If you traveled back in time 30 years or so, it’d be challenging to find anyone casually talking about autoimmune diseases. These days, however, they conversations about autoimmune diseases seem to be commonplace among folks suffering from celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and other autoimmune conditions. What’s the deal?
When it comes to the increase in autoimmune disease diagnoses—and whether that increase is real or perceived—there are a few factors in play. Autoimmune diseases still aren’t widely understood, despite the fact that they affect at least 23.5 million Americans. (That number comes from the National Institutes of Health; however, the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association claims that number is incredulously low. The real number, it reports, is around 50 million Americans.) They seem to occur when the immune system, which can typically distinguish between your own cells and foreign ones, erroneously attacks your body’s tissues by releasing proteins known as autoantibodies. There are more than 80 known types of autoimmune diseases, though symptoms often overlap.
As medical research progresses and the health care industry advances, there’s bound to be an increase in autoimmune disease diagnoses. Even if there’s still a lack of information, there’s certainly more available than two decades ago. However, that might not be the only reason it feels like everyone you know has been labeled with a condition, whether vasculitis, pernicious anemia, or rheumatoid arthritis. Researchers have a few other theories, including:
The effect of the Western diet that’s higher in sugar, fat, and highly processed foods, which might increase inflammation and trigger an immune response. This could explain why rates of diagnoses are lower outside the Western world, though it’s important to note that there’s scant scientific evidence for this theory.
The hygiene hypothesis, which also applies to a rise in food allergies, suggests that people aren’t exposed to germs as much as in the past. This type of cleanliness could cause the immune system to overreact to harmless substances.
Too much stress. A study published just last year in JAMA linked certain autoimmune diseases to persistent stress. However, this was an observational study and cannot prove causation.
Luckily, research continues to grow. Scientists have found a potential link between testosterone and protection against autoimmune diseases, which helps to explain why women are more than twice as likely to develop a condition.
Additionally, breakthrough research published just this past summer lays part of the blame on how women are having fewer pregnancies. Historically, when a woman had between eight and 12 pregnancies, the body evolved the immune system to not attack the placenta and the fetus, and learned to fight invaders in other ways. Women have significantly fewer babies these days—fewer than two, on average—but the immune system hasn’t quite learned to cope.
Common Autoimmune Diseases
Type 1 diabetes: The body attacks the pancreas, which produces the insulin that regulates blood sugar levels. Type 2 diabetes is not an autoimmune condition.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA): The body attacks the joints, causing redness, pain, warmth, and stiffness.
Psoriasis/psoriatic arthritis:
Skin cells multiply too rapidly, build up, and form inflamed red patches on the surface of the skin. When this causes welling, stiffness, and joint pain, it’s diagnosed psoriatic arthritis.
Multiple sclerosis: An attack of the myelin sheath, the protective coating that surrounds the nerve cells in the central nervous system, leading to numbness, weakness, balance issues, and trouble walking.
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE): The attack of a number
of organs, including the joints, kidneys, brain, and heart.
Other common autoimmune
diseases: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Addison’s disease, Graves’ disease, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, pernicious anemia, and celiac disease.
