Page 1 - How Do People Develop Autoimmune Diseases

How do People Develop Autoimmune Diseases?

Submitted by the International Autoimmune Institute & Bingham Memorial Center for
Functional Medicine

Autoimmune disease is recognized as a major health crisis in the United States. Today, 50
million Americans—80 percent of whom are women—suffer one or more autoimmune
conditions. Thirty years ago, only one in 400 people developed an autoimmune disease. Today,
one in 12 Americans—one in nine women—have an autoimmune disease. More women are
diagnosed each year with an autoimmune disease than breast cancer and cardiovascular disease
combined.

David J. Bilstrom, MD—the Director of the International Autoimmune Institute & Bingham
Memorial Center for Functional Medicine—explores the mystery behind how people develop
autoimmune disease and how their effects can be reversed.

What is an autoimmune disease?
It’s a condition in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s own tissue. Some of
the more common conditions include rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis,
Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, type 1 diabetes, and ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease, but the
National Institutes of Health estimates there are more than 100 types of autoimmune diseases.

How does an autoimmune disease develop?
Three things have to be disrupted in order for an autoimmune disease to develop:

1. Genetics
2. Terrain
3. Environmental Triggers

“People are always going to have environmental triggers,” says Dr. Bilstrom. “Some examples
include: a car accident, the death of a loved one, ongoing stress, or the birth of a baby. There are
always going to be these stressors to the system, but, ideally, they shouldn’t cause an
autoimmune disease.”

What has to happen for an autoimmune disease to develop is the disruption of the genetics and
then the disruption of the terrain. Examples of the terrain include: sleeping and eating habits,
exercise routines, and how stress is being managed. Other examples of terrain that can be
scientifically tested are: hormone balance, toxicity levels, vitamin levels, and any pre-existing
chronic infections.

“By testing for these things to determine problem areas, we can then go in and fix them, which
can have a profound and positive impact on the body, the immune system, and genes,” says Dr.
Bilstrom. “People used to think that genes were hard-wired. Whatever you got, you got. Good,
bad, or otherwise. We now know that this is not the case, and there’s an entirely new field which
explores things that can significantly change gene expression—epigenetics.”