Autoimmune diseases occur because the immune system, instead of defending the body, attacks the body's own structures.

In the following video, addressing the issue of the treatment of autoimmune diseasesMariano Bueno, creator and director of Biosalud, maintains that autoimmune diseases are due to the fact that the patient has a genetic load that predisposes him/her to the disease and external factors that activate it.

The extensive scientific literature on autoimmune diseases agrees with this definition. As pointed out by AARDA, The American Autoimmune Disease AssociationAn autoimmune disease develops when the immune system, which defends the body against disease, decides that its healthy cells are foreign. As a result, the immune system attacks those healthy cells in the body. Depending on the type, an autoimmune disease can affect one or many different types of body tissue. It can also cause abnormal organ growth and changes in organ function.

There are about 80 types of autoimmune diseases. Many of them have similar symptoms, which makes them very difficult to diagnose. It is also possible to have more than one at the same time. They fluctuate between periods of remission (little or no symptoms) and flares (flare-ups of symptoms).

Some of the most common autoimmune diseases are rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), ankylosing spondylitis or Betcherew's disease, multiple sclerosis (MS), scleroderma, psoriasis, Graves-Basedow disease, Sjögren's syndrome, type 1 diabetes, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, or Addison's disease.

Hereditary and environmental factors

Certain individuals are genetically susceptible to developing certain autoimmune diseases. This susceptibility is associated with multiple genes, in addition to other risk factors. Genetically predisposed individuals do not always develop autoimmune diseases.

The ability to develop an autoimmune disease is determined by a dominant genetic trait that is very common (20 percent of the population) and may run in some families as distinct autoimmune diseases within the same family. Genetic predisposition alone does not cause the development of autoimmune diseases. It seems that other external factors are always necessary to trigger the genetic load and thus the autoimmune disease. It is important for families with members who have an autoimmune disease to mention this fact when another family member is experiencing health problems that seem to be difficult to diagnose.

Three major groups of genes are suspected in many autoimmune diseases:

These genes are related to:

• Immunoglobulins
• T-cell receptors
• Major histocompatibility complexes (HLA or MHC)

Some scientists such as H. McDevitt, G. Nepom, J.Bell and J.Todd suggest that the class of MHC-II allotypes is strongly correlated with specific autoimmune diseases:

• HLA DR2 is strongly positively correlated with systemic lupus erythematosus, narcolepsy and multiple sclerosis, and negatively correlated with type 1 diabetes.
• HLA DR3 is correlated with Sjögren's syndrome, myasthenia gravis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and type 1 diabetes.
• HLA DR4 correlates with the genesis of rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes mellitus and pemphigus vulgaris.

Fewer correlations exist with MHC class I molecules. The most notable and consistent is the association between HLA B27 and ankylosing spondylitis. Correlations may exist between polymorphisms in MHC class II promoters and autoimmune disease.

The contributions of genes outside the MHC complex continue to be investigated, in animal models of disease (Linda Wicker's extensive genetic studies of diabetes in the NOD mouse), and in patients (Brian Kotzin's linkage analysis of lupus susceptibility).

Regarding environmental factors, Biola M. Javierre, from Barcelona, quoted in the journal Discovery Medicine, points out that temporary associations have been observed between some environmental exposures and the development of autoimmunity, and relationships between seasonality patterns in birth dates and the development of autoimmunity (Samuelsson and Carstensen, 2003; Sarkar, 2005).

Many environmental factors such as exposure to tobacco smoke, infectious agents, ultraviolet radiation and chemical compounds are significantly associated with the development of autoimmune diseases. Most of these environmental factors can directly or indirectly induce epigenetic changes, which modulate gene expression and are thus associated with changes in immune cell function. For this reason, epigenetics provides a source of molecular mechanisms that may explain environmental effects on the development of autoimmune disorders.
Also, certain chemicals can react with the body's own components to generate new antigenic molecules (Mintzer et al., 2009). For example, tobacco smoke can convert arginine to citrulline. So can heavy metals, especially mercury and lead (especially from dental amalgams).

Dr. Mariano Bueno, with more than 3 years of experience in the treatment of autoimmune diseases, points out that in almost 100% of the cases of autoimmune diseases there is a concomitant intestinal infection, usually by candida albicans and very often also by some chronic viruses, such as cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein Barr virus (EBV), herpes simplex 1 and 2, or varicella-herpes zoster.

In recent years, it has been found that many patients diagnosed with one of the autoimmune diseases mentioned above actually have an autoimmune disease. Lyme disease. This has meant that Dr. Mariano Bueno has had to be trained by the ILADS (International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society), to treat Lyme disease. Lyme diseaseGiven the huge and growing number of patients undiagnosed or misdiagnosed with an autoimmune disease which in reality they do not have and whose treatment is completely contrary. Lyme disease should be suspected in any autoimmune disease that worsens or is not controlled by the prescribed treatment.

Individualised treatment of autoimmune diseases

Biosalud's secret in the treatment of autoimmune diseases probably lies in the completely individual and case-specific treatment of the causes of the disease.

If autoimmune diseases have a genetic basis, the first thing we will do is to carry out a complete analysis of the patient's genetic load and an exhaustive medical history, in order to look for the environmental and genetic factors that may have influenced the appearance of the autoimmune disease in the patient's body.

But we go further. At Biosalud, it is clear to us, with more than 30 years of experience, that then general, apart from these environmental and genetic factors, autoimmune disease always starts in the gut.

That's why we have to take into account the aspect of the nutrition and the intestinal functionality of that patient, ruling out with some specific tests the existence of some intestinal diseases, such as chronic intestinal candidiasis. If we do not do this, the patient will improve, but will not be cured. To this end, we will also carry out tests to determine whether that particular person is deficient in any vitamins, minerals, amino acids or enzymes. We will also analyse if there are any toxic substances in the body.

Both negative nutritional factors and toxic substances act as overloads to the immune system, which together with the genetic tendency, will activate the autoimmune disease process.

The final objective will always be to eliminate all external and environmental factors and all circumstances related to the autoimmune disease through treatment, in order to subsequently, by means of Immunogenetic Biomedicine, try to deactivate the activated genetic load that has served as a weapon for the disease to manifest itself. This is the reason why the initial analysis or test is so important, in which we will detect whether certain radiations, heavy metals or bacterial, viral, fungal or parasitic infections are involved.

The best news is that the patient immediately begins to notice changes at the symptomatic level, without the side effects that a cortisone-based treatment, for example, can have.