Autoimmune Treatments in Sherman Oaks: A Functional & Integrative Approach

Vitality Integrative Medicine in Sherman Oaks, CA, offers comprehensive, integrative, and functional medicine-based care for autoimmune conditions including multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, lupus, Crohn’s disease, and more. Led by Dr. Jeremy Fischer, ND, L.Ac., the clinic combines IV therapy, ozone therapy, acupuncture, botanical medicine, chelation, bioidentical hormones, and personalized nutrition to address root causes — not just symptoms.

Living with an autoimmune disease is exhausting in a way that’s difficult to articulate. On the outside, you may look perfectly fine. On the inside, your immune system is mounting an attack against your own body. Joint pain that flares without warning. Fatigue so profound that a full night’s sleep does nothing to relieve it. Brain fog that makes simple tasks feel monumental. For millions of Americans, this is daily life.

If you’ve spent years cycling through conventional treatments without getting to the root of what’s driving your symptoms, you’re not alone — and you may not have found the right kind of care yet.

Vitality Integrative Medicine, located in Sherman Oaks in the heart of the San Fernando Valley, takes a different path. Under the guidance of Dr. Jeremy Fischer, ND, L.Ac., the clinic offers a comprehensive, functional, and holistic approach to autoimmune care — one designed to address the underlying drivers of immune dysfunction rather than simply suppress symptoms. From advanced IV therapies and ozone treatment to botanical medicine, bioidentical hormones, and targeted nutrition, the practice brings together a wide range of evidence-informed tools to help patients feel genuinely better.

How Common Are Autoimmune Diseases — and Why Aren’t People Getting Better?

The numbers are staggering. According to the Sjögren’s Foundation, over 50 million Americans — roughly 8% of the U.S. population — are affected by autoimmune diseases. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) estimates there are between 80 and 150 distinct autoimmune conditions currently recognized by researchers, ranging from well-known diagnoses like multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis to lesser-known conditions like primary Sjögren’s syndrome. And according to a 2024 study from Stanford Medicine, as many as 4 out of 5 people living with autoimmune conditions are women.

Despite these numbers, many patients report feeling dismissed, under-treated, or simply handed a prescription and sent home. Conventional medicine excels at managing acute crises — but for the long, slow grind of chronic autoimmune disease, it often falls short. Most standard protocols focus on suppressing immune activity rather than asking why the immune system became dysregulated in the first place.

That gap in care is exactly where integrative and functional medicine practitioners like Dr. Jeremy Fischer can make a meaningful difference.

What Is Vitality Integrative Medicine?

Vitality Integrative Medicine is an integrative and functional medicine practice located at 4849 Van Nuys Blvd, Suite 104, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403. Dr. Jeremy Fischer, ND, L.Ac., is a licensed naturopathic doctor and acupuncturist with extensive training in both functional and holistic medicine. His approach starts with a thorough, individualized assessment — because no two autoimmune patients present the same way, and no single treatment protocol fits every person.

New patients begin with a 90-minute initial consultation that includes a detailed review of health history, current symptoms, and a physical exam. Dr. Fischer typically orders both standard and specialty laboratory testing to identify underlying imbalances in hormonal, immune, gastrointestinal, and detoxification systems. Follow-up visits run approximately 30 minutes. The goal throughout is to resolve the factors causing disease — not just manage them.

To schedule an appointment, call (424) 278-4325 or visit vitalityintegrative.com. Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8am–6pm, and Saturday, 8am–12pm.

What Autoimmune Conditions Does Vitality Integrative Medicine Treat?

The practice addresses a broad range of autoimmune and immune-mediated conditions, including:

• Multiple Sclerosis (MS) — a neurological autoimmune condition in which the immune system damages the protective myelin sheath around nerve fibers
• Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) — characterized by immune-driven inflammation targeting the joints
• Crohn’s Disease — a chronic inflammatory bowel disease affecting the gastrointestinal tract
• Ulcerative Colitis (UC) — another form of inflammatory bowel disease, primarily affecting the colon
• Psoriasis — an immune-mediated skin condition causing rapid skin cell turnover and plaque formation
• Thyroid Disorders, including Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis and Graves’ Disease — autoimmune conditions in which the immune system attacks the thyroid gland
• Lupus (SLE) — a systemic autoimmune disease that can affect joints, skin, kidneys, brain, and other organs
• Fibromyalgia — a condition affecting approximately 5 million Americans, predominantly women, characterized by widespread pain, fatigue, sleep disruption, and cognitive difficulties
• Lyme Disease and Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS) — including cases where Lyme infection triggers a persistent autoimmune-like response

How Does Dr. Fischer Approach Autoimmune Treatment?

