What is Guillain Barre Syndrome?

A friend of mine was diagnosed with Guillain Barre Syndrome a few days ago. I didn't know much about it other than the fact that is was a rare auto-immune disease, so I decided to thoroughly research the topic and share what I discovered.

Quick Summary of Guillain Barre Syndrome

Guillain Barre Syndrome is an Autoimmune Disease where the body's immune system attacks the myelin of its own neurons causing tingling, numbness and eventually paralysis of various parts of the body. It can lead to death in cases where paralysis effects the muscles controlling the lungs and heart, but most people recover over a period of several months and sometimes years.

What are the Symptoms of Guillain Barre Syndrome?

The most common symptoms are tingling and numbness in the hands, feet, legs and arms which eventually spreads to core parts of the body. Some people experience severe pain, most commonly at night.

Things often progress to the point of partial or complete paralysis of various muscle groups. This starts as a feeling of weakness and poor coordination, and can develop to the point of needing to spend all of your time in bed due to being unable to walk or stand. Having access to a respiratory saves many people's lives as the syndrome reaches its peak because it can impair the ability to breath. It can also cause the heart to behave erratically leading spikes and sudden drops in blood pressure.

Guillain Barre is not contagious and is generally not recurrent in a single individual, though those who have had it before have a slightly greater chance of getting it again in the future.

What Causes Guillain Barre Syndrome?

Guillain Barre Syndrome is caused by the body's immune system attacking the Myelin Sheath which surrounds the axons of its many neurons.

If you think of your nervous system as a network of computers similar to the internet, neurons are like the individual computers communicating on the network, and the axons are the copper cables which connect all of the computers. In this analogy, the myelin would be like the plastic coating which wraps the copper wire protecting it from harm while also increasing the speed and efficiency of communication. When we lose that layer of insulation the brain can no longer effectively communicate with the body.

This is essentially all the medical establishment knows about the cause, which I personally find wholy, though unsurprisingly, unimpressive. They do not have an answer to the question of why the body attacks its own myelin in the first place. In order to explore further we will have to dip our feet into the world of what is commonly called "pseudoscience", though those who have done their research will know that's usually where the truth is found.

Guillaine Barre often occurs shortly after a viral or bacterial infection. It's also known to be initiated by vaccinations, most commonly the flu vaccine, which contains toxic ingredients known as abjuvent specifically designed to get the immune system riled up. Bacteria, viruses and toxins have a habit of hiding in tissues not as easily accessed by the immune system, with fatty tissues (e.g. myelin) being an example. Once the immune response has dealt with the bulk of the problem, it still sees the same contaminants it was sent to eliminate hiding in these others areas and continues to attack, which unfortunately destroys the tissue the target is dissolved in or surrounded by. That's my theory anyway…

Thinking about the problem more broadly may also be helpful, so let's remember that Guillaine Barre is an autoimmune disease. In the book 'The Autoimmune Epidemic', Donna Jackson Nakazawa theorizes that ALL autoimmune disease are essentially the result of toxins concentrating in our bodies as a result of contaminated food, water, air, drugs and beauty products. The more foreign elements the body incorporates into itself, the less it looks like the body the immune system is trying to protect.

How is Guillain Barre Syndrome Solved?

First, for those of you who still trust the medical establishment (despite the fact we cured cancer 100 years ago), let's talk about the treatment you're likely to receive. Doctors don't believe Guillaine Barre can be cured, and that all they can do is support an individual through the more difficult parts by doing things like putting you on a respirator to prevent you from suffocating until you recover.

There are a couple of treatments which research has shown increases the recovery time, and these are commonly used in a medical setting assuming the syndrome was diagnosed early enough. The first is called Plasmapheresis, where blood is removed from the patient, stripped of its antibody containing plasma, and returned to the body. The other is Immunoglobulin Therapy, where a mixture of antibodies from the blood of other humans is injected into the body of the patient to counteract the native immune response. I personally find both of these options exceedingly distasteful, especially considering their effectiveness is minimal… so let's talk about what I would do if I had Guillaine Barre.

As I'm sure you've heard, prevention is the best cure, but it's also commonly true that doing the things that keep you healthy are the same things that will help you recover. This has many aspects, but one of the most important is detoxification. Here's a quick list of how I'd do that:

• Take various supplements to complement the body's natural detox process (e.g. Vitamin C, Glutathione, Milk Thistle, N-Acetyl Cysteine, Activated Coconut Charcoal, Calcium D-Glucarate, etc.)
• Eat only organic food to reduce contamination, with high amounts of leafy greens for antioxidants, with minimal ingrediants which commonly cause allergic reactions (e.g. wheat, eggs, dairy, etc.).
• Sit in a sauna at least once a day to excrete toxins through the sweat.

Equally important to detoxing is supporting the body's natural process for recovery. Here are the steps I'd take:

• Get plenty of Vitamin D, preferably through direct and prolonged sun exposure on the skin. If that wasn't an option I'd be supplementing with Vitamin D.
• Eat or supplement with large amounts of Omega 3, the material used to make Myelin. I'd use Algal Oil since I'm mostly vegan, but I'd be taking Krill Oil if I were still eating animals. Fish and pastured egg yolks are good food sources.
• Take supplements and engage in activities which trigger myelin and neuronal growth via Neuron Growth Factor (NGF) and Brain Derived Neurotropic Factor (BDNF). There are tons of options (which you can read about here and here), but I'd probably just take Lion's Mane and Coffee Berry Extract, and exerise regularly.
• Eat a low inflammation diet. I currently believe the Bulletproof Diet (https://blog.bulletproof.com/the-complete-illustrated-one-page-bulletproof-diet/) is the most healthy, easiest to understand and most delicious version of this, though I'd personally remove the animal products for ethical reasons.
• Minimize stress and get plenty of rest. Several people with Guillaine Barre I came across emphasized this as an incredibly important recovery factor that is often overlooked.

Before closing the solutions section of this article, I should mention that despite my skepticism of the medical community they are very good at critical care. If I was experiencing severe pain, paralysis, heart issues or difficulty breathing I'd head to the hospital immediately. Guillaine Barre Syndrome does kill a significant portion of the people it affects, and I wouldn't take that kind of chance with my life, and I don't think you should either.

While I've never had Guillaine Barre Syndrome, I can imagine the worst part of it is the intense anxiety which would arise at losing control of your body. My research seems to indicate the illness almost always resolves on its own, and there are plenty of things one can do to increase the the rate of recovery. It does reach a peak of intensity which can be severe and often requires medical support, but once you're through that stage you're very likely recover at a slow and steady rate and it's not likely to recur.

While I believe everything is this article is true, I am likely wrong about at least one part of it, and each situation is unique, so please do your own research before putting this information into effect.

Thanks for watching!

Cahlen Lee