It's a 3-step process: find the cause of the inflammation, avoid it and use whole foods and pre-/probiotics to encourage healing.
Despite many autoimmune symptoms, I tested low for inflammation but I must have had it. Many of my chronic symptoms disappeared within 3 weeks but even so my gut took nearly a year to heal. Actually, many of my chronic symptoms reappeared if I cheated or if my gut took a step backward.
It's important for me to say our 2 cases are probably be very different so all I can do is throw out a few ideas. Looking back now, I'm not sure if gluten was a cause or side-effect but I definitely had a gluten problem at first. I also definitely had lactose intolerance caused by incomplete/inappropriate gut flora.
So, if I had a magic bullet it was water kefir not the gluten-free diet. My gut didn't really show signs of healing for the first 5 months off gluten but when I started making water kefir in the 6th month everything changed rapidly. It took only 2-3 weeks for me to find I could handle cream, butter and yogurt for the first time in my life. It took months longer for me to stop having symptoms from gluten, but it finally happened.
Find out what causes/aggravates your inflammation. Avoid that. Start with whatever healthy foods you can tolerate and, as you heal, expand your mix of whole and fermented foods as much as you can. I can't promise you anything other than it's definitely worth sticking with it long term.