Rather than defaulting to a single protocol, Dr. Fischer builds individualized treatment plans that account for each patient’s specific pattern of immune dysregulation, hormonal status, gut health, toxic load, and lifestyle. The goal is always to find and address the root cause. That means treatments vary significantly from patient to patient — and often involve a combination of the following therapeutic approaches.

How Does IV Therapy Support Autoimmune Conditions?

Intravenous (IV) therapy delivers nutrients, antioxidants, and immune-modulating compounds directly into the bloodstream, bypassing the digestive system. This is particularly valuable in autoimmune care, since many patients with conditions like Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis have compromised absorption. The concentrations achievable through IV administration are simply not possible with oral supplementation.

Common IV therapies used at Vitality Integrative Medicine for autoimmune support include:

• Myers’ Wellness IV — a foundational combination of vitamins and minerals that improves energy, supports immune function, reduces inflammation, assists detoxification, and benefits cardiovascular and neurological health
• High-Dose Vitamin C — used for potent immune stimulation and its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects; also employed as an adjunctive therapy in cancer care
• Glutathione Push — glutathione is the body’s master antioxidant, essential for neutralizing free radical stress and supporting detoxification; it can be combined with the Myers’ IV for enhanced effect
• Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation (UBI) — blood is passed through an ultraviolet light chamber to activate the immune system and destroy pathogens; UBI is specifically indicated for autoimmune conditions as well as viral and bacterial infections
• NAD IV — NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) is vital for energy production in every cell; levels naturally decline with age and under chronic disease burden, making NAD infusions a valuable tool for patients dealing with chronic fatigue, brain fog, and neurological symptoms common in autoimmune disease

What Is Ozone Therapy and How Does It Help Autoimmune Disease?

Ozone therapy is one of the most powerful tools available in integrative medicine for immune regulation and systemic inflammation. At Vitality Integrative Medicine, two primary ozone delivery methods are used.

Major Autohemotherapy (MAH) involves drawing a quantity of the patient’s blood, mixing it with ozone gas outside the body, and then reinfusing the ozonated blood back into the bloodstream. This process stimulates antioxidant enzyme production, enhances oxygen utilization, modulates immune function, and exerts anti-viral and anti-bacterial effects.

10-Pass Ozone Therapy is a high-dose variation in which the blood ozonation cycle is repeated up to ten times during a single session. This approach was first developed by Dr. Johann Lahodny of Austria. According to evaluations of patients’ blood samples collected before and after treatment, Dr. Lahodny observed significant increases in cellular energy production and mitochondrial function, along with elevated biomarkers associated with healing and stem cell activation. 10-pass ozone therapy is specifically indicated for autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, neurological conditions including MS, and chronic infections such as Lyme disease.

Other documented benefits of ozone therapy include reduced inflammation, protection against neurodegeneration, improved detoxification, and enhanced immune response to chronic infections.

Can Acupuncture and Botanical Medicine Help With Autoimmune Conditions?

Acupuncture is a well-established therapeutic modality with a growing body of research supporting its use in inflammatory and immune-mediated conditions. At Vitality Integrative Medicine, licensed practitioners use very fine needles placed at specific anatomical points to regulate nerve function, circulation, and organ activity in a targeted way. Electroacupuncture — the addition of mild electrical stimulation to acupuncture needles — is also employed, particularly for neurological symptoms and musculoskeletal pain common in conditions like MS, RA, and fibromyalgia.

