Dr. Anthony Chaffee challenges the conventional understanding of autoimmune diseases, arguing that these conditions are not actually the body attacking itself but rather the immune system defending against external attackers. Drawing from his immunology background, he explains how immune cells are tested against every possible body antigen during maturation - any cell that reacts even weakly to the body's own tissues is eliminated before entering circulation, making true autoimmunity impossible.
Using celiac disease as a key example, Dr. Anthony Chaffee demonstrates how the body creates antibodies against lectins (like gluten) that bind to intestinal cells. The immune system attacks these foreign proteins, causing collateral damage to the attached cells. When gluten is removed, symptoms resolve even though antibodies remain, proving the antibodies weren't targeting the body itself. He extends this theory to other autoimmune conditions, explaining how plant toxins and glyphosate trigger similar defensive responses, and why carnivore diets often reverse these conditions by removing the underlying triggers.
Key Takeaways
- True autoimmunity is impossible because immune cells are tested against all body tissues during development and destroyed if they show any reactivity to self-antigens
- Celiac disease proves autoimmune conditions are misnamed - symptoms disappear when gluten is removed even though antibodies remain, showing the immune system was targeting the lectin, not body tissues
- Plant lectins and glyphosate bind to cell surfaces, triggering immune responses that cause collateral damage to attached healthy cells, creating the appearance of autoimmune disease
- Autoimmune symptoms can improve within weeks on carnivore diets as the immune system stops attacking plant toxins, with high-turnover tissues like intestines healing fastest while nerve tissue may take 6 months to 2 years
- Crohn's Disease and Autoimmune Theory - Why Your Immune System Can't Attack Itself
- Molecular Mimicry Myth - Problems with Traditional Autoimmune Explanations
- Celiac Disease and Gluten Lectins - How Plant Toxins Cause Leaky Gut
- Carnivore Recovery Rates - Why Intestinal vs Nerve Healing Takes Different Times
- Hashimoto's Thyroid Antibodies - Real-Time Evidence Against Autoimmune Theory
This is an auto-generated transcript from YouTube and may contain errors or inaccuracies.
[Music] hi Doc is it possible that Crohn's disease is a result of our immune system recognizing what food damages us and thus overreacting to eliminate them um sort of in a sense sort of what I was talking about before my my theory on autoimmunity is that it's not maybe we can maybe even clip this um is that it's not autoimmunity in the first place I I don't think I don't think that that's right way to think about it because our you know I took postgraduate um Immunology before I went to medical school and so the idea of autoimmune issues and molecular mimicry and us making antibodies towards something and that cross reacting with something in our body that never made sense with sense to me that never sat right with me because our our immune system is actually incapable of doing that it was very clear to me that that was the case so when your when your immune cells are are maturing in your bone in your thigh is they're tested against every single antigen and possible chemical that your body can possibly make and if it reacts even weakly it has the ability to react even weakly to any of them they're killed and they're never Le let out into the into the the C you know systemic circulation so your body is incapable of attacking itself it's not possible as long as that processes doesn't break down it's very unlikely that it would molecular mimicry is even more problematic because they said well if you have a virus or a this or or a lectin or a something that your body reacts to makes an antibody towards and then that's similar enough to one of our antigens that there's a bit of a cross reaction and then your body gets more sensitized towards that well if it's able to crossreact it was able to react in the first place if it was capable of making that because they're just pumping out antibodies and things like that to just try to find something that it sticks to oh we got one and then you you do a full full court press so you would be you would have reacted to your own body long before then you don't need to have a triggering incidence where you have you know molecular mimicry or something like that because if you were capable of crossreacting you were capable of reacting in the first place and you're not your your immune system is not capable of doing that it also doesn't fit that your body has has now mounted an immune response to your own body specifically to your own body because you know when you have a bacterial infection and you have this you know whatever you have visible infection you have this abscess something like that your body is making mounting a huge immune defense against this and it's it's kill or be killed and so you're just you're ever increasing attack and pressure on this bacterial infection you're not just going to go really hard at one point and then lay down and then go at it again and then lay down but that's what we see in autoimmune issues we see these es and flows and and and flare ups and calm periods and things like that with or without medications with or without immune suppression with or without giving people corticosteroids so that wouldn't make sense if your body's sensitized to your thyroid for instance your body is just going to full coure press attack that until it's dead right in the case of like Hashimoto or Graves or something like that it is not going to just have this W oh we're going to get it you know what it's the weekend we're just going to chill out that does not happen with an infection why would it happen if your body thinks your thyroid is an infection or thinks your nervous system is an infection such as with in the case of of multiple sclerosis it doesn't make sense and then I think the most telling um most telling uh piece of evidence that we have that this is