Immune System Diseases and Disorders

Our immune systems are complex systems of lymphatic tissues, blood cells, and organs that work together to protect our bodies from the invasion of germs, like bacteria. Its innate ability to recognize foreign bodies has evolved to an unparalleled level. Scientists now believe that our bodies do not develop immunity, more that we were born immune to every possible infection, and that our bodies simply have to learn or remember how to counter each one.

Sometimes there can be “faulty wiring” in that the body will attack the wrong things – itself, for example, which we refer to as an autoimmune disease. We now understand that allergies too are an immune response to an invasion. Likewise, the body too can suffer if the immune response is compromised and infections and bacteria have the potential to become fatal. Disorders of the immune system include allergy and asthma, which is the body’s response to substances that are typically not harmful, to immune deficiency diseases which cause your immune system to attack your own body’s cells and tissues.

Source: Medline Plus  https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/immunesystemanddisorders.html

Allergy

You will hear many people say that they are allergic to things. Often it is a misnomer and they are simply intolerant. Perhaps milk or gluten does not agree with them. An allergy is an overactive immune response to a certain item.

Allergies can have a variety of effects, setting off different responses that may not bother other people. Sometimes it might be a skin reaction, like eczema. A respiratory response usually presents hay fever symptoms – even if it is dust or cat hairs for example. Worse case is when asthma flares up. Digestive responses such as coeliac disease can be very detrimental to a person’s health. The most severe allergic reaction is an anaphylactic shock. Here, the airways close down to prevent any more invasion, closing the respiratory system down and threatening life. The most well-known causes of this are bee stings, eggs, and nuts. Environment and genes can play a role in a person’s immune system. Symptoms of an allergic reaction include a runny nose, sneezing, itchy skin and eyes, rash, and local swelling.

As an aromatherapist, it is vital you document allergies carefully, especially in the case of many carrier oils that come from nuts and kernels.

Source: Medline Plus  https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/allergy.html

Autoimmune Diseases

Autoimmune disease is when your own body attacks healthy cells and affects other parts of the body by mistake. Autoimmune diseases tend to have familial links. There are particularly high prevalence in African-American, Native-American, and Hispanic-American women.

Diagnosis is a slow and frustrating process because there are approximately eighty different recognized conditions very similar symptoms, but treatment requires understanding which cells and systems are attacking and which are being attacked. In most cases, you will find inflammation of some sort, accompanied by muscle stiffness, high temperature, and severe fatigue.

The inflammation is potentially where you as an aromatherapist can help most addressing the pain, redness, and swelling with anti-inflammatory oils. It will also serve you well to revisit the endocrine system lesson as almost always there is an overlap between the two with these systems.

A client that suffers from autoimmune diseases will experience flare-ups where symptoms tend to be worse and other times remissions where symptoms disappear. Aromatherapy treatment will require reducing inflammation.

Some of the common autoimmune diseases you are likely to encounter are:

• Addison’s disease: A dysfunctional adrenal gland; (endocrine system disorder)
• Coeliac’s Disease: Allergic reactions to gluten inflame the lining of the large intestine; (digestive system disorder)
• Graves’ disease: The thyroid gland is overactive; (endocrine system disorder)
• Hashimoto’s disease: Inflamed thyroid gland; (endocrine system disorder)
• Inflammatory bowel diseases: May be of the bowel, small intestine or colon. (digestive system disorder)
• Pernicious anemia: The body is unable to absorb vitamin B12 which causes a drop in the number of red cells being produced; (circulatory system disorder)
• Psoriasis: Red and silvery-white lesions on the skin; (integumentary system disorder)
• Rheumatoid arthritis: The joints and their surrounding tissues become inflamed; (muscular system disorder)

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Epstein Barr Virus

Most of us recognize this as mono or the “kissing disease,” because it is spread through saliva. Usually, it affects teenagers and young adults but it can affect you at any age.

It manifests as a sore throat, swollen glands, and a fever. The virus tends to weaken you with fatigue so much, that you feel like you cannot do a great deal for several months. Treatment for a person with Epstein Barr virus includes using anti-viral oils, plenty of rest, and loads of fluids.

HIV

Every student aromatherapist should try to watch the film Dallas Buyers Club about the underground movement to buy Peptide T. Unwittingly, the search for a drug to alleviate the symptoms of HIV was to establish the new branch of medicine psychoneuroimmunology, but also to find the scientific evidence the complementary medicine world had been waiting for for….proof of the Mind Body Spirit connection. Candace Pert and her husband Michael Ruff were the creators and pioneers in both fields.

The film was useful in understanding and thankfully instrumental in how far attitudes and prejudices have changed in a very short time. This, of course comes from awareness not least from high profile stars like Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and Freddie Mercury. Because fear has receded there is a great deal more compassion for sufferers of this disease and of course, now, people are able to live fairly “normal” lives with the correct therapist.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) destroys the cells of the immune system. HIV is usually passed by blood to blood contact. Most often this is through unprotected sex, but also the sharing of needles and even during childbirth.

The initial symptoms seem fairly inconspicuous, swollen glands, and a general feeling of uneasiness, like the flu. These can be transient and the worst symptoms may not appear for years. The last stage of HIV is Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or AIDs. “Acquired” in that something has caused this to happen. AIDS will not kill you itself but the body does not have the capability to fight a new infection that eventually will.

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