Additional holistic bodywork therapies offered include:

• Gua Sha — a manual technique using a smooth, hard tool applied to the skin to release areas of muscular tension and stagnation, often used in cases involving widespread pain and immune-related fatigue
• Cupping — an ancient technique using suction cups applied to the skin to mobilize tight muscles and improve circulation; frequently used alongside acupuncture for inflammatory and musculoskeletal conditions

Botanical and herbal medicine is another cornerstone of integrative autoimmune care at the practice. Using a time-tested, individualized system of plant-based medicine, Dr. Fischer prescribes potent botanical formulations designed to alter organ and immune function at a root level. Plant-based medicines can be particularly valuable for modulating inflammatory pathways, supporting adrenal function, and improving gastrointestinal health — all of which bear directly on autoimmune activity.

How Do Nutritional Supplements and Dietary Changes Support Autoimmune Health?

Chronic inflammation and immune dysfunction don’t develop in a dietary vacuum. What you eat — and how well your gut can absorb what you eat — has a direct impact on immune regulation. Dr. Fischer incorporates targeted nutritional supplementation and evidence-based dietary guidance as foundational elements of every autoimmune treatment plan.

For patients with conditions like Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis, or fibromyalgia (notably, all fibromyalgia patients in one study were found to have SIBO — small intestinal bacterial overgrowth), addressing gastrointestinal health is often the first step toward broader immune stabilization. Alongside dietary modifications, therapeutic-grade nutritional supplements are prescribed based on each patient’s individual lab findings and clinical presentation.

What Role Does Chelation Therapy Play in Autoimmune Treatment?

Heavy metals — mercury, lead, arsenic, cadolinium — are an underappreciated driver of immune dysfunction. These substances can enter the body through contaminated food and water, dental amalgam fillings, industrial exposure, and medical procedures, and their presence can trigger or significantly worsen autoimmune activity, thyroid disease, neurological symptoms, and inflammation.

Chelation therapy at Vitality Integrative Medicine uses agents including EDTA (first introduced clinically in 1948 for lead poisoning) and DMPS to bind and safely remove heavy metals from the body. EDTA chelation is also used in the treatment of cardiovascular disease; the NIH-sponsored TACT trial (Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy) found that intravenous EDTA chelation reduced composite endpoints including death, stroke, repeat heart attack, and hospitalization for angina in patients who had experienced a prior cardiac event.

For autoimmune patients, reducing heavy metal burden can be a critical piece of a broader recovery strategy — particularly in cases where standard treatments have failed to produce adequate improvement.

How Do Bioidentical Hormones Factor Into Autoimmune Care?

Hormonal imbalances and autoimmune conditions frequently coexist and often reinforce each other. Thyroid disorders, adrenal dysfunction, and sex hormone imbalances are common in autoimmune patients — and treating the autoimmune condition without addressing hormonal dysregulation often produces incomplete results.

At Vitality Integrative Medicine, Dr. Fischer uses targeted hormone testing to assess levels of testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, cortisol, thyroid hormones, and growth hormone. Based on this data, he may recommend bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) — hormones that are molecularly identical to those the body produces naturally. BHRT is specifically noted as a supportive treatment for various autoimmune disorders, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and inflammatory conditions, in addition to its well-known applications in menopause and hormonal aging.

What Is the Autoimmune Overlap With Lyme Disease?

Lyme disease, caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, has a well-documented capacity to trigger immune dysregulation that continues long after the initial infection is addressed. Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS) describes a condition in which patients continue experiencing fatigue, cognitive difficulties, joint pain, and neurological symptoms for six months or more after completing antibiotic treatment.

Some researchers theorize that Borrelia infection triggers a persistent autoimmune response — similar to how other infections including SARS-CoV-2, Campylobacter, and strep can provoke continued or new immune-mediated symptoms after the original pathogen has been cleared.

At Vitality Integrative Medicine, PTLDS treatment is individualized and may incorporate IV therapies (including ozone, UBI, and intravenous nutrients), herbal medicines, hormone balancing, dietary intervention, and, when appropriate, antibiotic protocols. Lyme disease has been documented across California, making it a relevant consideration for patients in the greater Los Angeles area.

Why Choose an Integrative and Functional Approach for Autoimmune Conditions?

Conventional medicine has critical strengths — and certain autoimmune crises genuinely require conventional interventions. But for the vast majority of patients living with chronic autoimmune disease, standard care alone rarely produces lasting improvement. Symptom suppression is not the same as healing.

