Page 1 - The Role Genetics Play in Autoimmune Disease

The Role Genetics Plays in Autoimmune Disease

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.

An autoimmune disease is 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.

David J. Bilstrom, MD—the Director of the International Autoimmune Institute & Bingham
Memorial Center for Functional Medicine—discusses why children, adolescents, and young
adults should be seen even if they don’t have an autoimmune disease yet.

Autoimmune disease runs in the family
“When an adult is diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in the family, other members of the
family, including children, are more likely to get one,” Dr. Bilstrom says. “Studies have shown
that if you can set the system by age 19, people won’t develop the chronic diseases later on in
life that they otherwise would.”

Even if the lifestyle choices that someone makes as an adult are not the best, they won’t end up
with chronic health issues because things were really put into place at a young age. One thing
about taking care of children is that they heal so much better than adults. It’s always a lot easier
to help someone, the younger they are. Also, if you can help somebody set their system well
before conception (before they have their own children), you’re able to pass on much cleaner
genes; not only to your children, but the generation after that.

There’s at least a two-generation effect called transgenerational that can be impacted so that
these things that run in families can ideally stop running in families.

Treating children before they develop an autoimmune disease
“What we do at the International Autoimmune Institute when we see parents with autoimmune
disease, we talk to them about the increased risk their children have of having one, and
autoimmune dysfunction in general,” Dr. Bilstrom says. “Ideally, we like to test the children to
find out what is going on, and understand what is driving them to the same place as their
parents.”