Cheating immune system by redirecting it?

Hi there,

My name is Mikel, I'm from Spain, 33, and been diagnosed with colitis (previously ulcerative, now indeterminate) for 10 years. After my first flare-up - the worst - I was for 8 years almost in remission - just a single flare-up in between - but these last 2 years I've had several mild-to-severe flare-ups reversed with prednisone. Now I'm corticosteoid-dependant so I'll probably go with inmunosupresants or biologics, doctors will say. However, I'd like to try first other alternatives like FMT to keep me in remission for longer.

Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself so you know that I've been here for quite some time and my specific case. Following I'm writing about something that has been in my mind for some time and it's related to the immune system and if we can do it "ourselves" to cheat it and prevent/easen our flare-ups.

My question, then is: Do you think it'd be possible to cheat our immune system and redirect it so it doesn't attack our guts' cells? This is my logic, very simplified:

- An UC / CD patient's immune system gets activated and starts attacking gut's cells / muccose
- The cells / muccose react to that attack with inflammation and woop, we have a flare-up

What if we gave to our body real "enemies" so the immunological "army" stops attacking our beloved gut cells / muccose or at least splits its force to fight against the "real invasor"? You can think of it as distracting our immune cells and redirecting them to fight other battles (and so, reduce their force in the gut area). The enemies could be cold viruses, little/clean and controlled cuts with blood...

I was thinking that perhaps, doing 4 little cuts on left/right hand fingers, left/right feet's toes so the immune system forces get redirected to those places, far away from the guts, could this be of help?

Please remember that this is just a crazy idea and that I'm thinking out loud and I'm very ignorant on how actually the immune system works even on our disease.

Some additional thoughts / questions:
- This is just a "crazy idea" but just wanted to share it with you because...
- Is there anyone there who has thought something similar to this? It has some logic so I don't think I'll be the first one out there thinking about this.
- Do you know of any studies/experiences out there that take this path -> cheating / redirecting the immune system? With a quick search I've found this that is not exactly the same idea, but similar in a way: https://newatlas.com/autoimmune-disease-weizmann/21034/ "Scientists trick immune system to treat autoimmune disease in mice" (from 2012, includes Chron's)
- I know that probably when using immunosuppresants or biologics additional cautions need to be taken with infections, etc. and also, I'm not sure if introducing "invasors" in the body will split our immune system's forces or enforcen-reactivate them, that's why I'd like to hear from you if you have any knowledge / experience on this.

Please feel totally free to share your most sincere opinion / thoughts on this and if you think this is something for which we could do a more deep research.

Thanks!
Mikel

Post Edited (elmistik) : 5/24/2018 7:24:05 AM (GMT-6)

I would not suggest cutting yourself, that's not going to accomplish anything. Our immune system is very capable of handling/attacking multiple targets at a given time, so it's not that simple.

The only thing that is somewhat relevant to your train of thought is this, a novel idea that's being clinical trialed:
www.qubiologics.com/what-we-do/ssis-for-ibd/

I'd recommend going on the inmunosuppressants or biologics. Best tools we have at the moment with a proven effectiveness. Many of us have had UC for decades and have tried countless experiments with alternative treatments , it is a very long process with more failures than successes. Sometimes successes are found, if your persistent and thorough enough.

Hey Oligodar, iPoop,

Thanks so much for your responses.
Yay, I understand that "hurting ourselves" with little cuts or by intentionally getting a cold virus may not be the best idea, that's why I defined it as a "crazy" idea ;)

However, I wanted to share this concern with all you and also to share some ideas / experiences related with immune system reactions / CD and UC. For example:

- Since I was diagnosed 10 years ago I don't think I've ever had cold or flu, not sure if coincidence or if there's a relationship between these facts (super active immune system protects me from having cold/flu but attacks my gut cells).
- Have you ever had some experience related to flu/cold/hurts that would react in a flare-up / or viceversa? Something like having a flare-up / remission after a bike accident / flu / cold or similar?

In any case, I'm aware with the proven results of existing medicines and this is just more a concern I had and to hear from possible related experiences that could bring more knowledge to the "distracting the immune system" path. Thanks so much for the link on that study, iPoop, it looks quite promising if they actually can determine by genetics who can be benefited from the treatment with QBeco. I'm seeing that in the last times there are lots of new research that will make it easier and easier to have us in remission for longer ))

Cheers!

if you immune system is sufficiently challenged, the response to UC would have to lessen - but this is almost impossible to calibrate.

you could attempt a challenge that has bad infectious consequences for you, and hardly lowere UC response

I'm from the Lyme forum and I've had the same problem. A lot of the times when I have a cold I feel better.

I think introducing your body intentionally to new microbes that you don't know any thing about is a bad idea. BUT I've heard that taking certain probiotics can really help your immune system. I'm not sure which ones.

There are a lot of herbs out there that re-direct your immune system. I heard that you have two parts to your immune system, TH-1 and TH-2, and both of them need to be in balance. I've had a lot of success taking herbs, and I think they have re-directed my immune system to go after the bugs instead.

I hope you can start feeling better.