What Is An Autoimmune Disease?

In developed nations, the prevalence of autoimmune diseases continues to rise. (1)

Autoimmune disease rarely (if ever) occurs in developing nations. It is a first world illness.

Worldwide, rheumatic autoimmune disease rose 7.1% between 2014 and 2015. Autoimmune disease of the digestive tract rose 6.3% between 2014 and 2015. (2)

Autoimmune diseases are among the leading causes of death among women under the age of sixty-five. (3) On average, an autoimmune disease will shorten your lifespan by eight years!

Autoimmune disease poses a serious concern for those in developed countries. Fortunately, there are small steps you can take on a daily basis that will dramatically reduce the chances of developing a serious autoimmune disease.

What is an autoimmune disease?

An autoimmune disorder is a malfunction of the body’s immune system that causes the body to attack its own tissues. (4) In autoimmune conditions, our body becomes challenged identifying cells that are foreign from cells that are self.

When functioning well, our immune system defends the body against what it perceives to be foreign or dangerous invaders. This includes:

• Viruses
• Bacteria
• Parasites

The above substances have molecules that our immune system can use to identify them as foreign. These molecules are called antigens. Antigens may be contained within cells, on the surface of cells, or be part of a virus. Some antigens, such as pollen or food molecules, exist on their own. (5)

Our own cells also have antigens. Normally, our immune system reacts only to antigens from foreign or dangerous substances. Not from antigens to our own tissues. Think of antigens as a bar-code — our immune system scans the bar-code to see if the cell is part of us or a foreign invader.

Imagine all your body’s cells have the letter “x” as the first letter in their bar-code. If, after scanning the cell’s bar-code, it can find an x, it recognizes the cell as self. If no “x” can be found, the cell is likely foreign and an immune response begins.

When an immune response is triggered, our system creates antibodies. Antibodies are specialized proteins created specifically for an antigen. (6) Antibodies are the specific formula needed to kill or remove the invading microbe. The antibodies are then directed towards the foreign cells in an effort to remove them from the body.

Sometimes, our immune system malfunctions. When this occurs, our immune system interprets its own tissues as foreign. When this occurs, the immune system produces antibodies to itself. These are called auto-antibodies. These immune cells target and attack particular cells or tissues of the body.

This response is called an autoimmune reaction.

The most common autoimmune diseases include:

• Multiple Sclerosis
• Celiac Disease
• Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Inflammatory Bowel Disease
• Type 1 Diabetes
• Psoriasis
• Graves Disease
• Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis
• Lupus
• Allergies
• Asthmatic Disorders

What causes an autoimmune reaction?

Autoimmune reactions can be triggered in several ways:

1. Your body’s cells become altered

• This can happen when a virus attaches onto one of your body’s own cells. The altered substance may appear foreign to the immune system. For example, a virus can infect and thus alter cells in the body. The virus-infected cells stimulate the immune system to attack.

1. A foreign substance that resembles a natural body substance may enter the body

• Imagine that the shape of a gluten protein is a triangle. Let’s also imagine that the shape of your thyroid hormone is also a triangle shape. For the sake of this example, let’s also say you’re allergic to gluten.
• When you ingest gluten, these triangle shaped proteins enter your body. Since you’re allergic to them, your body creates an immune response that is targeted towards killing triangle cells.
• In this example, the immune system will inadvertently target thyroid hormone as well as the gluten protein because they both resemble the triangle shape.

1. Cells that control antibody production become altered

• For example, B cells (an immune defending white blood cell) may malfunction and produce abnormal antibodies that attack some of the body’s cells. (7)

1. A substance in the body that is normally confined to a specific area (and thus is hidden from the immune system) is released into the bloodstream

• For example, a blow to the eye can cause the fluid in the eyeball to be released into the bloodstream. The fluid stimulates the immune system to identify the eye as foreign and attack it.
• The eye is considered foreign because fluid from your eye should not enter the bloodstream.

It is unknown why something will trigger an autoimmune reaction in one person but not another. Some of us have genes that make us more likely to develop an autoimmune disorder. (8)

The increased susceptibility to an autoimmune disorder, rather than the disorder itself, is inherited. If your mom has multiple sclerosis, you will have an increased likelihood of developing an autoimmune disorder. That autoimmune disorder will not necessarily be multiple sclerosis.

