Chris Kresser: First question from Chi. “I understand an experimental allergic/autoimmune encephalomyelitis [EAE] is a well-established masked model of multiple sclerosis [MS]. Does this mean that a person diagnosed with EAE actually has MS?”
I don’t know the answer to that question. I don’t know that [it’s] even clear. But from a Functional Medicine perspective, in a way, it doesn’t matter that much because we take the same approach to autoimmune diseases regardless of what the disease is. Now, certainly, there will be some specific things that can help for specific autoimmune conditions [like] something you might do for Crohn’s disease, for example, that you might not do for MS or rheumatoid arthritis or something like that. But generally speaking, the Functional Medicine approach is the same, which is to identify and address any triggers of immune dysfunction first and then to balance and regulate the immune system simultaneously or after you’ve addressed the triggers. We often get from prospective patients, “Have you treated x-y-z rare autoimmune disease?” And the answer, sometimes, is yes, and oftentimes might be no, but this is how Functional Medicine approaches autoimmunity differently than conventional medicine. Because of that, we can often get good results even when we don’t have specific expertise in a particular autoimmune condition.