Autoimmune Disease Treatment in Branford, CT

An autoimmune diagnosis can feel like a door closing. You're handed a label, given medication to suppress your immune system, and told to learn to manage it. But in 34 years of practicing medicine, I've learned that autoimmune disease doesn't develop in a vacuum. Something triggered your immune system to turn against your own body, and understanding what that something is can change the trajectory of your health.

I'm Dr. Tavernier, and at Tantien Integrative Medicine, I don't just manage autoimmune symptoms. I investigate what's driving the immune dysfunction and work to calm the fire at its source — while respecting and coordinating with whatever conventional treatment you're already receiving.

Autoimmune Conditions I Work With

I see patients with a wide range of autoimmune and inflammatory conditions, including Hashimoto's thyroiditis and autoimmune thyroid disease, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease including Crohn's and ulcerative colitis, multiple sclerosis, Sjögren's syndrome, celiac disease, chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS), and autoimmune symptoms that haven't yet received a definitive label.

That last group is larger than most people realize. Many of my patients are in a gray zone — their antibodies are elevated, their inflammation markers are up, they feel terrible, but they don't yet meet the full criteria for a formal diagnosis. The conventional approach is often to watch and wait. I believe that's precisely the window where we have the greatest opportunity to intervene.

What Drives Autoimmune Disease

The current understanding of autoimmune disease points to a convergence of three factors: genetic susceptibility, environmental triggers, and compromised intestinal barrier function. This model gives us a framework for meaningful intervention beyond medication alone.

In my practice, I investigate gut dysfunction and intestinal permeability — now widely recognized in the research as a precondition for autoimmune activation. I look for chronic infections such as Lyme disease, Epstein-Barr virus, and other stealth pathogens that can drive immune dysregulation. I evaluate food-driven inflammation and molecular mimicry — situations where your immune system confuses a food protein with your own tissue. I assess toxic burden from mold, heavy metals, and environmental chemicals. I examine chronic stress and HPA axis dysfunction, because prolonged stress fundamentally alters immune behavior. I check nutrient status, because deficiencies in vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids, selenium, and zinc directly impair immune regulation. And I use genomic testing to identify genetic variants that affect your body's inflammatory response and detoxification capacity.

Genomics and Autoimmune Care

Through 3x4 Genetics testing, I can see how your genes influence your inflammatory pathways, your detoxification capacity, your response to oxidative stress, and your nutrient metabolism. This helps me build a plan that targets the specific pathways where your body is most vulnerable — rather than applying a broad-brush protocol and hoping it works.

Your Treatment Plan

Following our 90-minute initial consultation and comprehensive evaluation, your plan may include advanced inflammatory and immune testing, genomic analysis of your inflammation and detoxification pathways, anti-inflammatory nutrition tailored to your specific triggers, gut restoration to address intestinal permeability, targeted supplementation for immune modulation, stress management and mind-body medicine, environmental exposure reduction strategies, and coordination with your rheumatologist, gastroenterologist, or other specialists.

I want to be clear about something: I don't ask you to stop your medications. If your rheumatologist has you on a biologic, there's likely a good reason. My role is to add the layers that conventional medicine doesn't typically prioritize — the nutrition, the gut health, the stress physiology, the environmental factors, the genetic individuality. The goal is to reduce the burden on your immune system so that, over time, your body may need less intervention to stay stable.

About My Practice

I am a medical doctor with 34 years of clinical experience and fellowship training from the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. I founded Tantien Integrative Medicine in Branford, Connecticut, because I believe autoimmune patients deserve more than a prescription and a follow-up in six months. We are a cash-pay practice serving the Connecticut Shoreline and Greater New Haven area, with tele-health available for follow-up visits.

If you're living with autoimmune disease and feel like no one has looked at the full picture, I'd like the chance to do that with you.