Immunotherapy Specialist

What is immunotherapy?

Immunotherapy, also called biological therapy, is a group of treatments that treat disease by making changes to your immune system function. The main categories of immunotherapy are:

Activation immunotherapy

Activation immunotherapy stimulates your body's natural immune response to make it work harder or more efficiently. 

Suppression immunotherapy

Suppression immunotherapy works to calm an overactive immune system. 

Immunotherapy uses materials from living organisms, in very tiny amounts, to help your immune system function as it should. 

When might I need immunotherapy?

Immunotherapy can help with many autoimmune diseases, including:

• Lyme disease
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Multiple sclerosis (MS)
• Lupus
• Crohn's disease
• Dermatomyositis
• Systemic sclerosis
• Type 1 diabetes

Immunotherapy can also be part of cancer care, particularly if you're among the 10-30% of people with cancer who also have an autoimmune disease.  

Also, immunotherapy is a promising treatment for some people with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). About 90% of the world has EBV, and it usually acts like other viruses. 

However, if you have EBV and you're genetically at risk for MS, immunotherapy may prevent the disease or significantly inhibit its growth. 

Immunotherapy also helps with allergies, chronic sinusitis, skin rashes, and other allergic conditions. 

What is low-dose immunotherapy?

Low-dose immunotherapy is a way to build immune tolerance when you have allergies or a chronic autoimmune disease with an overactive immune system. This type of immunotherapy involves sublingual (under-the-tongue) drops of a blend of customized antigen (the molecules that can cause your immune response). 

Then, over the next few weeks, you watch for symptoms. If you have none, it means the dose is too weak, so your next dose is stronger. 

If you have a flare-up, it's not really a bad thing because it shows that Dr. Winkler identified the right substance. After that, you wait for your immune system to reset before your next treatment. 

After achieving the optimal dosage, you have doses at specific intervals to help control your disease or condition. Every couple of months is common, but it depends on your needs. 

What is peptide immunotherapy?

Peptide immunotherapy is a type of antigen-specific low-dose immunotherapy. While most immunotherapy uses the entire antigen, peptide immunotherapy uses only a short peptide sequence. 

This highly specific treatment can calm immune system overstimulation and may help with conditions like Type 1 diabetes. 

To learn more about immunotherapy and how it may help you, call Quantum Functional Medicine or use the online booking tool.