109 Dr. Susan Blum: The Immune System Recovery Plan

Apr 25, 2017

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Heal Your Immune System In Four Steps

Antibiotics are supposed to help our immune system recover from viruses, diseases, and other illnesses, but what if they leave us feeling fatigued, unwell, or even worse over time?

With long-term use, can antibiotics actually hinder, not heal our immune systems?

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Besides antibiotics, pesticides and processed food ingredients are also all too common in our modern society. Unfortunately, these three can be the culprits behind health, mind, and autoimmune disease.

If we've developed an autoimmune disease over time, how can we fight back to regain our vibrant health, clarity, and strength?

On this episode of Wellness Force Radio, Preventive Medicine and Chronic Disease Specialist, Founder and Director of The Blum Center for Health, and author of both The Immune System Recovery Plan and the upcoming book, Healing Arthritis, Dr. Susan Blum helps us discover how we can get to the the root of our autoimmune disease and recover our immune system in four steps:

Using Food As Medicine
Understanding Our Stress Connection
Improving Our Gut health
Supporting and Detoxifying the Liver

Listen to Episode 109 as Dr. Susan Blum Uncovers

How we can live a healthier life with the Four Fundamental Steps in her Immune System Recovery Plan.
The importance of discovering the root causes of modern autoimmune disease.
What is a healthy immune system? How does the gut, stress, food, toxins, and other factors come into play?
The power of functional medicine to heal the mind and body.
How is it possible that the number of people with an autoimmune disease has grown from 9 million to 24 million people since 1997?
The constant amount of stress that we are facing as a society and how it's affecting our bodies and minds.
Dr. Blum's experience with hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis and what she's doing to help other people discover and treat their autoimmune disease.
The danger of eating fish from the sea especially after Fukushima.
How to know if your thyroid and overall health is actually helping your mind and body..
How can long usage of medications or antibiotics affect the body?
What can food do to improve our health after taking antibiotics for so many years?
Why are plant-based diets and cultured foods so great to help gut health?
How can dairy affect our bodies? What can we eat if we're unable to digest dairy products?
How probiotics can help the inflammation throughout your entire body.
The connection between having both an autoimmune disease and a leaky gut.
What is dysbiosis and how does it affect the stomach?
What is glyphosate in products such as Roundup pesticide and how does it affect our gut's health?
Wheat Sensitivity vs Gluten Sensitivity
How an Antinuclear Antibodies (ANA) test can help you discover if you have a general systematic autoimmune disease.
How stress can really take a toll on our bodies and how it can lead to autoimmune diseases.
The two stress systems: Hormonal stress and Acute stress
How we can we detox our liver to live a healthier life.

Top 3 Takeaways From The Show

We've all had moments when we say "I'm too stressed" or "I'm so busy with everything." Fortunately, we have the power to recognize that stress and turn our feelings around. We don't have to allow stress to take control of our lives. Instead, we can find productive ways to use it and handle it.
Regularly check in with your mind and body to see how you're doing. Taking a couple of moments each do to be mindful can help you recognize what your emotions or literal gut feelings are telling you. Meditate, walk, or journaling can help you get in touch with yourself and discover what you need.
Following the Four Fundamental Steps in the Immune System Recovery Plan, be conscious about what you eat and drink as well as your stress levels. Treating our bodies naturally is possible without taking so many antibiotics for long periods of time.

Power Quotes From Dr. Blum

[tweetthis] "Functional medicine can heal the gut, detoxify the body, and help manage and measure stress levels." [/tweetthis]

