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We often talk about immune dysregulation and fibromyalgia/cfids. The various internal and external stressors that have created the physiolgic disruptions that we must therapeutically reverse, often have an etiolgic nodal point at the immune system. Intensive research by immunoligists like Dr. Kenny DeMeirleir have uncovered part of this submicroscopic landscape so we can see some of the rough terrain we must cross.

For some of our patients, the initiating event is a viral infection. For others, it is a multitude of stressful events or illnesses.  Once the immune system is generating a line of irregular, unregulated products, it will continue to do so even if the original stimulus is gone. The song is over, but the (unpleasing) melody lingers on.  The immune system response to a viral infection is a complex and carefully regulated system. Interferon is the protein produced by the cells of the body virus particles invade.  Interferon activates a system that, essentially, produces two things:  a specifically molded, 5-section enzyme that breakes up both the virus particles and the infected cell, and another enzyme that is transmitted the the surrounding cells and pre-immunizes them to the virus, so they can destroy the invader before being destroyed themselves. The shape of the 5-section enzyme is fairly precise, and it’s production very specific, for otherwise, this immune response would destroy the very life it is trying to protect.

One of the problems that arises in our patients is that other inflammatory products produced by different cells in the immune system, under some stress situations, can activate this enzyme system also in some of the cells of the body.  When it does, it produces a distorted version of the 5-part enzyme with only 3 sections. These incomplete enzyme particles are unable to affect viruses, but the can interfere with the basic activities of individual cells. Their distorted shape causes them to literally get stuck in the channels of the cell walls, interfering with the normal passage of elements and minerals, thus disrupting the function of entire organ systems. Re-regulation of this process can be a bit like taming a wild horse, and sometimes takes quite a bit of time and resources, but FFC has demonstrated in case after case that this can be accomplished.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2007 at 2:05 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.