findthecommonthread Medical

Autoimmune Disease has it’s inflamed little fingers into many pots

Today I read an article about Heart Disease and how there is a new line of thinking that links the process that causes most of the problems in patients with Autoimmune Disease to that of clogged arteries. Inflammation.

Read the article here: http://www.tunedbody.com/heart-surgeon-declares-really-causes-heart-illness/
If you feel that you need back-up on this line of thinking, here’s another article that isn’t as bold, but goes in the same direction and it’s from the American Heart Association: https://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/Inflammation-and-Heart-Disease_UCM_432150_Article.jsp

Another important connection that nobody seems to talk about is mental health. I don’t understand why we can understand that inflammatory responses can happen anywhere in the body, but completely take the brain, a vital organ, out of that equation. Why do we completely dismiss the brain as being susceptible to an inflammatory response that can run rampant in any other part of the body and cause one of the 140+ autoimmune diseases and disorders. How many lives can we save from endless suffering by connecting autoimmune disease with mental health disorders? Here’s a book that can bring this concept a little closer to home and might save your life if you’re a patient like me who likes to push and challenge the robotic responses that we often get from the overworked medical professionals. This is the story of a patient who almost lost everything until she landed in the care of the RIGHT doctor…. Brain on Fire

We also know that Cancer is very dependent on a faulty immune system in order to progress, and now there is a new line of Cancer research that uses Immunotherapy to try and get answers that continue to elude the cure for Cancer research. http://www.cancerresearch.org/cancer-immunotherapy/resources/cancer-and-the-immune-system

So if we go back to my earlier post looking at the stats and our current research trends (https://findthecommonthread.com/2012/02/06/so-blue-working-towards-equity/) you can see a serious crack in the system. The disease group where answers dwell for all the others (including ones that are not on the charts like AIDS, Infectious Disease, Transplantation) is the group of disease that has the least amount of attention and research funding.

I think this is wrong. So very, very wrong.

Back in my earlier post that I referred to above, my thought process leads me to a place where I wonder if the answer is just below the surface of a cache we haven’t yet searched.
I’ve been questioning myself lately in my stubborn and unyielding view that if we find the common thread we can find the answer/cure to ALL of the Autoimmune Diseases. I feel like a person with serious delusions of grandeur. Today, instead of checking my big dreams a bit like normal people would, I’ve taken it one step further. One giant, giant step further… what if we find the common thread and the answer leads us to not only find a cure for ALL AI Diseases, but also for Cancer, for Heart Disease, for AIDS, for all of the chronic illnesses.

Now wouldn’t that be something that would change things a bit or what?

We have gone for so long in our own little holes, our own silos, fighting for our own little diseases and not the whole, but the big picture is becoming more and more clear. It dictates that we work together: Be it within the disease group (autoimmune, cancer, mental health) but I believe it would be more positive by working in a multi-disciplinary, multi-disease way. That’s when we’ll get the answers we all so desperately work for in our own groups. Our answer lies in working together.

T-O-G-E-T-H-E-R.

Only together will we see a difference. We’ve tried the ‘solo’ approach for decades and it’s gotten us nowhere really. Yeah we have some crazy drugs that keep us alive, but at a huge cost not only to the patient and their families, but also to our health care system and society at large.

So snap out of it people, we must let the ego go, and let’s do this. Let’s do it together. Let’s change the world for the better.

You in?

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What can you do?

So you’re reading the PJ Day prep, and wondering if you can be up in Jasper to join the festivities. You don’t have to be. In fact, the idea is that people all around the world start their own PJ Day and that is what will give us the voice and power to change status quo. Then post pictures and events on Twitter or Facebook with the hash tag #weonePJday, let’s make this a trending hash tag on February 28, 2014. Remember….

#weonePJday

Start your own PJ Day event. My biggest piece of advice here is take on something you already do, something you are so familiar with, you could do it with your eyes closed. If you teach yoga, do a PJ Yoga day, if you are a runner, organize a PJ Day run, if you are in drama, do a performance with PJ’s, do something that comes naturally and gather some friends, and just add PJ’s. If you’re a teacher, organize a PJ Day at your school. Start the discussion going. Send us your pics on Twitter or Facebook with the above hash tag.

Here’s another idea if you’re the fundraising type of person and want to take the PJ Day event one step further.

If you’re interested in this I imagine you already have a relationship with some foundation or charity group that is autoimmune disease related. If you’d like to make your event into a fund raiser, I’m certain there are many people who would be thrilled. Here’s a way to make this a win-win situation where absolutely everyone involved benefits. Do a PJ themed fundraiser, and give 92% of your earnings to your favorite charity, however we ask that when you give it to them you tell them that it’s money raised from a Find The Common Thread PJ Day Event. That way they’ll know that we are not interested in taking money away from them, but want to work together with all of them to get closer to finding the cure for all autoimmune disease. They will have a cash infusion that they weren’t counting on, they get to see that Find The Common Thread is only a win-win Foundation, and we can start establishing relationships that can lead us towards only positive change. The other 8% from your fundraising efforts can come to us (Find The Common Thread) in Canada or AARDA (American Autoimmune Related Disease Association – http://www.aarda.org) in the United States. That 8% will go towards research that is all encompassing and is looking for the commonalities and potential answers to ALL Autoimmune Disease rather than each individual one, an effort that has only yielded treatment to symptoms and disease progression thus far, no cures. If we really want to see a cure in our lifetimes we need to start approaching the subject from a different perspective.

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein

We need to look at autoimmune disease as the disease group that it is, not at each individual disease as a standalone. We need to look at the forest, not each individual tree.

I will create some posters and make them available here so that anyone can pick one up and print it for your event. Let’s change the game plan and maybe we will see some different results.

I will also be announcing a contest in the next week or so for all you creative types. Stay tuned.

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She’s a comin’

Happy New Year to all…. may this be the year that FTCT hits the tipping point and all of the sudden everyone knows about autoimmune disease and has the will to do something to fix this endemic yet seemingly secret problem…

Pajama Day 2014 is coming, and it’s coming fast. Get your jammies shined up, grab a stick of Juicy Fruit and get ready to stir the pot. This year Pajama Day will take place on Friday, February 28, but I have a sneaky suspicion that it will flow over into the weekend as well.

If you want to talk about it, have any ideas or just want to share, send me an email at findthecommonthread at yahoo dot ca.

See you in our PJ’s.