CVID : COMMON VARIABLE IMMUNODEFICIENCY

By. Dr. Jesse A. Stoff

One of the primary topics of the study of immunology is the area of IMMUNE DEFFICIENCY and the various types that exist. There are GENETIC immune deficiencies that a person is born with, and some of these can be quite severe. For example years ago, there was a case of David, the boy in a bubble, and he had a severe combined immune deficiency syndrome, SCIDS. And he wound up living in a environment that was very filtered air, and he couldn't eat anything that was essentially not sterilized first because he had no immune system to protect him from infection. And at one point they tried to treat him with a bone marrow transplant from his sister. The transplant was a success. She was a good match but unfortunately, unbeknownst to them and they didn't test for it back in those days, it was a number of years ago, she had a latent Epstein-Barr virus in her system, which when it got into his system because he had no immune system to protect him, reactivated and wound up killing the poor guy.

In any case, that's a severe case. Most people have a much milder form of immune deficiency called common variable immunodeficiency, CVID for short. Common variable immunodeficiency can be a very mild situation when you do blood tests for the different antibodies that protect us from infection, IgG and IgA subclasses. You'll see one or more subclasses running below the normal range. Each subclass has to protect us from different kinds of infectious critters. And when one of these is running below the normal range, it predisposes that person to recurrent colds, flu, sore throats, swollen glands, strep infections, virus infections, whatever it happens to be that that antibody is supposed to protect us from. Now, common variable immunodeficiency can occur for a number of reasons. Any of the things that cause damage to our immune system, poor nutrition, infections, toxins, traumas, stresses can all lead to a CVID situation.

Now the problem with CVID is manyfold. On the one hand, the person is suffering from recurrent illnesses. On the other hand because there is damage to a particular part of the immune system, it causes a shift in the immune system. Typically, it causes a shift such that the immune system shifts its resources into the pathway that has to try to repair those immune deficient molecules. That pathway is called a Th2 pathway. When the immune system shifts its resources into that pathway, it deprives resources from another major pathway of our immune system called the Th1 pathway. And when that pathway becomes then secondary deficient, it increases our risk to other sorts of severe and chronic diseases, perhaps the worse of those is cancer. So when somebody has a common variable immunodeficiency, it's not just a matter of the nuisance of the frequent colds or flus, it actually can predispose us to more severe diseases down the road, so we have to pay attention to it.

The way that one corrects a common variable immunodeficiency is by looking at the five things that are known to suppress the immune system. As I said, poor nutrition, infections, toxins, trauma, stresses. Through blood test and a careful patient history, we narrow down that list, find out what's wrong, correct the nutritional deficiencies that may be there, put the person on detox program if there are toxins that are indicated that would suppress the immune system. Chelate out the heavy metals if that's what's causing the immune suppression, so on and so forth. In more severe situations, we can actually supplement the missing antibodies through the use of immunoglobulin. Immunoglobulin therapy is available both as a subcutaneous form or through the intravenous administration of this substance, which will immediately supply the antibodies that are missing, help to plug the hole temporarily, and buy time for the immune system to rebalance itself.

Everybody has to have an individualized workup and evaluation. When I'm working with people with CVID, each person has their own reasons and their own abnormalities as to why they have it. And each person has to be treated individually to have the maximum and most rapid treatment results. 

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DR. JESSE A. STOFF is an internationally renowned physician with extensive credentials in clinical immunology and holistic medicine. A graduate of New York Medical College, he pursued extensive post-doctoral training including a fellow- ship at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital in London, England. He has authored/co-authored countless articles and 8 books including co-authoring the bestseller "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: The Hidden Epidemic" and The Prostate Miracle.

This article is produced and written by the writing team at IMMUNOLOGY TODAY- The Official Newsletter of Integrative Medicine of N.Y. of Westbury NY-- Edited and co-published by Dr. Jesse A. Stoff exclusively for the purposes of this blogpost (Immunology Today) and rejuvenatesoliutions.com The publisher(s) hold all rights (c) to all elements, images and content herein.  All distribution, sharing or re-posting of this article is only with the express permission from Dr. Stoff and Integrative Medicine of NY (formerly Linchitz Medical Wellness). 265 Post Ave. Suite 380 Westbury, NY 11590  |  516.759.4200  |  www.StoffImmunology.com.   Rejuvenate! is a registered trademark of Intermedia Communications Ltd. All written content in this newsletter is produced by the Stoff Institute for Medical Research (SIMR) exclusively for private distribution at the Integrative Medicine of NY ©2016- All Rights Reserved.

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