Chronic Bacterial & Viral Burdens
Don't let the past impact your health today!
Past infections can negatively impact your current health.
Even though you've recovered from the initial illness,
past bacterial or viral infections can have long term consequences on your physical and mental health.
In certain individuals, illnesses such as a strep throat, the flu or pneumonia can trigger an inflammatory immune response, causing physical and/or mental symptoms. This autoimmune response can result in a variety of symptoms including chronic fatigue, joint pain, brain fog, anxiety & depression, OCD, and hyperactivity.
The functional medicine approach uses specialized clinical testing such as the Cunningham Panel to identify individuals who may be suffering from an autoimmune response to infection
in order to address this inflammatory response.
Childhood illnesses also leave an imprint on your immune system.
If your immune system is robust, these imprints will have little or no effect on your health. That's because a healthy immune system is continually monitoring your body for foreign pathogens that pose a threat to your health.
A weakened or imbalanced immune system
can open the door to other illnesses.
When your immune system is weakened - whether through chronic stress, acute infection, or an unhealthy gut - past infections can become smoldering fires that impair your immune function. These smoldering fires not only keep you from experiencing vibrant health, but they also can put you at risk of an acute flare-up, chronic disease, and even cancer.
Chickenpox and the Epstein Barr Virus
are two common viral infections that lie dormant in your body
after the initial infection occurs during childhood or adolescence.
Later in life, a weakened immune system can lead to the reactivation of these viruses. In the case of shingles, the chickenpox virus, herpes zoster, is reactivated, causing a painful outbreak of blisters. In the case of EBV, reactivation can lead to an immune response, including symptoms of chronic fatigue, joint pain, and brain fog. EBV has also been associated with certain cancers such as Hodgkin's Disease and autoimmune illnesses such as Multiple Sclerosis.