Reversing Autoimmune Disease -- A Step-by-Step Guide

“We have the science, the information, and methods for reversing and preventing autoimmune disorders right now. Contrary to once-popular belief, autoimmune disease is not a one-way street!” Mark Hyman, MD

If reversing autoimmune disease is possible, why does it seem so confusing? Why aren't more doctors helping us do it?

Several reasons. Studies have determined that it takes an average of 17 years for scientific discoveries to make it into the medical schools, then to the doctors, and then to the patients. Right now, we are in that 17 year lag time (1).

So we now have the science and methods that are working for hundreds of thousands of people, but many doctors are still learning about it.

Conferences and publications are the main avenues for doctors learning new discoveries. But even once they learn and are convinced that the Functional Medicine model will help their patients, they often don't know how to implement this new model into their practices.

Why? Because it's a specialty of its own, one that they were not taught in medical school. Doctors need to receive specific training, and this takes time and money. Or, they need to hire people who are already trained in Functional Medicine. This can be difficult as since the model is still relatively new, not all insurance companies are on board.

What a mess.

But you don't need to wait for our medical system to catch up with the science in order to get the benefit now.

Thankfully, the Evolution of Medicine is happening and the tide is turning. Doctors like Mark Hyman, David Perlmutter, Joseph Mercola, Tom O'Bryan, Izabella Wentz and many, many others are doing a fantastic job of spreading the word to the public and also teaching doctors the newest best practices.

And there's many thousands of doctors and scientists, like me, who have seen the results of the latest science first hand, and are using the science to help others -- right now.

And that's why I started the Facebook Group, Heal Autoimmune Disease Now, to give you the answers you need, right now.

Once people have the information, they can take control of their own health. They can choose the right specialists who are trained in the latest science, and not waste time, money and suffering with the old-school, pharmaceutically-driven doctrines. (Don't get me wrong... pharmaceuticals have their place, but most of the time they are only helping your symptoms, and not getting to the root cause of your illness).

The latest science is conclusive: We know now that autoimmune disease, fibromyalgia, heart disease and diabetes are PREVENTABLE. Yes, that's right. Preventable, and therefore, reversible.

Even Alzheimer's and other forms of mental illness are preventable and reversible if caught in time.

So if you are seeing a conventionally-trained doctor who still believes that your illness is incurable and only gives you pharmaceuticals to help your many symptoms (which then give you more symptoms), you owe it to yourself to investigate the latest research, and find the root causes of your illness.

We as people can learn the latest medical advances, demand better care, and choose the right specialists. It's then that the scientific discoveries will be fully integrated into common practice, and we will no longer have an autoimmune and chronic disease epidemic that's threatening to cripple our economy in the next 20 years.

The tide is turning, and we're on our way now. Scientists and researchers around the world are predicting that we can prevent and virtually wipe out common chronic disease in the next generation or two, using the latest medical advances. That means that heart disease, autoimmune disease, diabetes, and even many forms of cancer will be rare, instead of epidemic.

So now that you understand the background, let's get into the meat of this article:

How do I heal? What steps can I take RIGHT NOW?

First, you need to know that science has proven that most disease -- if not all disease -- is caused by rampant, chronic inflammation.

Inflammation under control is good for us. It heals our cuts and broken legs and fights pathogenic virus and bacteria.

But chronic inflammation causes tissue damage, symptoms, and disease... often for many years before you even have your first symptom. Those symptoms your doctor told you were just "getting older" are actually caused by chronic inflammation that you have the power to reverse.


Your body is designed to regulate and heal itself, but when chronic inflammation is present, these natural regulation and healing mechanisms don't function properly. The damage from the inflammation outweighs the body's capacity to fix it.

So the way to stop a disease? Stop the inflammation.

This is the underlying premise behind most of the pharmaceutical medications used for autoimmune disease and many chronic illnesses. Most directly lower inflammation by dampening (and damaging) a portion of the immune system. (This is why they have such dangerous side effects).

But did you know that there are many natural ways to control chronic inflammation that actually work much better then pharmaceuticals, and have the side effects of greater health, energy, vitality, and disease prevention into old age?

And you don't need to be suffering from a full-blown chronic illness or cancer to benefit from removing chronic inflammation. In fact, if you practice a lifestyle that keeps your inflammation low, you have a much higher chance of living a disease-free life.

Because when you remove the chronic inflammation, and give your body the essential nutrients it needs to function properly, your body starts to heal itself.

Yes, I said that right. Your body knows how to heal itself, if you give it what it needs, and take away what is harming it.

Bottom line: In with the good... out with the bad.

