John Arts Abundant Living www.johnarts.co.nz

Over the past year I have been helping a woman in her 30s who has a serious skin condition.

In her case her immune system had for some reason launched an extreme inflammatory attack on skin cells, causing strong pain and significant emotional distress. The inflammation had spread to other tissues, especially tendons in her hand, and she lived in constant pain. Like most autoimmune problems, her energy levels were very low. She was under excellent medical care but her medications were becoming less effective.

Rather than focusing on any symptom, my goal was to see if through diet and some potent supplements we could bring some sense of order to her chaotic immune system. Within a few months she noticed an improvement in energy. After a few more months she noticed the actual skin problem improving and she was able to reduce steroid medications. The improvements were a bit patchy (literally) at first and now she has reported that she no longer uses the medication and this permanent problem has essentially disappeared. A real bonus has been that her problem tendon inflammation has now gone and she is pain free and can now look to the future with optimism.

It is important to note that I gave her no mysterious treatment or any ‘alternative' therapy. In fact we did not treat the symptoms at all. Our goal was to help restore a number of completely dysfunctional body systems and then allow her healing processes to activate. All we did was to give her body the nutrients it needed to heal itself.

The human body is an extraordinary organism. The complexity of our biochemistry so intricate it almost defies what is possible. Central to our ability to survive are a number of interrelated and highly complex defence and repair systems. Remember the sitcom MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital)? One of my favourite nutritional medicine authors Ray Strand (MD) refers to our protective and repair systems as our MASH system.

If your MASH system is failing, or you have developed some form of long term health problem, you need to pay attention to your defence and repair systems. In many cases it can be as simple as some changes to diet and a carefully managed programme of nutritional supplements. Give me a call if you need help. To join my weekly newsletter go to www.johnarts.co.nz and visit www.abundant.co.nz

John Arts is the founder of Abundant Health. To contact John phone (local) 578 9051 or 0800 423 559.