I was recently reading an article and saw a statistic that blew my mind! Over 80 million Americans are affected by autoimmune issues and over the span of the last 25 years, there has been a 50% increase in autoimmune issues among adolescents (children between 12-19 years old). Those are BIG numbers and a massive increase among adolescents. In this blog, we will define what autoimmune issues are, discuss autoimmune risk factors, symptoms of autoimmune issues, and how to manage autoimmune issues.
Please note: the content provided in this blog post is for information purposes only and is not intended as medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. I am not a medical professional, and the information shared should not replace professional medical advice. Always seek the guidance of your doctor or other qualified health provider with any question yo umay have regarding a medical condition.
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What is AutoImmune issue?
Autoimmune issues are complex conditions where the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy cells in the body. This can lead to a wide range of symptoms and health issues. These autoimmune issues include: Hashimotos, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, colitis, Crohn’s issue, and many others, but they all have one factor in common: the body attacks itself. Autoimmunity happens when your immune system becomes confused and your body tries to fight off your healthy cells like they would infections, toxins, and allergens.
What Triggers AutoImmune Issues?
Currently, researchers are not certain on what exactly causes autoimmune issue, but they believe it has to do with genetics and outside factors. The old theory was that genetics determine your destiny, but modern science shows that isn’t true. Recent studies have shown that 77% of your health is determined by your lifestyle choices. This means that your lifestyle habits have a large impact over your health and wellbeing whether or not you are genetically predisposed to autoimmune issue, this is known as epigenetics. The following are some of the lifestyle factors that you have control over that can trigger autoimmune issues.
Stress: research shows that chronic mental stress can be a trigger for autoimmune issues. Autoimmune diagnoses often come after a stressful time in life such as death, divorce, or other stressful seasons. Stress also exacerbates autoimmune symptoms by negatively impacting gut health and the immune system.
Toxins: our genetic makeup hasn’t evolved in thousands of years, but the amount of toxins we are exposed to daily has greatly increased. Environmental toxins such as trichloroethane (TCE), silica, mercury, pesticides, and factors like smoking increase your risk for autoimmune issue. These chemicals disrupt the body’s natural functions, contributing to development of autoimmune issues.
Poor Gut Health: our gut’s microbiome has a crucial role in immune system regulation. Dysbiosis, an imbalance in gut bacteria, and increased intestinal permeability (aka “leaky gut syndrome”) can lead to autoimmune reactions. This occurs when undigested food particles, bacteria, and toxins enter the bloodstream, prompting an immune system response.
Chronic Infections: viral, bacterial, parasitic, fungal, and yeast infections are all associated with just about every autoimmune issue. This is likely because the majority of our immune system is made from the status of our gut microbiome. When infections are introduced to the gut, they can alter our immune activity. Often people do not realize that they have a dormant chronic infection until it is activated by poor gut health, inflammation, and poor diet.
Poor Diet: Similar to toxic exposure, our DNA hasn’t evolved to support our body’s digestion of modern agricultural practices. Poor soil quality, GMOs, crop chemicals, and the numerous food additives and preservatives can all exacerbate gut health issues and increase the risk of autoimmune response. Diets high in omega 6’s and other proinflammatory foods can exacerbate autoimmune conditions.
AutoImmune issue Symptoms:
The most common symptoms of the existence of an autoimmune condition are:
brain fog
fatigue
abdominal pain
digestive issues
difficulty gaining weight,
difficulty losing weight
skin problems (like rashes and eczema)
joint pain, hair thinning or loss
brittle nails
insomnia
anxiety
depression
Symptoms are pretty individual to each person, so the only way to know if and what autoimmune condition you have is through testing, but oftentimes testing doesn’t lead to a diagnosis until your body is producing a significant amount of antibodies against a certain area of your body. That is why it is important to look into the symptoms and what they’re telling you about the imbalances in your body. Is it stress, diet, or something else? Maybe it is a combination of a few triggers that is causing these autoimmune symptoms.
How to Manage Autoimmune Issues:
As you already know, I preach and practice a holistic approach to health and it is no different when you are managing autoimmune issues and symptoms. I don’t want you to feel overwhelmed while reading this section and want to remind you that small daily habits have such a large impact on our overall health and wellbeing. That healthy dinner or quick 15-minute walk has so much impact when implemented regularly! Keep that in mind as you read my five tips for managing autoimmune issues and symptoms.
Reduce Environmental Exposures: minimize exposure to environmental toxins by adopting cleaner living habits. This looks like using air purifiers, filtering your water, choosing organic foods to reduce pesticide exposure (click here to read a blog post I wrote about Nutrition for Healing that talks more in depth on this subject), and avoiding products with harmful chemicals.
Manage Stress: chronic stress can exacerbate autoimmune symptoms by negatively affecting gut health (click here to read more on brain-gut connection). In order to keep our gut’s microbiome healthy and therefore our immune systems performing optimally, it is important that we manage the stress in our lives. This can look like meditating, journaling, walking or just getting outside, reading, a peaceful warm beverage. Maybe it is taking a technology detox or getting into the sunlight first thing in the morning. If you’re looking for more tips on managing stress, head over to this blog post about mindfulness and stress reduction for symptom relief.
Dietary Adjustments: identifying and eliminating foods that trigger symptoms can be helpful for managing autoimmune symptoms. Often this looks like practicing an elimination diet or taking a food sensitivity test to pinpoint specific foods that are causing you problems. I also suggest eating more fruits and vegetables since they’re rich in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals and help give you a well balanced diet. Lastly, removing foods from your diet with ingredients like corn-syrup, titanium dioxide, tertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHA), artificial colors, and processed oils will help reduce inflammation and many other health issues. Keep an eye out for next week’s blog post where we dive into these additives and their effects on health in more depth!
Improve Gut Health: strategies include following a gut healing protocol which aims to rebalance gut flora and heal the intestinal barrier. This usually involves dietary changes and specific supplements.
Functional Medicine Detox and Testing: functional medicine detoxes and testing help to identify specific issues such as heavy metals, environmental toxins, and gut dysbiosis, giving you a better look at your overall health and how these may be impacting the autoimmune symptoms you’re experiencing. This starter kit and detox are great places to start (reach out to me if you want to learn more)!
Wrapping Up the Autoimmune Information:
If you are looking for dietary and lifestyle support or functional lab testing to get a better idea of where you might need some autoimmune symptom management support, I’d love to chat about how I can help! Please fill out my contact form so we can arrange a time for a free consultation.