Autoimmune diseases represent a loss of tolerance to “self”.
It represents a “category” of diseases with different names. This is the main reason why people view these conditions as different illnesses. The symptoms that occur depend on which part of the body has been targeted by the immune system.
For eg, in the case of Hashimotos and Graves disease, it is the thyroid gland.
If you would like to like to delve deeper into this topic, make sure to check out my free guide here.
What is a healthy immune response?
It has a strong inbuilt mechanism for differentiating between our own tissue and foreign tissue. What it does NOT do is go berserk or lose its mind and start attacking our body’s own tissues for no reason at all. When the immune system becomes hypervigilant and overwhelmed, the self regulatory mechanism can become overridden. This leads to chronic autoimmune activation. In contrast, a healthy immune system is one which can self regulate and have an appropriate and balanced immune response.
This means that it can calm the body (antiinflammatory) and alarm the body (pro-inflammatory) when necessary.
Our immune soldiers (white blood cells) have very specific and appropriate responses to different kinds of threats.
Examples of these are neutrophils, eosinophils and lymphocytes. A healthy immune system quickly mounts a response to a threat by releasing inflammatory chemicals called cytokines. Then it follows this with an anti inflammatory response to counteract the aggressive response once the threat is over.
However, if the immune system is hyper vigilant and activated for large periods of time, it may become unable to regulate itself and turn off this immune response.
In the case of autoimmunity, there is a skewing towards a proinflammatory response.
One of the main reasons for this is anti inflammatory mediators become proinflammatory mediators as a form of dysregulation.
Source: The School of Applied Functional Medicine
Immune dysregulation and imbalance
Our immune system is designed to be really strong and keep us safe from any threats, internal and external. This has helped our species survive over millions of years of evolution. But when when we lose control over our pro-inflammatory and inflammatory responses, it leads to runaway and rampant chronic inflammation.
An example of a anti-inflammatory mediator is T-reg cells which prevent the immune system from attacking itself.
In people with autoimmune conditions, the levels of T-reg cells tend to be lower than what is considered to be optimal.
Other ways that our immune system becomes dysregulated and imbalanced –
- Enhanced intestinal permeability (aka leaky gut) due to a compromised gut barrier function
- Chronically low levels of cortisol leading our immune system to become under reactive or over-reactive to threats
- Molecular mimicry is where the protein component in certain foods or toxins looks similar to a microbe (a threat) that the immune system would respond to. In the case of autoimmune conditions it’s often human tissue that looks similar to a threat to our immune system
- Lack of nutrients necessary for mounting a healthy immune response (vitamin D, K, A, zinc, and others)
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Food
-Low nutrient foods or processed foods filled with artificial colours/flavours and preservatives which are toxic and seem like a threat
–Nutrient poor foods lead to a weak immune system and hamper detoxification by reducing the availability of nutrients to an immune system that is already activated and alarmed
-Malabsorption impairs our body’s ability to get the nutrients it needs to activate a healthy immune response to any kind of threat.
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Toxins
-Toxins use up a lot of our nutrients as our body tries to metabolise these and take them out of our system
-Ingredients in processed foods can look very much like toxins and become a physiological stressor as our immune system perceives them as threats
-Toxins hamper our energy production by damaging our mitochondria (the powerhouse in our cells) and impact the ability of our tissues to work properly.
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Stress
-Stress (chronic) impairs our ability to digest and absorb our foods leading to poor nutrient absorption.
-It also uses up more of those nutrients trying to break down the stress hormones themselves.
In the case of autoimmune diseases, in particular, all three challenge our immune system which ultimately leads to an inappropriate and overreactive immune response.
It can also lead to a situation where our immune system tries to counteract too many things at the same time and become underreactive to another threat like a viral infection.
In other words, it is like an overworked police force that is stretched out too thin and unable to do its job properly.
In the words of Dr Noel Rose,
“Autoimmunity is our immune system’s attempt to adapt to all the new environmental agents and shifts that we’re being bombarded with every day. It’s an unsuccessful adaptation, but it is our body’s way of trying to fight back.”
For more reading-
Are You Th1 or Th2 Dominant? Effects + Immune Response – SelfHacked
Leaky Gut and Autoimmunity: An Intricate Balance in Individuals Health and the Diseased State
