Possible Causes of Autoimmune Diseases

Autoimmune diseases have been on the rise and it is more prevalent in modern industrialized nations than in developing countries.

Autoimmune diseases include allergies, hay fever, asthma, Celiac disease, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Graves' disease, multiple sclerosis, and others. Then there are other diseases that have a suspected link to autoimmunity. These include irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), fibromyalgia, and others. You can see a longer list of autoimmune diseases on Wikipedia.

The root of the problem is a runaway inflammation initiated by your body's own immune system. Autoimmune disease is when the body's immune system makes mistakes and attack the body's healthy tissue instead of foreign invaders. Rheumatoid arthritis is when the immune system attacks the joints. Graves' disease is when the immune system attacks the thyroid. Crohn's disease is when the immune system attacks the gut. Celiac disease is when the immune system attacks the small intestine. Multiple sclerosis is when the immune system attacks the nervous system. Lupus is a systemic immune response resulting in chronic systemic inflammation.

Autoimmune disease as a group affects 5 to 8 percent of Americans. After cardiovascular disease and cancer, it (as a group) is the third most common category of disease in industrialized countries.^[5] In developing countries, allergies and autoimmunity are much less common.[6: page 188]

More woman suffers from autoimmune diseases than men. Three quarters of suffers are women. Some suspected reasons may be genetics, sex hormones, and that women have more sophisticated immune systems with elevated antibody responses.

Due to the vague and varied symptoms of autoimmune diseases, some patients may see on average six doctors before getting a correct diagnosis.^[13]

In the last few decades, autoimmune disease have tripled in the United States, affecting as much as 24 million Americans.^[3]

Allergies of all types (including food allergies) are on the rise in developed countries including the United States.^[1] Asthma in the United States is up 7.7% from what it was in 2005.^[2] Lupus tripled over the past four decades.^[11]

In 1988 to 1994, about 54% of Americans are sensitive to one or more allergy-inducing substance. This is rate is 2 to 5 times higher than what it was back in the late 1970's.^[1]

Increases in autoimmune diseases are not just happening in the United States, but in other industrialized nations as well.

A paper from the Academy of Science, Paris France says ...

"Western countries are being confronted with a disturbing increase in the incidence of most immune disorders, including autoimmune and allergic diseases."^[10]

A website in the UK about type I diabetes states that its incidence is increasing about 4% each year.^[4]

Autoimmune diseases are a dysregulation or imbalance in the body's immune system whereby the immune system attacks the body's own cells. It is as if the immune system is confused as to which agents are friend or foe.

The details of what exactly causes autoimmune disease is not fully known at the time of this writing. The following is only hypothesis of possible causes. It may or may not be the actual cause for any particular autoimmune condition. Also keep in mind that not all studies indicate a conclusive result. There often may very well be conflicting studies that reach different conclusions.

With that said, autoimmune disease is believed to be caused by a combination of genetic predisposition and environmental factors.^[5]

Taking the autoimmune disease celiac disease as an example. People who do not have a certain set of gene type will never get celiac disease. However just because you have that certain set of genes, it only means that you have a predisposition to it. It does not necessarily mean that you will get celiac disease. [reference]

Taking autoimmune diseases as a group, genetics plays only 30% role. The rest is environmental factors. What environmental factors are involved?

Dr. Mark Hyman summarized it well on page 188 of his book The UltraMind Solution where he says ....

"We are becoming hypersensitive to our environments, perhaps because we live in an oversterilized environment and our immune systems don't mature properly. Or because we are eating hybridized and genetically modified (GMO) foods full of antibiotics, hormones, pesticides, and additives that were unknown to our immune systems just a generation or two ago."^[6]

Nikolas Hedberg presented a Hawthorn University webinair which you can watch in the video on the right. Autoimmune disease can be triggered by different causes, some of which are mercury toxicity, gluten sensitivity, intestinal permeability ("leaky gut syndrome"), and infections. The same autoimmune disease could have been triggered differently for different individuals.

Mercury binds to proteins in the body and changes its shape. The immune system now sees these as foreign and launches an immune response. Leaky gut allows peptides, and partially digested foodstuff, and toxins through the intestinal membrane when it is not supposed to. This too initiates an immune response.

Vitamin D is an immune modulator and is protective against autoimmune diseases by maintaining the intestinal mucosal barrier in the gut. Once a gene is turned on for autoimmunity, it is not possible to turn it off. That is why once a person develops celiac disease, they need to avoid gluten for life. The symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis can be alleviated, but rheumatoid arthritis typically requires lifelong treatment.

It is always best to prevent autoimmune disease in the first place. Getting enough vitamin D is one preventative measure. One can also reduce one's risk by reducing exposures to toxins like mercury, pesticides, and chemicals by buying organic. And also watch out for food sensitivities like gluten and casein.

Many animal studies have shown that pesticides can alter their immune system. In humans, epidemiological studies in Canada and Soviet Union find that children and adults exposed to pesticide exhibit immune system alterations.^[14]

Paper by DeLisa Fairweather of John Hopkins University writes ...

