DBT i won't lie to you...I didn't see this thread earlier this summer and just saw it now for the first time and as i was reading I was asking myself "do i want to be THAT GUY that chimes in with the whole autoimmune diseases are almost entirely dietary related"? Becuase for a lot of people its not a matter of ignorance its a matter of that not being helpful advice because it is such a major change in how they would live their lives that the bottom line is they are not going to actually implement it.
I'm glad you have found that book...i am not familiar with the author but based on your description it sounds like her advice is very similar to what lots of people familiar with curing rather than treating autoimmune diseases are saying, which is that you need to figure out what is in your diet that is triggering an immune response, and if possible, eliminating it. I would imagine, based on the way you describe the pain that you are in, that the pain would be a sufficient motivator to make those changes. The hard part is that it can be difficult to determine exactly what it is that is causing the autoimmune response because the only 100% sure way to find is is through trial and error elimination diet. Sure, they know the top suspects...gluten, dairy, soy, eggs, but its different for everyone.
What i think might help connect the dots for a lot of folks is how Humira is what is perscribed for so many different autoimmune diseases. Psoriasis, Chron's, Rheumatoid Arthritis, i think i've seen it advertised for a couple others but those are the ones i remember off the top of my head...but anyway, i think that just goes to show that autoimmune disorders are essentially just different manifestations of the same underlying cause.
My wife is really into this kinda stuff because a) she's a wacko and b) she has a lot of food sensitivities and she doesn't want to take a million different medicines, and one of her good friends used to have really bad psoriasis. When she started eliminating the harmful stuff from her diet...i think for her it was mostly gluten, it was amazing to see how her psoriasis cleared up without any prescribed medications. The down side is that it takes time and dedication, but my personal opinion is that any autoimmune disease can be cured by determining and then eliminating whatever it is that is triggering the response, because in like 99% of cases it is based on diet.
Sorry this got really long but all that to say I hope you are hanging in there and I hope whatever it is that is causing your autoimmune response is something that you can eliminate without having to just completely change your eating habits.