What are biologic medications actually doing—and what can understanding their targets teach us about autoimmunity and chronic inflammation?
In Episode 91, Dr. Taylor Krick breaks down the mechanisms behind familiar medications like Humira, Remicade, Enbrel, Dupixent, Bimzelx, and Skyrizi, along with targeted synthetic medications such as Rinvoq and Xeljanz. These names may be familiar from commercials or conversations with your healthcare team, but the immune signals they target can feel like an overwhelming alphabet soup.
This episode makes those signals easier to understand. Dr. Taylor explains how inflammatory messengers communicate, how different medications interrupt that communication, and why understanding the targeted pathway can help you understand what might be going on in YOUR body, and what else you can do about it.
Throughout the conversation, he connects these mechanisms to joint, gut, skin, sinus, and airway inflammation, sharing examples from his practice and his personal experience with nasal polyps and airway symptoms.
In this episode, Dr. Taylor explores:
• Biologics versus targeted synthetic medications: What distinguishes these categories, and why JAK inhibitors are technically different from biologic drugs.
• TNF-alpha and inflammatory feedback loops: The pathway targeted by Humira, Remicade, and Enbrel, and how inflammation can become a cycle that keeps reinforcing itself.
• Dupixent and type 2 inflammation: A closer look at IL-4 and IL-13 signaling, with discussions of asthma, eczema, nasal polyps, and eosinophilic esophagitis.
• Mast cells and eosinophils: How different immune cells contribute to inflammatory responses—and why the type of inflammation matters.
• JAK/STAT signaling: An approachable explanation of the communication happening inside cells and how medications such as Rinvoq and Xeljanz target it.
• Th17 cells, IL-17, and IL-23: The pathways discussed in connection with Bimzelx, Skyrizi, and Tremfya, and the balance between protective immune responses and persistent inflammation.
• Supplements and overlapping immune biology: A discussion of curcumin, resveratrol, omega-3 fatty acids, quercetin, luteolin, perilla, vitamin D, and butyrate, and the mechanisms they have been shown to influence.
• The bigger picture: Why gut health, food triggers, environmental exposures, sleep, stress, and other individual factors remain part of the conversation regardless of medication.
One central theme runs through the episode: understanding a medication’s target gives us another way to think about what might be keeping an inflammatory response active. Dr. Taylor encourages listeners to move beyond searching for a single supplement and consider the broader, individualized picture of their health.
Whether you’re living with an autoimmune diagnosis, navigating complex symptoms, or simply curious about how the immune system works, this episode offers a clearer framework for understanding the conversation.
Learn about working with Dr. Taylor Krick at Washington Wellness Center:
https://www.washwellnesscenter.com/
Explore more episodes and resources:
https://www.autoimmunedocpodcast.com/
Follow on Instagram: @autoimmunedoc
Dr. Taylor Krick is a chiropractor (DC) and functional medicine practitioner. This episode is educational and is not individualized medical advice. Discuss supplements with your healthcare team, and do not start, stop, or change prescribed medications without guidance from your prescribing clinician.