To date, science has discovered seven basic reasons why people develop the chronic inflammation that leads to disease. Here's a simple video I made to help you understand these seven reasons, and tell you a little about my own personal healing story:

Your job as a patient is to understand that some, or all of these seven reasons are present in your body, and you need to fix them.

Not fixing the causes of chronic inflammation means you will continue to get worse. That's why people with autoimmune or other chronic conditions will develop one diagnosis after another as time goes on. That should scare you into action.

It's the practitioner's job to help you do this by testing for these seven reasons, and guiding you through the methods to correct them. And this is exactly what we do here at True Wellness Today.

The scientific model behind Functional Medicine works because it is extremely personalized. It uses very specific tests and protocols designed especially for your exact needs.

You will need a knowledgeable, well-trained Functional Medicine practitioner to help guide you through this process, but as a patient you have a right and a responsibility to understand this overall reversal method, so you are healing from a position of knowledge and control.

So here's the general step-by-step method in a nutshell, and we are currently creating free training videos to expand on each one of these in the coming months.

Do you want to start feeling better?

Then get started on these today.


Believe you can heal.

This is not woo-woo... this is very real. If you allow fear of symptoms or lack of belief to stop you, you'll never make the changes, and you will stay stuck in your illness.

I run into people regularly who are brainwashed in the old doctrine that autoimmune disease is incurable. As a conventionally trained scientist, I was one of these people myself. We are afraid of being taken advantage of, so we are very skeptical.

Healthy skepticism is good, but clinging to old science is unwise.

For instance, just 20 years ago we believed our genetics were fixed in stone and there was nothing we could do to control their expression. Now we understand that most of our genetic expression is under our direct control by making nutritional and lifestyle changes. (2) Big difference.

Another example: 30 years ago we thought that most bacteria were to be eradicated from our bodies. Now the science of our various "microbiomes" has grown exponentially, and we are learning that these trillions of microbes of all kinds are the driving forces of our health. And if we don't learn how to take care of them, we will develop disease. (3)

In fact, changing our gut microbiome health is one of the primary discoveries that has lead to reversing autoimmune and chronic illness, as well as mental illness and Alzheimer's.

So change your mindset by learning.

You are learning how to believe in the latest science right now by reading this article.

Follow people who have healed, read the research, and learn all you can. This will help to motivate you for the life changes ahead.

This is why I started the Facebook Group:

Heal Autoimmune Disease Now

to help you accomplish this very important first step.

Please come and join our group, as we post the latest research many times each week to help you to learn.


Practice an anti-inflammatory and stress-reducing lifestyle.

It's a well-known fact that chronic stress causes chronic inflammation. How much inflammation? A lot.

And people are just starting to learn that basic anti-inflammatory and stress reducing lifestyle practices make a HUGE difference in our body's ability to function and keep our inflammation low. We call these our NON-NEGOTIABLES to achieving optimum health:

1) Practice drinking enough water. Take half of your weight and drink that in oz. So if you weigh 150, you need 75 oz of clean, pure water each day -- minimum.

2) Practice good sleep habits. I'll be writing more detailed articles about how to use nobel prize winning science (4) to correct your circadian rhythm and hormones to help you sleep. For today:

a) Start by turning the computer and phone to the "night-- orange" setting after 5pm, and TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER BY 8pm. Trust me, it's good for you.

b) Be in bed relaxing by 10pm, and have all lights off.

c) When you wake up in the morning, go outside and sit in the sun for about 10 minutes while doing some relaxing stretches and 10 deep breaths.

Of course there's more to it than this, but these simple steps will get you started today and help you sleep, and sleep is extremely important to keep inflammation low.

3) Practice love, forgiveness and gratitude. Every day, think about and practice being more loving, more forgiving, and being thankful. This is huge, and has been proven in laboratory tests to lower inflammation within seconds.


Change your nutrition and supplementation to address your specific nutritional and genetic deficiencies.

Did you know that scientists estimate that as much as 50% of your chronic inflammation -- 50% of your symptoms -- can be caused by what you put into your mouth?

Something to think about... that means a great deal of your illness is under your direct control, on your own, every single day.

Again, the lastest science follows the simple principle:

"In with the good, out with the bad"

But how do you know what's good? How do you know what is bad? Keto, Paleo, AIP, Fasting, Vegan... there's so much confusing information on the internet.

It's easy, really. Simply have a Functional Nutritionist do a panel of tests:

a) Nutrigenomics (saliva)

b) Organic Acids (blood and urine)

c) IgG Food Sensitivity (blood)

d) CBC (blood)

Most of these are covered under insurance (at least partly, depending on your coverage), and with these results, your nutritionist can design the right program to correct your genetic deficiencies and optimize your nutrition. In fact, this is the only way known to find the perfect diet for you. It's the latest science, put to great use!