not an autoimmune issue as in your body is making antibodies towards itself is celiac disease celiac disease is considered an autoimmune disease disease that is mediated by gluten and gluten is a lectin and lectins are a protein with a carbohydrate substructure and they can bind to the different antigens and molecules on the surface of your cells and so they do that they bind to your inas sites the intestinal cells and the lining of your intestines and they attack them and they damage them they cause leaky gut and they cause all sorts of different problems and they can cause you know now leaky gut you can get other lectins and things like that to get into the body and cause damage and cause problems and autoimmunity leaky gut is strongly associated with autoimmune diseases and so what does your body do your body tries to defend you against the attack of this gluten of the this lectin called gluten but the gluten is stuck to the cell and so this antibody going after it is now attacking both because it's trying to get the lectin but the lectin stuck on the cell okay so if you have viruses in a Cell your body will actually kill cell that those viruses contain that are contained in you know and that's just that's just part of the damage you know you just have to get rid of these damn things and so your body is getting hit with this and you just keep getting more and more and more it's like you have this bad infection your body's just trying to wipe it out but you're getting a lot of collateral damage as well but what happens when you stop eating gluten problem goes away right even though you still have the antibodies that's the key those antibodies are still in your circulation they're still in your body are not damaging your anas sites anymore so you get these micro which is sort of these finger light projections on the Villi you have these Villi and then micro coming off of them and you get those damaged and you get flattening of the vli in the micro and you don't get absorption proper absorption because that massively increases the surface area so you can get more absorption and and it flattens that off and now you're not you're getting malabsorption issues and other sorts of problems s uh with Celiac which is not not fun um glyphosate is is strongly associated with autoimmunity as well and since we've been using more and more glyphosate um we've seen a massive upsurge in autoimmune as well but you know I don't think that's the only reason um another good reason that that ruminant meat is probably um so good in autoimmune issues is that well at least according to an article I read uh ruminants may be able to actually you know detoxify and filter out glyphosate and they don't absorb it so you're eating this meat you're not even getting glyphosate in that it's glyphosate freaking everything you know so um but ruminant seem to be able to get rid of it so you get this attack you get these lectins or glyphosate or whatever attacking your cells and then your body doing what it's supposed to do which is attacking that and defending your body against that but your your cells get hit in the crossfire but then what happens when you stop eating all plants get rid of all the glyphosate all the lectins all that stuff what happens body stops damaging it stops attacking you and that just settles down right away and that's that's what people see we see people very quickly within weeks their autoimmune symptoms will stop progressing and in a lot of cases they'll start to reverse and start to improve so things with high turnover like your intestines you'll recover pretty quickly because they have you know a lot of um a lot of ability to re regenerate right you have people with crohn's disease orer of colitis Celiac you stop eating these things and and your body Rec and your intestines recover fairly quickly in in in the next couple weeks couple months you have massive improvements in both symptomatology and on biopsy so that all improves hey guys just want to take a second to thank our sponsor at carnivore bar I don't promote many products because honestly all you need to be healthy is to just eat meat for those times that you're out hiking road tripping or stuck at work and you want nutritious snack that is just meat fat and salt if you want it the carnivore bar is a great option so I like this product not because it's just pure meat but also because I want the carnivore Market to thrive as well and the more we support meat only products the more meat only products there will be available in the mainstream so if this sounds like something you'd like to get behind check it out using my discount code Anthony to get 10% off which also applies of subscriptions giving you 25% off total all right thanks guys even though there are antibodies there right and that's key because there's nothing for those antibodies to attack anymore because they're not attacking your body they're attacking the lectin or the whatever that are attacking your cells and you're getting hit in the crossfire but then look at Ms well you can stop that process your body doesn't have anything to attack anymore but nerves take a very long time they can take six months to a year to two years to get as much healing as they as they can and that's in the right conditions with all the DHA EPA cholesterol s other essential saturated fats like pentenoic um um acid which is C15 saturated fat that I just did a post on about how this is essential to cell membrane Integrity um you as long as you have all those things B12 vitamin D all these sorts of things um then you're you're going to start you know recovering but it's going to still going to take a long time still going to take a while uh to recover and there can be permanent damage there can be damage done that that's not possible for your body to recover from fully but at least it shuts down that process and and shuts down further damage from happening that's the main thing with doing this is it shuts down the damage side of this and allows your body to heal what it can so in tissues that have high cellular turnover like your skin cells like your mucosa and your gut typically