Description
An introduction to the ways in which immunity can promote health or cause disease
By Dr. Peter H Kay, Immunopathologist, Molecular Pathologist, Geneticist and Cancer Biologist.
Narration and Bonus Module featuring Dr Frank Sabatino FCMA, Doctor of Chiropractic and PhD in Cell Biology and Neuroendocrinology, Natural Health Specialist.
Introduction from CMA President, Jayney Goddard MSc, FCMA, FRSM
Welcome to this incredible course! I am beyond delighted to be able to bring this to you from The CMA as this is a huge leap forward for the field of complementary, integrative and natural healthcare. In this course, we have two giants of the integrative immunopathology field, bringing your their unique take on ways that we practitioners can take advantage of a whole new holistic approach to better understand and serve our patients and clients.
I know you’ll agree with me when I say how important it is that we health practitioners understand how the immunological machinery works because, as you’ll appreciate, immunological aberrations underpin the pathogenesis of most diseases. The trouble is that many of us don’t get the in-depth training we need to understand disease initiation and development. There’s no doubt that complementary and integrative practitioners are brilliant at the work we do – but think how much more help we could be to our clients if we had more knowledge about immunology and immunopathology – but from the integrative health perspective.
I am so glad you are here, and I urge you to take this Certification course (which is also CMA CPD certified) so that you can work more effectively with your clients and patients. The information in this course will also help you to liaise more easily with patient’s conventional care team – as you’ll understand all the terminology and pathology and this will be of inestimable value if you have a shared responsibility with them for your patient/client.
About this course
This course has been prepared in collaboration with The Complementary Medical Association (The CMA) to enable all health practitioners and students of the medical and biological sciences to understand more about the different component parts of the immune system and how they interact to support health or cause disease.
In this course, you’ll learn how a perfectly normal mother’s immune system can attack her unborn child, how some parts of the immune system can cause disease by mimicking the uncontrolled action of a hormone, how a healthy transplanted organ can attack and even kill the recipient, how the AIDS virus causes immune deficiency, how immune dysregulation can interfere with the blood clotting process to cause strokes, heart disease, miscarriages and much more.
You’ll also learn how a healthy mother’s immunity can cause development of autism, autism spectrum disorders, learning difficulties and dyslexia for example, in her children in later years.
Recent advances are included which highlight discoveries which show how a wide range of neurological disorders are caused by a range of different brain specific autoantibodies.
You’ll also find out about the various ways in which immune mechanisms have been harnessed to develop exciting new approaches to cancer treatment.
The course introduces the biological significance of low levels of autoimmunity found in healthy people, the ‘natural autoantibodies’.
You’ll learn about ways in which autoimmune diseases may be treated and which foods and other environmental factors can be used to promote health by manipulation of the immune machinery.
Finally, you’ll be able to benefit from the wonderful bonus module video where Dr Frank Sabatino brings everything together – so that all the technicalities and complexities of the immune system are described in such a way that it becomes easy to see how all this valuable information applies to our patients and clients – and he also discusses evidence-based immune support strategies that you can integrate into your practice right away.
How to navigate this course:
Please work your way through the content for each module, using either the text, audio narration or both. We have found that students get the most out of the course by using as many learning options as possible. The narration expands a little on the written content too – as an extra source of support.
Then, when you are ready, please take the quizzes after each module (except the final video lecture). You must answer each question correctly in order to progress to the next question and then the next module. There is no limit to the number of times you can answer each question.
Course contents:
- Adaptive Immune systems.
- T cell immunity. T cell functions, B cell immunity. Antibodies, how they are produced.
- Generation of diversity. How different foreign substances are recognised by the immune system.
- IgE and allergy. Immunity in children, Immune deficiencies.
- The Innate immunity system.
- The complement system. Inflammatory cytokines. Natural killer cells. The defensin system. Mannose binding lectin. Bacteriophages.
- The major histocompatibility complex (MHC).
- HLA antigen system. The role of the MHC in transplantation and disease. Graft versus host disease.
- Auto-immune diseases: Organ specific autoimmunity. Immune complex diseases. Detection of auto-immune diseases. The biological significance of natural autoantibodies.
- Introduction to autoimmune mediated neurological disorders: Autism, developmental defects and heart disease caused by maternal immunity.
- Red cell serology: Diseases caused by red cell antibodies, haemolytic disease of the new-born and transfusion reactions.
- Introduction to a newly discovered non-inflammatory form of asthma.
- Introduction to monoclonal antibodies: How they are produced. How they are used as valuable new treatments for many disorders including cancer.
- Introduction to new ways in which immune mechanisms have been harnessed to treat cancer.
Bonus Module:
The Practical Application of Integrative Immunopathology for the Complementary / Integrative Health Practitioner, with Dr Frank Sabatino in discussion with CMA President, Jayney Goddard.
In this session you’ll learn how everything fits together so that you can work more effectively with your clients. Dr Sabatino will discuss exactly how he supports his clients who are compromised by immune issues and the many ways that complementary medical and natural healthcare approaches work to dramatically improve health.
Plus . . .
- Nutritional strategies to decrease inflammation
- Effects of gut microbiota on the innate and adaptive immune systems and autoimmune disease
- Direct effects of Vitamin D on the innate and adaptive immune systems
- How to reduce the aging and dysregulation of the immune system
- Impact of exercise, obesity and stress on the immune system
- Exercise – what is the ‘optimum dose’?
- Mindset, meditation and stress response management
- Epigenetics
- . . . and much more!
CMA Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
Successful completion of this course will entitle you to claim 50% of your year’s CMA CPD activities.