Best of all, changing your nutrition and supplementation in this way is the fastest way to reduce inflammation, and therefore, start to reverse disease processes, and feel better.

With this information you'll be empowered to know exactly what foods you should be eating and avoiding, and which supplements are right for you, in order to keep your inflammation balanced. Specifically, for you. With testing, not guessing.

That's just good science.

But even before you have the nutritionist do the testing, you can start to follow the "In with the good, out with the bad" principle today. Most people will see preliminary results from changing their basic nutrition within about 3 weeks.

In with the good can be accomplished by using my Trinity Smoothie. (Just click here to get the recipe, or find it on our website at www.truewellnesstoday.net)

If you don't like smoothies, just eat the ingredients together. As long as you get them in your body where they can start working.

And eating the "Trinity" foods together at the same time each meal also has another cool benefit... it stops your food cravings, so you can be successful. It's a biochemical thing, and you'll love it!

Out with the bad can be accomplished by following an organic, anti-inflammatory elimination diet that removes sugar, grains & gluten, dairy, corn, soy, eggs and beans.

This is not a forever diet. It is a nutritional therapy to quickly reduce inflammation and help you to feel better while you are waiting for specific test results.

And for the promise of getting your life back, you can do anything for a short time, right?

It takes about 6-8 weeks to lower your inflammation with your nutrition, and then you can start adding more foods back in again one by one. As you do, you will notice that your symptoms return or not. If they do, you know that this food needs to be taken out of your diet for about 6 months or so, until your gut heals. And that brings us to the next, most important step:


Correct your gut and mitochondrial functioning.

A groundbreaking study at Harvard rocked the scientific world in 2007. It found that virtually ALL people with chronic symptoms and autoimmune disease have gut dysbiosis and leaky gut.(5)

What? Yes, all. That means if you have chronic symptoms, you have a problem with your gut, even if you don't have "typical" gut symptoms. Your chronic symptoms all over your body are due to your poor gut health.

And gut dysbiosis and leaky gut cause mitochondrial death and loss of function... this is why you feel extreme exhaustion -- like you are walking through water. It's also the reason why you have brain fog and muscle tenderness, among many other weird symptoms. In fact, many researchers have found direct links between poor mitochondrial functioning and many cancers.(6) That's scary, but also enlightening. Because now cancer treatment facilities are starting to test and treat the gut as part of their initial treatment plans. And you can dramatically decrease your chances of ever developing cancer, simply by healing your gut.

What is gut dysbiosis and leaky gut? Your gut is comprised of trillions of little microbes... good bugs and bad bugs. When the good bugs are killed off (by the toxin laden foods you eat, antibiotics, pharmaceuticals, and toxic exposures of all kinds), the the bad bugs overgrow, you are in a state of gut dysbiosis. These bad bugs produce dangerous and inflammatory toxins that directly cause tiny holes in your gut lining, hence the term "leaky gut". Then the toxins produced by the bad bugs, plus undigested particles of food leak through these holes to your immune system. Your immune system responds to what it sees leaking through as invaders, and wala, rampant widespread inflammation and disease. This is why you have food sensitivities, especially to your favorite foods.

Healing your gut is the most important part of getting your health back. Skip this step and you simply can't get well.

And this is the problem with all of the dietary information on the internet... it stops there. First, they aren't using testing to find the right anti-inflammatory diet for specifically for each person. Second, they don't teach people how to heal the gut and look for the other reasons for their inflammation.

You can't just start taking probiotics and expect to change your gut health, as is widely spread on the internet. In fact, certain probiotics can make people worse, depending on your condition. So its critical to work with a professional who can choose the best probiotics, and the right comprehensive gut protocol, for you.

So, how do you heal your gut?

a. Have a Functional Nutritionist or doctor run a comprehensive Gut Microbiome panel. At True Wellness Today, we use the GI Effects by Genova Diagnostics or the Great Plains Lab Comprehensive Stool Analysis, as both are typically covered by most insurance, including MediCare for those on Social Security Disability.

b. This testing will tell your practitioner everything going on in your gut, and from this they can design the specific correction protocol specifically for you. Typically these use natural spore probiotics, prebiotic foods, fibers, herbals, and specific supplements targeted to heal the gut lining and promote nutrient absorption. In just a month or two, most people start to feel much better.

Now that's a step in the right direction -- toward true healing.


Test for and correct invisible infections.

Invisible infections can be present for decades in a person's body, causing much inflammation and tissue damage. In fact, many common invisible infections look EXACTLY like autoimmune diseases. Once these pathogens are tested for and found, treatments can be designed to reduce them. At True Wellness Today, we help you with the right testing and protocols for invisible infections associated with autoimmune disease, such as Lyme and it's coinfections, Mycoplasma, CMV, EBV, and the like.


