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Story at-a-glance

• Treating illnesses by suppressing symptoms frequently precipitates far more severe diseases which have rippled out throughout our society
• The primary management for most autoimmune conditions is through symptom-suppressing drugs, which frequently have significant toxicity
• In most cases, autoimmune disorders and inflammatory joint conditions have an underlying cause, such as a chronic undiagnosed stealth infection or food allergy, which when addressed significantly improve the condition
• Many factors in life that we can control and do not require prescriptions to address (e.g., diet, stress or sleep) directly contribute to autoimmunity and, when addressed, improve it
• This article will review some of the key steps which can be taken to improve autoimmune disorders and reduce one’s reliance upon toxic medications

Autoimmune conditions have become one of the most common and stubborn health challenges of our time. While conventional medicine often treats them as mysterious immune system malfunctions — managed primarily with harmful steroids and other immunosuppressants1 — there's increasing evidence that many of these diseases are not random.

Rather, they're signals of deeper dysfunctions in the body — many of which are tied to the modern lifestyle we've come to accept as normal.

Lifestyle Contributions to Autoimmunity

Many things in our lives that we have control over significantly affect our predisposition to autoimmunity:

• Sleep — I have previously written about the profound importance of sleep and how many different illnesses are linked to poor sleep. In practice, we frequently find that patients with autoimmune conditions also have disrupted sleep cycles, and these improve once that is addressed (e.g., by improving sleep hygiene and avoiding blue light).

Note: The treatments for sleeping issues like insomnia are discussed further here.

• Sunlight — Since the sun has no commercial lobby to advocate for it, the medical field demonizes sunlight as a cause of cancer despite a deficiency of the sun and sunlight being tied to a wide range of medical conditions (including cancers) and making individuals 60% more likely to die.2

A loss of sunlight exposure is also tied to many autoimmune conditions (e.g., multiple sclerosis). As such, we frequently find autoimmune patients improve from resuming healthy sunlight exposures (likewise, I suspect this partly explains why ultraviolet blood irradiation benefits so many different autoimmune conditions).

Note: Appropriate sunlight exposure (e.g., going outside early in the morning and having the sunlight touch your face without being obstructed by glass) is also very helpful for reestablishing the circadian rhythm and restoring healthy sleep.

• Exercise — Many of the benefits of exercise arise from the fluid circulation it creates in the body (as fluid stagnation underlies many illnesses) — many of which we suffer from due to our sedentary lifestyle.

This perspective, in turn, is corroborated by the Chinese Medical viewpoint that blood stasis causes autoimmunity and that either treating blood stasis or zeta potential (which underlies both microclotting and lymphatic stagnation) frequently improves autoimmune conditions.3

Note: Exercise and eliminating fluid stagnation frequently improve insomnia. Likewise, sunlight exposure is a critical driver of fluid circulation throughout the body,4 all of which illustrates how intertwined many of the key lifestyle factors we routinely ignore are to our health.

• Diet — Food allergens such as wheat, dairy, and nightshades frequently contribute to autoimmune conditions (particularly arthritis), and many have found food elimination diets that identify the reactive allergen to improve their condition significantly.

Additionally, in many cases, allergies arise from deficient stomach acid, as without sufficient stomach acid, proteins are often not fully broken down (allowing intact allergens to enter circulation) and triggers acid reflux (due to top of the stomach only closing when sufficient stomach acid is present), which then irritates the lungs.

Note: Many of the issues with gluten (e.g., autoimmunity or weight gain) are not experienced in countries like Italy that use more natural forms of wheat.

• Stress — Is well known to predispose one to autoimmune disorders and flares (e.g., 80% of autoimmune patients report an unusually stressful situation prior to their disease onset,5 while stress disorders increased the risk of autoimmune disorders by 46% to 129%).6

Note: Some patients will not respond to a rheumatologic drug, until they eliminate the stress in their lives.