"Autoimmune disease is a malfunction in our immune system and there have been studies done to prove that certain factors disrupt our gut, stress and overall health. Functional medicine is an approach to treating and repairing the body. With functional medicine, we can heal the gut, get the toxins out of the body, and manage and measure stress levels." - Dr. Susan Blum on the power of Functional Medicine to heal our bodies.
"Today, babies aren't developing the healthy microbiome that they need to support their bodies. According to the Hygiene Hypothesis, babies don't need to be so clean because it tones their immune system. They should get an exposure to dirt to help their microbiome be strong. Kids should be playing outside. It's okay for them to eat dirt and parents don't have to make everything so clean." - Dr. Susan Blum on how a healthy microbiome and gut system can develop when we're young.
"You're eating what the animal ate." - Michael Pollan on how what animals we consume, such as fish our poultry, can affect us because of the mercury in the ocean or pesticides in the animal feed.
"We don't have medicine for viruses, except for herpes. How can we recover from a virus? Our immune system naturally puts the virus into remission and that virus continues to live hidden inside our bodies. However, sometimes those viruses don't stay quiet and they can come back. That's when we have a problem with the immune system, but these four steps can treat that. By treating the immune system, you can also treat the virus." - Dr. Susan Blum on how viruses can be treated the same way we'd treat an autoimmune disease.
"The number one most important influence on your gut microbiome is food. Vegetables and foods with fiber and vital nutrients feed the good bacteria and help it flourish. Think of your gut like a garden and what you feed it will determine what will grow in it. So you can either grow flowers with good food or weeds with bad food." - Dr. Susan Blum on how food influences our gut microbiome.
"A plant-based diet and cultured foods are still king for encouraging the growth of good bacteria. If you eat cultured foods or take probiotics, you have a better chance at recovering the gut." - Dr. Susan Blum on how a plant-based diet and cultured foods or probiotics can really help our gut thrive.
"We all know that stress has this great control over us, but the fact is that we really have to take it to heart. We really have to believe that it's having an affect on us so that we can take steps to change what's happening. Try to think of it as if we have these 'stress auras' around us, but stress is actually the way our bodies are responding to them and we do have control over that." - Dr Susan Blum on the importance of recognizing how stress is affecting us and that we have the ability to take control.
"Keep practicing your self-care and keep it a priority. Check in with yourself to make sure that you're being true to who you are. We all have a North Star that's within ourselves that's there to guide us and that's also our intuition." - Dr. Susan Blum on the best piece of advice she received to keep her health strong while working hard at her career.
"Wellness is really about balancing our mind, body, and spirit. It's learning about who you are and finding happiness. Wellness is charting a path towards health with a positive outlook. It's about living your life to the fullest." - Dr. Susan Blum on what wellness means to her.

About Dr. Susan Blum

A true pioneer in Functional Medicine, Dr. Susan Blum has been treating, healing and preventing chronic diseases for nearly two decades. She has a voluntary faculty appointment as an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Her passion and dedication for identifying and addressing the root causes of chronic illness through the groundbreaking whole body approach known as Functional Medicine, is helping to transform our healthcare system.

As the Founder and Director of Blum Center for Health in Rye Brook, New York, Dr. Blum’s crusade for personalized medicine is paramount for treatment and prevention. A Preventive Medicine and Chronic Disease Specialist, Dr. Blum is a member of the Medical Advisory Board for The Dr. Oz Show. She has appeared on Fox 5 News, ABC Eyewitness News, and is regularly quoted in Real Simple, Harper’s Bazaar, Redbook. Dr. Blum’s mission for Blum Center for Health is to facilitate a personalized healing experience by creating a partnership with her patients while providing cutting-edge Functional Medicine and teaching self-care skills for changing health habits.

Through Dr. Blum’s medical practice, education efforts, writing, research, and advocacy, she empowers her patients to stop covering up symptoms in order to actually treat the underlying causes of illness, thereby combating—and most often curing—the chronic-disease epidemic.

Resources Mentioned By Dr. Blum & Josh

Visit the official Blum Center for Health website
Learn more about Dr. Susan Blum and all of her work in Functional Medicine
Read The Immune System Recovery Plan by Dr. Susan Blum
Pre-order Dr. Susan Blum's upcoming book, Healing Arthritis
Take the Medical Symptom Questionnaire from the Blum Center for Health
Connect with Dr. Blum and The Blum Center for Health via:
- Facebook - The Blum Center for Health
- Facebook- Dr. Susan Blum
- YouTube
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- Pinterest
Heal Your Gut with The Blum Center for Health
Discover the connection between Mercury and Your Health
Learn how you can cure your Hashimoto's Thyroiditis (HT) with Dr. Susan Blum
Watch Dr. Blum explain The Importance of Detox with Facebook Live
Dr. Susan Blum on The Dr. Oz Show
Visit the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Check out the Organic Pharmer website
Learn more about The Center for Mind-Body Medicine
The Autoimmune Registry on Autoimmune Statistics
Take your own 23andMe Genetic Test
Check out Designs for Health
Learn more about CASI Talks
Find out more about Dr. Stephanie Seneff
Learn more about Michael Pollan and his Netflix series, Cooked
Listen to WFR 084 The Grain Brain Whole Life Plan with Dr. David Perlmutter
Check out WFR 025 With Reed Davis and The Hidden Causes of Weight Gain

[tweetthis] "Treat self-care as a priority. Check in with yourself to make sure that you're being true to who you are." [/tweetthis]

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