you see people improve you know quite rapidly because you have high turnover and so you're going to heal these damaged cells and then other tissues much slower and so you're not going to have as much of a recovery but I think that's exactly what's going on I think that your body is is actually doing its job and is attacking the attackers you're getting these lectin there's sticking onto your cells onto your organs your body is attacking those and then when you remove those they go away and those antibodies come down and sometimes you'll have a bit of a background of those antibodies because that's that's typically what you do if you have like a like Hepatitis B uh vaccine uh you check your titer 10 years later you still have antibodies so that your so if that attack comes again your body can mount a big response and it stays up for a while and then it slows down but it sort of keeps a basil level of antibodies just in case that comes back again and so it a long time for those antibodies to to go away I see this in Hashimoto patients I have over 100 patients with Hashimoto and they all improve if they go on to a lion diet um for all those reasons we discussed but the and the antibodies do come down dramatically but it can take a year or more those antibodies that come down to trace mounts right um and especially as you get lower it goes slower which which would make sense because they're trying to keep just something in the back ground just in case this attack comes again so you know it the the lower the hachimon antibodies even if you're doing everything perfect the slower it is to go down but eventually they do go down to nothing but the the key is what I think is I don't think they're damaging your body during that time unless you eat the wrong thing and those lectin or glyphosate or whatever get in your body and start attacking your thyroid again and then those antibodies can have something to work on and they'll go up they definitely will go up and I see that I see when people you know had I've had patients that you know went on a vacation they say ah well you know just let it slip for a while they come back not feeling great and you we check their their thyroid and it's depressed and their their antibodies are you know way up you know they jumped up hundreds of points and it's just like all right well this is direct cause and effect and when they stop eating that way the antibodies are slowly coming down down down down down they slip up B goes up slowly down down down down down bam goes up right so we can see this in real time and if that was your body is just an autoimmune response your body's just like no that thyroid is dead you're not going to see that you're not going to see it coming down and then Spike up and then coming down and Spike up and and conveniently exactly when you eat the wrong thing that have these lectin and glyphosate in them so that's what I think is going on I don't think it's an autoimmune issue I think that's completely misnamed and misunderstood I don't think it's molecular mimicry I think your body your immune system does not have the K why no your body your immune system does not have the capability of attacking itself because it is specifically tested against everything your body makes to see if it will react even weakly and if it does it's killed not allowed out to go and cause damage and if it was able to react weakly or react to a virus or lectin or whatever and then have that cross reaction weekly with your cells they'd be able to react weakly in the first place and so they would have already already attacked your body they don't wouldn't need that molecular mimicry your body's fully capable of attacking itself if you can make something that cross reacts the only antibodies that your body's able to make are antibodies towards something that will never crossreact with your body it's not capable of doing it that's how your immune system works hey everyone really happy to announce a new sponsor for the show and for everybody down in Australia Stockman steaks who are delivering highquality grass-fed and finished pasture raised beef and other meat flash frozen and vacuum sealed to your door something I've been enjoying a lot of myself recently as well they also have a great range of specialty items such as high fat keto mints and carnivore beef and organs mints with liver kidneys and beef heart as well so use code chaffy today for a free order of beef mints or another specialty gift along with your order at Stockman steaks.com and I'll see you over there thanks guys and that's it that's in the textbook you know so but you know most doctors don't take uh Immunology uh most people in general don't take Immunology I just happen to because it was offered and I needed upper Division Credit during my undergrad and I just thought it looked interesting and um I don't take fluff classes I take I took you know those the things that I I thought were interesting and um and that I like um so you know that's why I know that I'm glad I did I'm is is a lot to be said for having a you know broad um background in education because you just you know you come across these things that not everybody else does if you just have a pigeon hold education this is the only thing you learn well you don't know anything more than anybody else and you can't come at this from a different perspective because you don't have a different perspective you have the exact same cookie cutter perspective as everybody else for better or worse but you know having having a a broader uh background in education in history and Classics and in science in particular you're just going to have more to draw on and and so uh that's my theory anyway and um yeah and so that's uh yeah that's what I think is going on anyway and a lot of people improve those allergies but don't necessarily get rid of them alog together so you know just have to sort of see what your your body what your body does I mean my asthma like massively improved I still have asthma you know but it's like it's exercise induced and sort of bit of a tightening but it's not like it was it's not close to what it was um