In susceptible people, a trigger, such as a viral infection or tissue damage, may cause the disorder to develop. 25% percent of people with an autoimmune disease will go on to developing another autoimmune condition. (9)

What are the signs and symptoms of an autoimmune disease?

Autoimmunity can occur in any of our body’s tissues. An autoimmune attack on our nerve cells will present with very different symptoms than an autoimmune disease of the thyroid gland.

The hallmark symptom of an autoimmune disease is inflammation. (10), (11)

How is an autoimmune disease diagnosed?

Since inflammation is the hallmark sign of an autoimmune disease, testing should determine if general inflammation is present.

Often, your doctor will run a test called the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). This test measures how quickly red blood cells settle to the bottom of a container. When inflammation is present, the ESR rate will generally be elevated. (12)

More important than general inflammatory markers are tissue specific antibodies. Recent research has shown that antibodies to a tissue will show up years before any clinical symptoms will manifest. (13)

It has been clearly demonstrated that many auto-antibodies have the ability to predict the development of an organ-specific autoimmune disease in those not exhibiting any symptoms. It is also clear that the progression towards a given autoimmune disease, and its severity, can be predicted from the type of antibody, the antibody level, and the number of positive antibodies. (14)

That last point is so important, I’m going to emphasize it again:
You will be creating antibodies to your own tissue (beginning the journey towards developing an autoimmune disease) well before any symptoms manifest. (15)

You do not suddenly wake up with multiple sclerosis. The disease develops silently, below the surface for years before any symptoms occur. Auto-antibodies can be a diagnostic method used to stop an autoimmune disease before it develops.

How do you treat autoimmune disease?

As you now know, autoimmune disease involves our immune system attacking another part of the body. To stop the progression, western medicine will apply drugs or medication that suppress the immune system. With a weakened immune system, the body is no longer able to attack itself with the same ferocity. This will often result in a decrease in symptoms.

Often, the side-effects of these medications can be severe and irreversible. (16) For example, the common side effects of using corticosteroids (immune and inflammation-suppressing drugs) for long periods of time include:

• Thinning of the skin
• High blood pressure
• Elevated blood sugar and/or glucose intolerance (progression towards diabetes)
• Cataracts
• Poor wound healing
• Stunted growth in children
• Loss of calcium from the bones (leading to osteoporosis)
• Weight gain
• Mood swings
• Muscle loss
• Anxiety
• Depression

More importantly, these medications do not address the underlying or root cause of the autoimmune disease. You will be required to maintain a dose of the immune-suppressing medication for the remainder of your life. In my opinion, this is not a solution.

Instead, an investigation should be done to determine what is triggering the autoimmune response. Below are the practices we recommend at Flourish Clinic for all those suffering from an autoimmune disease:

NB: The below recommendations are also ideal practices to ensure autoimmune disease never develops.

1. Adopt an anti-inflammatory diet

• We recommend a paleo-style nutrition plan. For more information on how to perform a paleo-reset diet, click here.
• Anti-inflammatory diets should be free from refined sugars, wheat/grains, dairy, and industrial seed oils.
• More information on an auto-immune paleo template can be found here.

1. Check for hidden food sensitivities

• Food sensitivities can contribute to developing a leaky gut.
• This can be done through a blood test or by following the above paleo diet and carefully re-introducing foods.

1. Heal your gut

• The prerequisite for an autoimmune condition to develop is intestinal permeability (aka: leaky gut)
• Stool testing should be performed to identify potential bacterial or parasitic infections in the gut. These can contribute to a leaky gut.
• Ensure (at least) one serving of fermented foods are consumed every day.

1. Ensure you’re getting eight hours of sleep on a regular basis

• Proper sleep is required for us to regulate our natural anti-inflammatory hormones like cortisol.

1. Exercise at a moderate intensity at least three times each week

• Exercise is naturally anti-inflammatory!

Ok, now I want to hear from you.
What steps have you taken to alleviate your autoimmune disease?

Originally published at Flourish Clinic.