AUTOIMMUNE DISEASES IN A NUTSHELL
Seems like more and more people you talk to these days, a lot of them have an autoimmune disorder. And to be quite honest, when I was diagnosed with mine, I wasn’t entirely sure what an autoimmune disease really was.
In school, we had learned that some peoples body’s attacked themselves and that’s why we have diseases like Type 1 & 2 Diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis. But even in my degree, we didn’t dive into how to how to control your autoimmune disease through lifestyle and diet. This is ironic since my degree is in Nutrition.
Even though we don’t know a lot about how we exactly get autoimmune diseases and how to fully control them, we are learning that there are ways to relieve most or even all symptoms.
What Is An Autoimmune Disorder…
To simplify, an AD is when our own immune system goes crazy on us! Our immune system is supposed to protect us from invading microorganisms but instead… it starts attacking our own healthy cells. Most autoimmune diseases are chronic, which means they are consistent and keep coming back after you.
Here’s the thing… scientists and doctors don’t know a lot about ADs and we are still learning more about them all the time. And the crazy thing is there are about 50 million Americans alone with autoimmune disorders. The good news is, that even though they are chronic, they can still be managed. But we’ll get into all that soon.
Symptoms
Autoimmune disorders tend to be genetic and unfortunately affect women 3x more than men. Although in my family my paternal grandmother had one, passed down to my father and then to me. Men aren’t as likely but still are susceptible.
For me, my autoimmune disease peaked in my mid 30’s. I had gained weight and had terrible memory fog, where I couldn’t remember anything which was unusual for me since I used to memorize my mother’s shopping list at 3! I was tired all the time, and had irritability, decreased libido, insomnia, and mood swings. What finally set me off was inflammation, I stood up one day and couldn’t walk without extreme pain in my left leg. I knew there wasn’t something right.
For most people, Autoimmune Diseases can be hard to diagnose because they present themselves as a range of symptoms from fatigue, and headaches to joint and muscle pain. A lot of time they get chalked up to being overworked, age or even being a hypochondriac. This is really sad cause these people are suffering and in pain!
How Do You Get One…
The 3 main reasons people get Autoimmune Diseases are
- Genetically Susceptible
- Infections, environmental triggers
- Diet and Lifestyle
Although we have little say over the first two, we can control our diet and lifestyle. This means that autoimmune diseases can be alleviated through diet and our approach to life. That includes sleep, physical activity, and stress management. Sounds easy enough… right?
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