You might have an autoimmune disease—a condition in which your immune system attacks your own healthy tissue. It’s not a given, of course, but autoimmune diseases are becoming increasingly common, affecting anywhere from 24 million to 50 million people in the U.S., 80% of whom are women, according to various estimates. Under normal conditions, the immune system protects your body by responding to invading microorganisms, like viruses or bacteria—if your immune system deems anything dangerous, it will produce antibodies to ward off these harmful intruders. With an autoimmune disease, however, your body fails to differentiate between the intruder and your own tissue and turns these antibodies against its own healthy tissue. The specific cells and tissues that your body mistakenly makes antibodies against determines what autoimmune disease (or diseases) you get. “If the body attacks the pancreas, you make less insulin and can develop type 1 diabetes,” says Boham, “If the body starts making antibodies against its thyroid, as it does in Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, the thyroid gets damaged and it can’t produce as much thyroid hormone.” Case in point: “Infections, stress, exposure to toxins, chronic inflammation, and eating gluten (for some) can all trigger autoimmune diseases, depending on the person,” says Boham, adding that environmental toxins such as mercury may damage tissues, which could cause the body to see them as foreign invaders, thus triggering an autoimmune response. You’re also more likely to develop an autoimmune disease if you’re a woman, but symptoms often improve after menopause, “so we know there is a hormonal connection,” says Boham. According to the NIH, the first symptoms of autoimmune disease often include fatigue, muscle aches, a low fever, and redness, heat, pain, and swelling in different areas of the body. Another sign that your symptoms may indicate an autoimmune disease: They come and go—recurring flare-ups followed by periods of improvement are relatively common. But that’s not all. While it’s not always clear why they occur, here’s a roundup of some symptoms that are relatively common across several autoimmune diseases. The first blood test you’ll likely receive is an antinuclear antibody (ANA) test. This measures levels of antinuclear antibodies—antibodies that attack healthy proteins within the nucleus of cells. A positive result means you might have an autoimmune disease, but it can’t tell you which one. The ANA test is often followed up with another test that looks for specific autoantibodies—for example, if you have inexplicably achy joints, your doctor will likely run a rheumatoid factor (RF), says Boham. So, if you’re concerned you may have an autoimmune disease, it can be wise to seek out a functional, integrative, or holistic physician to help determine your best course of treatment. Often, this type of treatment looks like a combination of dietary and lifestyle changes. “Diet is very important here,” says Boham. “We remove common food allergies, often starting with the removal of gluten, since this is a common cause of autoimmunity. We also remove inflammatory foods and shift to an overall anti-inflammatory diet that’s rich in whole foods and veggies, low in sugar and alcohol, and gluten- and dairy-free.” In addition to switching to an anti-inflammatory diet and eliminating potentially irritating foods like gluten and dairy, integrative dietitian Ali Miller, R.D. says “it can be smart to proactively support your gut tissue with healing foods like bone broth, collagen, gelatin, and support the diversity of your microbiome with probiotic-rich foods such as sauerkraut, kombucha, yogurt, and pickles.” Once you’ve dialed in your diet, supplements such as digestive enzymes, probiotics, zinc, vitamin A, and glutamine may help further heal and balance the gut, says Boham. If you end up getting diagnosed, take a deep breath and know it’s not the end of the world. Addressing the main factors exacerbating your autoimmune disease with some basic diet and lifestyle changes can go a long way in helping you feel better.