Integrative and functional medicine practitioners like Dr. Jeremy Fischer approach the immune system as part of a complex, interconnected whole. Every treatment plan begins with the question: why is this person’s immune system behaving this way? From gut permeability and heavy metal burden to hormonal imbalance and chronic infection, the potential drivers are many — and finding the right combination of therapies requires both clinical expertise and genuine attention to the individual patient.

Longtime patient Erik Rios put it simply:

“This review is a long time coming. I’ve been seeing Dr. Fischer for over 7 years, and wouldn’t see any other Naturopathic Doctor at this point. Throughout the years he’s helped with everything from food sensitivities, heavy metal chelation, Vitamin C & Ozone IV therapy, etc… His wisdom and knowledge is impressive, and his attention to detail is inspiring. If you’re looking for a Functional Medicine Specialist that truly cares about his patients and practice, please don’t hesitate to see him. Thank you Dr. Fischer and Carolyn for always being so accommodating and caring.”

— Erik Rios

Serving the San Fernando Valley and Greater Los Angeles

Vitality Integrative Medicine provides integrative autoimmune care to patients throughout the region, including Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, Studio City, Encino, North Hollywood, Tarzana, Toluca Lake, Valley Village, Valley Glen, Burbank, Van Nuys, and surrounding communities.

Ready to Take a Different Approach to Your Autoimmune Health?

If you’re living with an autoimmune condition and looking for care that goes beyond symptom management, Vitality Integrative Medicine offers the depth of evaluation and breadth of treatment that can make a real difference.

Schedule your 90-minute initial consultation with Dr. Jeremy Fischer, ND, L.Ac., today.

4849 Van Nuys Blvd, Suite 104, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403

(424) 278-4325

vitalityintegrative.com

Monday–Friday: 8am–6pm | Saturday: 8am–12pm

Frequently Asked Questions About Integrative Autoimmune Treatment in Sherman Oaks

What types of autoimmune conditions does Vitality Integrative Medicine treat?

Vitality Integrative Medicine treats a wide range of autoimmune and immune-mediated conditions, including multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, psoriasis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, Graves’ disease, lupus, fibromyalgia, and post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS). All chronic autoimmune conditions are addressed through individualized treatment planning.

How is Dr. Fischer’s approach different from conventional rheumatology or immunology?

Rather than primarily suppressing immune activity with medications, Dr. Jeremy Fischer uses functional and integrative medicine to identify and address the root causes of immune dysfunction — including gut permeability, hormonal imbalance, heavy metal toxicity, nutritional deficiencies, and chronic infections. Treatment plans are built specifically around each patient’s lab findings and clinical history.

What is 10-Pass Ozone Therapy and is it appropriate for autoimmune conditions?

10-Pass Ozone Therapy is a high-dose ozone treatment developed by Dr. Johann Lahodny of Austria, in which the patient’s blood is ozonated and reinfused up to ten times in a single session. It is indicated for autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, neurological diseases including multiple sclerosis, and chronic infections such as Lyme disease. Cellular energy production, immune function, and stem cell activation markers have all been shown to improve following treatment.

Is IV therapy safe for autoimmune patients?

IV therapy at Vitality Integrative Medicine is administered under the direct supervision of Dr. Fischer, who determines the appropriate formulation based on each patient’s individual health status and lab results. IV treatments such as Myers’ Wellness IV, high-dose Vitamin C, glutathione, NAD, and UBI are used to support immune regulation, reduce inflammation, and replenish nutrients — making them particularly well-suited for autoimmune patients who may have difficulty absorbing nutrients through the GI tract.

Can heavy metal toxicity contribute to autoimmune disease?

Yes. Metals such as mercury, lead, arsenic, and gadolinium are known to disrupt immune function and can trigger or worsen autoimmune activity, thyroid disease, and neurological symptoms. Chelation therapy using EDTA or DMPS is used at Vitality Integrative Medicine to safely remove these metals from the body, which can be a key step in recovery for patients who have not responded adequately to other treatments.

How do I get started with Dr. Fischer at Vitality Integrative Medicine?

New patients begin with a 90-minute initial consultation that includes a comprehensive health history review, symptom assessment, physical exam, and laboratory testing. To book an appointment, call (424) 278-4325 or visit vitalityintegrative.com. The office is open Monday through Friday, 8am–6pm, and Saturday, 8am–12pm.