Test for and correct heavy metals and toxic overload.

Many researchers believe that this is the #1 overall reason why chronic and autoimmune diseases develop in the first place.

Wow, that's a loaded statement. And true.

Toxic overload allows the invisible infections and gut dysbiosis/leaky gut occur, leading to inflammation and disease.

In fact, many autoimmune diseases can be completely reversed through proper detox protocols designed specifically for each person's genetic profile. With this kind of evidence, we need to pay close attention to these researchers.

Because toxic overload from heavy metals and other chemical environmental toxins are present in all of us, many practitioners believe that we can skip the testing and move straight to the detoxification protocols. However, being a scientist, I like to test to get a good baseline at the start of the detox protocol, then retest every 6 months to verify the efficiency of the protocol. It takes at least a year to detox thoroughly after a lifetime of exposure. You must learn how to detox as part of your daily, anti-inflammatory lifestyle to keep the toxins that you are exposed to out of your body, and keep you healthy.

On a personal note, I'm still detoxing several heavy metals, glyphosate, and other toxicants out of my body after 2 years at it, and I feel awesome. As the years go by, I feel myself getting even better as the toxicities are slowly and safely removed.


Balance your hormones.

Your hormones control so many functions in your body, and when they are out of balance, you feel terrible both physically and emotionally.

Thankfully, they can be balanced with simple nutritional and supplementation changes.

And believe it or not, balancing your hormones begins with your gut health.

In fact, we can now reverse hypo and hyperthyroid conditions in about 90 days by focusing on our gut health.

Final Thoughts:

Many of the above steps can be performed simultaneously, but it takes a skilled practitioner to teach you how, and determine what is best for you as you walk this journey.

And to be honest, true healing comes when we have learned our root causes of our inflammation, and we are eliminating those root causes.

Be patient, it took years to develop disease, and it will take some time to heal. How much time is different for each individual. But most people find they start to feel some relief within a few weeks simply by making the nutritional and gut health changes.

But this is just the start. You will heal slowly, over time, as you practice these methods. Understand, there are no "get healed quick" schemes in real science. Your body developed chronic inflammation over years, and it will take time to heal. So don't fall for any product or business that tells you that you can get better instantly. That's just not reality.

You will need to be committed to making important, life-long changes in the way you take care of yourself. And yes, you can do this with help! That's why True Wellness Today was created... to walk with you, so you are never alone or confused.

Once you start to see the first results, it will get easier. The results you will achieve along your health journey will excite you, and give you the motivation and energy you need!

Nothing feels better than true health. Once you notice the changes in your body, you'll be hooked into your new healthy lifestyle! You won't ever want to go back to being that "sick person" again.

I know, because that's how I feel. It's been 3.5 years on my healing journey. After about 2 years, I knew I had my life back, and nothing was stopping me from sharing the truth with the world. But I took the long and winding road trying to figure it out with different experts. True Wellness Today was created to give you the direct path, to save you time, money and suffering for you and your family.

If you are tired of trying to figure it all out on your own, and would like to cut to the chase and get your life back, we have several programs to help you.

True Wellness Today is a God-given mission to teach you how to optimize your health with the latest science and love.

We believe that all people, regardless of their financial status, deserve to learn the exciting new science, and get their lives back.

So we keep our programs affordable. You're welcome :)

To determine which program is best for you, and get started changing your health, you can visit our website at

www.True Wellness Today.net

No matter what your financial status, we can help you to get started. That's our mission. We can design a program specifically around your personal financial situation if need be. Simply click here to book a Free Discovery Consultation and talk to us personally about how we can help. Or simply give our office a call at 760-315-1021.

Whatever you do, get started in some way today. Every day you wait to get started, you are allowing your inflammation to cause more tissue damage and disease, and that's just not a wise option, especially now that we have the science to reverse!

The world deserves your unique gifts -- and you must be healthy to bring all you were created to be to the world.

I pray for many blessings for you on your healing journey. :)

In Ultimate Health,


Dorinda A. Smith, MS

Autoimmune Research Scientist

Functional Nutritionist

True Wellness Today





(1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3241518/

(2) Expert Rev Clin Immunol. 2015 Jan;11(1):45-58. doi: 10.1586/1744666X.2015.994507.

(3) Nutr Clin Pract. 2015 Dec;30(6):734-46. doi: 10.1177/0884533615609899. Epub 2015 Oct 8.

(4) Lancet. 2017 Oct 14;390(10104):e25. doi: 10.1016/S0140-673 Epub 2017 Oct 12.

(5) Clin Rev Allergy Immunol. 2012 Feb;42(1):71-8. doi: 10.1007/s12016-011-8291-x.6(17)32661-2.

(6) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26566156