surviving-disease

Using nutrition to survive disease

Monthly Archive: January 2024

Diet

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The Truth About the Ketogenic Diet

Let’s talk about ketosis first, so that people understand what it actually means.  According to all the sources, ketosis is a metabolic state that occurs when your body burns fat for energy instead of glucose. The keto diet has many possible benefits, including potential weight loss, increased energy, and treating chronic illnesses. I was not aware of how many people did not understand that carbohydrates (all vegetables, potatoes, beans, bread, rice, and pasta) are actually sugar, just disguised with a much better name. Typically, you get glucose in your diet by eating carbohydrates, such as starches and sugars. Your body breaks the carbohydrates down into glucose and then uses the glucose as fuel. Your liver stores what is not needed and releases it as needed. The body does not have to use a lot of energy to convert the carbs to glucose, so it gets the biggest bang for the...

autoimmune disease

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Autoimmune Diseases

The classic definition of autoimmune disease states that it is a disease in which the body’s immune system attacks healthy cells. It happens when your natural defense system can’t tell the difference between your cells and foreign cells. For thousands of years, our bodies have reacted to foreign substances and learned to better deal with future infections. This has been documented for years, from the time of the Athens plague to 1650. Many of these diseases were caused by viruses or bacterial infections. Two discoveries had been made in the last part of the 19th century. First are the phagocytic cells, which engulf and eat invading pathogens. The second was antibodies that neutralize microbial antigens (which neutralize the particles so they are no longer infectious and cannot cause disease). It was reported that Paul R. Ehrlich was the first to define autoimmune disease as an immune system reaction aimed at...