These articles are all related to either autoimmune diseases or inflammation — or often both, since the two are so intimately connected to one another!

Autoimmune diseases are a category of chronic conditions in which your immune system mistakenly attacks healthy cells in your body. Examples of autoimmune diseases include rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, eczema, multiple sclerosis, IBS, celiac disease, and more. 

Autoimmune diseases cause chronic inflammation. White acute inflammation can help heal disease and injury, chronic inflammation is damaging to your body, weakening your immune system and leading to a variety of other symptoms and conditions. Chronic inflammation isn’t only caused by autoimmune disease. It can also have a variety of other causes, including lifestyle and genetic factors. 

Read these articles to learn about specific autoimmune conditions and how to heal them, as well as in-depth information about chronic inflammation, and inspiring stories from people who have found natural ways to heal from autoimmune conditions, inflammatory disease, or both.

Dr. Robin Berzin Is Making Functional Medicine More Accessible with Parsley Health

Dr. Robin Berzin Is Making Functional Medicine More Accessible with Parsley Health

Dr. Robin Berzin went to med school at Columbia University with the goal of getting a solid, conventional medicine education that she could use to help patients in a non-conventional way. The combo of studying public health in college and seeing her dad’s experience as a primary care doctor showed her that medicine alone wasn’t the solution— that things like yoga, nutrition, meditation, and lifestyle changes needed to be the first line of defense in preventing disease.
Is Your Cortisol High? Symptoms of High Cortisol Levels & How to Lower Cortisol Naturally

Is Your Cortisol High? Symptoms of High Cortisol Levels & How to Lower Cortisol Naturally

Cortisol is one of the hormones that gets talked about the most in day-to-day life, especially in the wellness corners of the internet and social media platforms. If you’ve come across these conversations (or even if you haven’t), you likely know that high cortisol levels aren’t good, but there’s usually not more context given than that. How can you know if your cortisol levels are high, and what can you do about it? Read on to learn the symptoms of high cortisol levels, the various different causes of high cortisol, how to lower cortisol naturally, and more. 
Donna Jackson Nakazawa Explains Psycho Neuroimmunology: How Emotions and Trauma Affect Your Immunity and Disease Risk

Donna Jackson Nakazawa Explains Psycho Neuroimmunology: How Emotions and Trauma Affect Your Immunity and Disease Risk

Donna Jackson Nakazawa is the author of seven books about what she likes to call “gnarly problems” that span the intersection of science, emotion, and human life, most recently the book Girls on the Brink. One of the gnarly topics she’s done a deep dive on is something called psycho neuroimunology, which is the field that looks at the interplay between our mind and our immune system. As she learned in her research, the relationship between the two is strong — and it all starts in childhood. Read on to learn more about the emerging field of psycho neuroimmunology, what it has to do with adverse childhood experiences (ACE) research, how emotions affect the body physically by way of the brain, and more.