017 - Balancing T Cells - Th1, Th2, Th17, & Tregs

The Autoimmune Doc Podcast w/ Dr. Taylor Krick

T cells are a part of your immune system, which has many many important parts of course. T cells are particularly important in autoimmunity because the T CELLS ARE WHAT DO THE DAMAGE!!!
In my last episode about Hashimoto's I talked about antibody levels and described how will antibodies "flag" something as bad so that immune cells can come destroy it, but antibodies have no destructive properties.
The progression and destruction of autoimmune disease is determined by the level of T cell activity!
T cells destroy the gut in autoimmunity. T cells destroy the joints in autoimmunity. T cells destroy the thyroid. T cells destroy the myelin of your nerves. THEY ARE IMPORTANT!!
What type(s) are there? What do they do? How do I know if mine are working properly?
This episode goes through all of that information! I go through the 4 most important polarizations of T cells:

• Th1 (fights intracellular infections)
• Th2 (produces mucus and expels allergens and parasites)
• Th17 (causes tissue-damaging inflammation)
• Regulatory T cells (Tregs), which are the peacemakers that dampen inflammation

Autoimmunity ALWAYS has an imbalance of too much Th17 activity and not enough Treg activity, but what about Th1/Th2?
Eventually MOST autoimmune patients will present with decreased Th1 and increased Th2, and in this episode I go through some of the details of how this happens, how the patient presents and how this needs to be handled clinically to get it under control!