La rata topo desnuda es uno de los mamíferos más fascinantes y resistentes del planeta. Capaz de vivir más de 30 años en la oscuridad subterránea, este roedor destaca por ser prácticamente inmune al cáncer y sobrevivir con poquísimo oxígeno sin necesidad de luz solar ni agua. En las profundidades de la tierra, estas criaturas han perfeccionado un sistema de trabajo en equipo impecable y una estructura social matriarcal donde toda la colonia trabaja sin descanso bajo el mando de una sola reina para garantizar la supervivencia de su especie.
Much of the internet thinks:
> meat will remedy my autoimmune gastritis
> sunlight is the cure
> the culprit is the food I consume
These are unlikely.
The sunlight assessment is claiming low vitamin D levels are making my immune system misfire. My vitamin D has been sustainably high for years.
The meat argument claims that animal tissue contains missing nutrients that will cure me. This is a misunderstanding of my condition.
My low ferritin is a downstream consequence of autoimmune gastritis and not the cause of it. The autoimmune attack destroys my stomach's acid producing parietal cells. That compromises my gut's highly acidic microenvironment that is required to absorb iron.
As evidence, for years we’ve tried every possible oral iron formulation to correct it, including proferrin, a heme iron polypeptide similar to how iron exists in meat, lactoferrin, as well as non-complex forms including iron bisglycinate. We also tried different times of the day, and pairings to improve absorption. Nothing worked.
My autoimmune profile began at a young age when I was regularly eating red meat and was in the sun for multiple hours a day. I was diagnosed with autoimmune thyroid disease when I was 21 years old. In immunology, the connection between thyroid and stomach autoimmunity is sufficiently common and tightly linked that it has a name: thyrogastric syndrome.
My body’s genetic and immunological architecture made a mistake decades ago, failing to distinguish between my own tissues and external threats. Trying to cure a decades old, genetically driven, antigen specific immune failure by switching to a meat diet or getting sunlight is like trying to fix a corrupted line of software code by altering the temperature of the room.
If I am to fix this mistake inside my body, I first need to figure out what specifically went wrong. That’s why I am sequencing one million of my immune cells.
By isolating and sequencing these individual cells, we can identify the rogue platoon of soldiers who are doing the damage. Once we know who they are, we can design specific solutions to stop their attacks.
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How I’m sequencing my immune system
Think of your immune cells as trillions of soldiers. Each carries a unique key designed to unlock and destroy a specific threat, like a virus or bacteria.
A standard blood test allows you to see how many soldiers you have, but not their keys. Sequencing 1 million individual immune cells allows us to read the exact pattern of the teeth on every single key.
This is important for my autoimmune gastritis (AIG) because a specific platoon of rogue soldiers has developed keys that unlock an attack on my stomach lining.
Right now, we don’t know who they are. This test will inform us of which soldiers have gone rogue and are attacking me from within.
Once we know soldier and key, we know what therapy path to pursue to shut them down.