by their eliminating
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  food groups? Or is it simply
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  that their disease comes and
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  goes, relapses, returns,
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  goes into remission, which is the nature of
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  autoimmune disease. Let's look at a study published
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  in nutrients in 2017. They looked at the
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  AIP diet in the context of inflammatory bowel
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  disease, another autoimmune disease, and found that while
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  some patients experienced symptomatic
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  relief, the study was small, lacked the control.
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  Group, couldn't possibly say it was the AIP diethouse,
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  etcetera. There are other
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  diets that are used for this. Typically what they will do is, let's
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  eliminate dairy. I can tell you, based on
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  what we have seen and has been told to us, that
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  their formula comes down to this. Besides selling you the
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  really expensive supplements, the really expensive
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  probiotics for which there is zero, and I
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  mean zero evidence, they will tell you to
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  eliminate dairy, eliminate gluten, and
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  go on one of these highly restrictive diets, like, oh,
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  the whole 30 diet or the AIP diet, and
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  then they'll say, look, you're cured.
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  Let's be very clear.
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  When you have a relapsing disease like
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  rheumatoid arthritis, you are going to
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  have times when it's going to relapse for unknown reasons. It's not your
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  gut microbiome. it will just does it over
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  time. And if you have rheumatoid arthritis aren't
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  getting appropriate clinical medicine,
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  you will end up with more joint destruction and more
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  problems. And let's put it this way, once the
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  chiropractors have you out of their office, they're not going to
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  be able to follow your inflammation. They're not going to be able to
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  follow your joint destruction. They
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  don't care. They just want to sell you
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  their exceedingly expensive tests, which cost up to
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  dollar 500 for a stool sample, and their supplements,
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  which are like $90 a point at each.
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  So what's the bottom line? When it comes to
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  autoimmune diseases? Beware of anyone who promises a
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  cure or significant management from
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  diet and supplements alone. The science
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  simply doesn't support these claims.
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  Instead, focus on working with a
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  qualified healthcare provider. If you have a
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  rheumatologic disease, see a board certified
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  rheumatologist. If you have a problem with your
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  thyroid, see a board certified
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  endocrinologist. Because these non qualified
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  nurses, dentists and chiropractors who get their
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  little functional medicine degree, which by the way, they focus
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  on thyroid disease and they focus poorly on
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  it, they simply don't lack the clinical
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  experience, the comprehensive literature knowledge,
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  and they end up keeping people from
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  having support, the support you need
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  for an exceedingly complex medical
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  problem. Alright,
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  managing autoimmune diseases is a
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  marathon. It's not a sprint. It
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  requires thoughtful, multifaceted
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  approach, not a quick fix. Don't let
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  those quacks steer you off courses with
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  promises far too good to be
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  true. I hope today's episode has shed a
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  little light on the dangers of these so called miracle cures with
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  miracle diets and the quackery. That
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  sounds too good. This reminds me of one thing
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  else. Do you remember when chiropractors
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  used to say the cure of all their diseases is in
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  sublaxations of the spine, which they could never
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  see, could never demonstrate, and spent years telling you to come back
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  every week? Now they're going to the gut. They can't
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  see it. They have sort of a science y test, and they are trying to
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  convince you they alone have the answer to the root cause
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  of disease, as opposed to all of the
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  people who seriously study this and follow their
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  patients intently and publish in the
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  literature, the only root cause of
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  disease that these functional medicine practitioners have
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  found is your wallet. I would be
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  careful of them. See board certified people to make
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  sure thanks for joining me on this episode of
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  fork you where we try to make sense of the madness.
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  I'm your host, doctor Terry Simpson. This has been written and
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  researched by me and you can find references for
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  this to for those of you who like it on the blog
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  associated with this, which is called
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  yourdoctorsorders.com or four
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  q.com dot. I want to thank the people who are
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  distributing this, our friends at Simpler media, the pod God, Mister
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  Evotera. And of course, I couldn't
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  produce this without my favorite producer in the world,
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  from producer girl Productions. Thanks for listening. We'll
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  see you later.
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  Hey, Ivo, did you ever find some sort of
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  thing that we could use to, cure everything in that herb garden of
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  yours?
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  >> Emily: Ivo is on vacation in Portugal. Terry, this is
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  Emily filling in for him on the podcasting front, but he
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  didn't mention anything about watering his plants.