The Coimbra Protocol doesn’t help everyone. Most but not everyone.
Escrevi este texto com o intuito de ser partilhado no grupo americano do Protocolo Coimbra, de modo a esclarecer dúvidas que me foram enviadas.
I have been contacted about the lack of public “official” information from Coimbra Protocol doctors regarding the number of people who don’t get better with the Coimbra Protocol.
Their point is that it looks like everyone reacts to the treatment in a positive way and see their autoimmune disease get better.
And you know what? They are partially right!
There is a lack of report on cases that don’t go as we would want them to.
There are good reasons for that, though. A significant majority of people who start the treatment feels improvements in their condition or symptoms associated with it, feeling they are being able to win over the disease and they can be very vocal and public about it. They want the world to know autoimmunity is not a sentence, it can be fought back.
But "the majority" doesn’t mean "everyone" and that is a sad reality we need to acknowledge. Not all people with an autoimmune condition can be helped by the vitamin D and the Coimbra Protocol.
Over the years, I have witness it first hand. We get the vitamin D high enough, the PTH drops to the range we aim, every other supplement needed for vitamin D function is optimized but the disease doesn’t stop progressing. It is so heart-breaking and frustrating!
Looking for possible answers, there are not that many.
Firstly, we need to obviously consider that autoimmune diseases are suppose to get worse over time, either through progressive worsening, relapses, flares or crisis. When vitamin D (or any other treatment) is not effect, the disease just follows its natural path. Luckily and thankfully, most times we are able to be effective in changing its course!
Secondly, there is a common denominator amongst autoimmunity that is support by evidence and by my clinical experience.
I ask all my patients what they believe to be the trigger for the disease onset and worsening. Almost all reply the same thing: “stress”, mainly emotional stress. Let me be clear: I am not blaming any autoimmune sufferer for their lack of positive results with the Coimbra Protocol or any other treatment.
But the fact is that stress does impact the pathophysiology of autoimmune in a negative way!
In 2008 it was published in the Autoimmunity Reviews that
"It is presumed that the stress-triggered neuroendocrine hormones lead to immune dysregulation, which ultimately results in autoimmune disease, by altering or amplifying cytokine production. The treatment of autoimmune disease should thus include stress management and behavioral intervention to prevent stress-related immune imbalance.”
Since then, different papers were published who supported this argument.
Stress is a big part of autoimmunity who “fuels” the disease. However, the symptoms and limitations the disease creates also causes stress that will fuel the disease! And the cycle can go on and on…
Techniques like meditation, journaling, box-breathing may help decreasing the burden of stress and so can supplements like GABA, L-Theanine or adaptogenic herbs.
Apart from stress, there is a world of hypothesis that have been linked to autoimmunity and may help if addressed. From heavy metals to pro-inflammatory diet, there is a lot of ground that can be covered.
The Coimbra Protocol is, to my knowledge, the best therapeutic option to fight autoimmunity. It is not a straight road to recovery though, as some testimonials may portray: it has a lot of ups and downs, twists and turns, and sometimes dead-ends. Thousands of patients have felt its effects but there are those who didn’t feel it.
It should be acknowledged that the Coimbra Protocol doesn’t help everyone