Our immune systems are turning against us in a growing tide of internal rebellion.
Instead of attacking cancerous cells, viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens, our immune systems are increasingly attacking our own bodies. More than a hundred different types of autoimmune diseases—from Type 1 diabetes to psoriasis—afflict millions of people. Around 50 million Americans suffer an autoimmune condition and 1 in 5 will be afflicted at some point,
according to the Autoimmune Association (formerly the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association.)
Organ damage, pain, and years—sometimes decades—of misdiagnosis haunt the growing number of the afflicted.
This rise in autoimmunity should raise an alarm like a few other health concerns. Why? For the same reason a nation quakes when its military turns on its own people; it’s one thing to be attacked by foreign forces, but what can we do when attacked by our own defenses?
Research published in Arthritis & Rheumatology in 2022 found
antinuclear antibodies, the most common biomarker of autoimmunity, have increased nearly 50 percent in the United States in less than 30 years.
Normal antibodies help the immune system identify and neutralize invaders like bacteria and viruses but antinuclear antibodies (ANAs) attack our own cells.
The researchers found that teenagers have experienced a nearly 300 percent increase in ANAs between 1988 and 2012.
“Many of these children might not ever achieve their full potential, because battling chronic illness will alter their lives,” wrote one of the researchers, leading autoimmunity scientist Frederick Miller, in a 2020
Scientific American article co-authored by Olivia Casey, a senior director at the Autoimmune Association.
“Research suggests these
increases in autoimmune diseases are related to remarkable changes in our environment and lifestyles, including alterations in diet and upsurges in obesity, sleep deprivation, stress, air pollution, exposure to toxic chemicals, and infections,” they wrote.
While there is no smoking gun on the causes of autoimmunity, its links to these changes make me wonder.
Like, what happens if your body is trying to create all its cells and various proteins and molecules out of denatured materials, like genetically modified foods, synthesized molecules, industrial processed ingredients, and so on? Could this contribute to the immune system’s confusion?
And what if our body absorbs all kinds of manufactured particles, nanoplastics, and chemicals from our food, water, and air? Do our immune systems sense a threat that needs to be countered but lack the processes to do so properly?
Does our constant state of stress, triggered by urban lifestyles, debt, social isolation, and the nightly news—and the mixed signals it triggers in our nervous systems—put our immune systems on an easily triggered red alert?
These aren’t easy questions to answer. Doctors struggle to even diagnose many of these conditions and researchers are still trying to understand the mechanics of autoimmunity well enough to find effective treatments.
Most therapies for these conditions work by suppressing the immune system, explains the Autoimmune Association. The problem with these treatments is they require a trade-off that leaves people more vulnerable to various infections. Long-term use of immunosuppressant drugs may also lead to an increased risk of cancer, a problem of
particular concern for transplant recipients who take these drugs to prevent organ rejection.
More advanced research is directed at finding
targeted treatments for autoimmunity. The prevalence of these conditions has drawn investments in various therapies that could be transformative for many sufferers.
But somehow that doesn’t entirely soothe me. What happens if we do manage to resolve autoimmune conditions without ever addressing what caused them?
It seems likely that autoimmunity is like most other chronic conditions afflicting people today: a consequence of lifestyles that have lost their inherent harmony with this world and our basic biology.
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Epoch Health welcomes professional discussion and friendly debate. To submit an opinion piece, please follow these guidelines and submit through our form here. 
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