"Any number of environmental agents present in our diet, such as chemical food additives or pesticides, could interfere with regulation of the immune response contributing to the development of autoimmune disease in genetically susceptible individuals."^[5]

The average person eat take in about gallon of neurotoxic pesticides and herbicides each year.[The UltraMind Solution]

From the book "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Autoimmune Disorders" it says ...

"More and more researchers and physicians are recognizing that heavy metals and chemicals that are present in our everyday environment ... are at the core of the increase in the number of people who are affected by autoimmune disorders."

and the author believes that for chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome ...

"environmental factors such as heavy metals and chemicals can be at root of this disease process ... Toxins such as mercury, lead, formaldehyde, aluminum, and pesticides cause immune system dysregulation and excessive oxidative stress, or directly damage the cells themselves..."

Beside chemicals, other believe that micro-organisms such as bacteria or virus may have initiated a change in the body's immune system of those person who are genetically susceptible so that the immune system is no able to discern accurately healthy tissue from antigen. [reference]

Many people are allergic to dairy and gluten and do not even know it. When you are allergic to these foods and continue to eat them, it results in inflammation that is characteristic of autoimmune disease.

The autoimmune disease known as Celiac disease is when the person is allergic to gluten. Gluten is a protein in foods processed from wheat, barley, and rye. Durum, semonlia, spelt, kamut, and faro are forms of wheat and need to be avoided. Typical bread and pasta contains gluten. The only way to stop the autoimmune condition for those with celiac disease is to stop eating gluten.

Casein is a protein found in cow's milk. There are people who are allergic to casein. Some experts have hypothesis that a babies early exposure to formula cow's milk may be a contributing factor in the development of Type 1 diabetes -- an autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks the beta cells of the pancreas that produces insulin.

Could the increasing stress in our modern society be a contributing factor in autoimmune diseases? Possibility.

Dr. Esther Sternberg is a rheumatologist who specializes in brain-immune interactions and she tells of her story in her DVD about how she got rheumatoid arthritis (which is an autoimmune disease) after a period of immense stress in her life. And she tells how de-stressing in the relaxing Mediterranean helped her recover.

That is also why we hear anecdotal evidence that rheumatoid arthritis can exacerbate the symptoms.

Learn more about how stress makes us sick.

Some people suggest that there might even be a link between autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and autoimmunity.

USAToday reports in 2010 that there is a higher risk of autism when there is a family history of autoimmune disease. Possibly the same genes that predisposes an individual to autoimmune disease is also involved in autism.

Paper by Kevin Becker notes some similarities between autism and asthma and suggests that there is a shared mechanism between the two ...

"shared observations between autism and inflammatory disorders are used in support of the development of a hypothesis for the apparent rise in the prevalence of autism using the framework of the immune hygiene hypotheses."[8]

Like asthma, autism is higher in urban than in rural environments. But then that could be due to other factors such as higher mercury and chemicals in urban environments. There is a great deal of individuality based on genetic pre-disposition. One person may be able to tolerate a larger amount of mercury without getting sick. Another individual with certain genetic disposition may come down with an autoimmune disease like autism with just a tiny exposure -- perhaps as little as the amount of mercury in the thimerosal preservative in vaccines. Because it is such a controversial issue, we are not saying one way or the other that vaccines causes autism. And no one really knows. In a podcast, Chris Kresser's gives his view on early childhood vaccinations. And here is Dr. Mark Hyman's thoughts on autism.

Like other autoimmune disease, autism rate have increased across the United States.^[9] Part of this could be due to changes in the definition of autism as well as greater awareness for testing of it. However, this is not enough to explain the large increase.

Like other autoimmune diseases, many believed that autism is due to a combination of genetic and environmental factors. There are other that suggests it could be related to the age of the parents during the child's conception as well as the mother's gut flora health.

Autistics have poor gut flora, inflammed and leaky gut, and poor digestion (many of the same characteristics seen in other autoimmune diseases). Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride says that autism is primarily an digestive disorder [reference]. She has an autistic child that she cured with the GAPS diet that she pioneered.

The theory that an overly clean childhood environment does not allow the immune system to build up full strength is the idea of the hygiene hypothesis.

Dr. Peter Green writes that ...

"an exposure to infections and unhygienic conditions early in life somehow conveys protection against the development of allergies." [from book Celiac Disease: A Hidden Epidemic]

That would also explain why autoimmunity is rare in developing countries. You can see other examples of that support the hygiene hypothesis in article linked here.

Not everyone believes in the hygiene hypothesis. Personally, I do not think the hygiene hypothesis is a big factor in autoimmune disease. Paul Jaminet is also not a strong believer in the hygiene hypothesis as mentioned in a podcast.

Article updated February 2012 and is only opinion at the time of writing. Author is not a medical professional but believes that pesticides and environmental toxins are the most compelling cause of rise in autoimmune disease. That is why eat organic whenever possible.