How Apple Cider Vinegar Helps Autoimmunity

In this post, learn How Apple Cider Vinegar Helps Autoimmunity and ways you can use it for natural health.

If you’ve heard of raw apple cider vinegar, then you probably know that it’s a great help in the home as a natural cleaner. It is safer for animals and children than most household chemicals, and can still get the job done!

One of the biggest things that gets forgotten about apple cider vinegar is that it can also help you to cleanse and detoxify your body. People in the past were aware of the other powerful cleaning abilities present and raw apple cider vinegar. Today’s science has given us enough information to know how to use raw ACV for autoimmune health.

Autoimmune Triggers

Inflammation is one of the key signs of autoimmune disease, and it can also be a trigger that makes the inflammation chronic. If you are a person who has a high stress job, and have a poor diet, with bad sleep habits, your chances of developing a disorder will become a certain reality unless you a genetically unable to experience this kind of illness. Processed foods like snack cakes and nitrate-full processed meats are convenient, but they usually lack the nutrition that the human body needs to actually be nourished.

They also lack the thing needed by your gut bacteria to flourish and keep invading type of microorganisms at a level that your body can handle. When acidity in the body reaches high levels, and damaging bacteria begins to spread through your body, it creates a cyclical event that results in high levels of inflammation. This can manifest itself in painful swollen joints, extreme gut pains, gas, and bloating, but if allowed to continue for sustained periods of time, you could end up suffering from more life-threatening events like heart attack or stroke.

This is possible because the delicate connective tissues can easily become inflamed, creating the perfect situation for a blood clot to get lodged within. If that happens in the wrong place, it could be the last time you reach for that gas station sausage. Raw ACV help your body to make more stomach acids, which helps your body to break down foods and absorb more essential nutrients.

Apple Cider Vinegar Helps to Feed Helpful Bacteria

In order for your body to be able to break down and use the nutrients in your food, you need gut flora, but it can’t exist if it’s been overrun by invasive germs and molds. ACV kills these agents, as well as providing a living food source called prebiotics for the probiotics in your body. This keeps them healthy and ready for work. These little organisms are more important than a lot of people consider, largely because part of your immune system is housed in the gut.

Eating balanced healthy foods is important if you want to have a balanced system inside your body. Not only that, but anything being thrown out of balance can lead to painful swollen extremities and gut issues.

Avoid processed foods as much as you can to prevent your body from passing small food particles into your blood (aka Leaky Gut Syndrome / intestinal permeability). This could lead into a serious autoimmune disease where your immune system attacks any protein they come across.

Nutrient Absorption Also Fights Inflammation

When you eat whole, balanced foods in the form of a Paleo diet, you’re getting nutrients that your body needs to grow new healthy cells, but along with that you’ll also find antioxidants and many smaller particles like phytonutrients that your body can use to limit inflammation, and protect itself from toxins, spores, and radiation damage.

That can help to protect you from developing or exacerbating autoimmune disease.

Helps Calm Heartburn by Increasing Stomach Acid

While it may seem counterintuitive to consume an acidic substance in an effort to quiet heartburn, drinking raw ACV may actually help to reduce reflux! I know, this sounds odd, but please allow me to explain.

When I battled GERD I was constantly taking antacids and was on proton pump inhibitors (ie: PPI’s / Nexium) to help alleviate the symptoms of my gastroesophageal pain. But little did I know at the time that what my body actually needed at the time was help from yours truly to actually INCREASE my body’s natural ability to produce stomach acid, not the other way around. This was because I had LOW stomach acid, not high.

Heartburn and indigestion (according to Isabella Wentz, aka The Thyroid Pharmacist) can be an indication of low stomach acid, and it is common in those with autoimmune diseases like Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. To my surprise, when I tried her recommendation of increasing my stomach acids naturally, my lingering reflux – that did not fully go away after weaning off of PPIs – finally disappeared!

How I Use ACV

To reap the benefits of raw apple cider vinegar as a therapeutic measure, I simply diluted a small amount (about 1 to 2 tsp) with 8oz filtered or spring water and drank it 30 minutes before meals. I did this for 2 months, along with other gut-nurturing measures like the AIP elimination diet and lifestyle.

Now I only need ACV water occasionally…for example:

1) If I overindulge in a heavy, harder-to-digest “treat” meal (hello, LA Burger’s gluten free bun and cheese fries) then I will have a tsp of raw ACV mixed with 4 ounces of water and I take it like a “shot” after a meal when there is discomfort of reflux and/or indigestion.

2) Or for times where I am doing a detox, once a day I will drink 2 tsp of raw apple cider vinegar mixed with 8 oz water on an empty stomach to further support my detoxification pathways (thanks so much, MTHFR).

Be sure to note that without water to dilute it, vinegars can damage the enamel on your teeth, and it also burns pretty harshly going down the hatch! Use a straw to further protect your teeth, especially if you are opting for a longer-term usage of ACV.

I hope you’ve learned something new in this post about How Apple Cider Vinegar Helps Autoimmunity!

If you like refreshing drinks full of health benefits, also be sure to check out these posts:

• Ginger Spritzer
• Lemon Water
• Flower Ade
• Virgin Old Fashioned Mocktail

Have you ever tried raw ACV as a natural remedy, or do you plan to try it for the first time?

I’d love to hear, leave me a comment below!