Many clues to understanding the nature of autoimmune disease can be found in Steven Gundry's book, Plant Paradox. He explains how plant lectins, which are natural toxins, exist to defend plants from insects and infectious agents. Ten thousand years ago when we started eating these plants, these toxins began to cause deleterious effects in humans. Besides these toxic effects, our microbiome or holobiome (all of the bacteria on and surrounding the body) have become gravely injured.

Gundry, a cardiologist, explains how we can restore our holobiome and heal our immune system with a plant based diet free of lectins and an avoidance of hormone disrupting chemicals. He provides several examples of patients who have been helped, particularly patients with multiple sclerosis and hypothyroidism.

Comparing his plan to my genetic profile, I found that his recommendations are similar to those I should be following. Raw DNA data is provided in people who send saliva samples to 23 and Me, Ancestry.com and similar sites. After receiving your raw DNA data, you can submit it for free to codegen.eu or promethease for $12.00. They both provide a lengthy report explaining your risk factors or traits based on polymorphisms on certain genes. I submitted my data to both and the results were very similar. Of interest, my risk factors for Graves' disease were there but not to a high degree, which shows that while I was genetically predisposed, environmental triggers, particularly my allergies and past history of smoking played greater roles.

The Plant Paradox