Women are 80% more likely to develop an autoimmune condition
“Is it like gout?”
She said with a look of glee on her face, amused perhaps that this proponent of a healthy lifestyle had a condition caused by the excesses of a western diet.
I’d mentioned that ulcerative colitis was often called a ‘western disease’ and this was the un-empathic and ignorant response I received.
“No” I replied “it’s not like gout.”
Some people, my god! She may as well have said …
“I’m so glad you got ill because now you’re not threatening me with your glowing health and vitality”
Sorry hun, I’m still glowing and actually weirdly very healthy despite having an autoimmune condition. All my health markers prove it.
I don’t fit the profile.
I was vegetarian for 12 years of my life, pretty much always fit since childhood. I have done some partying in my life but I’ve been sober for 4.5 years now. Look if it was partying that caused UC everyone in the UK would have it.
I have been interested in longevity science since I was in my early 30s and now 41, I’ve been practicing optimum health for over a decade.
I guess it’s funny when the health guru gets a health condition harhar!
Actually it’s not funny, UC is a horrible and debilitating condition and many fit and healthy people get it, people such as Steve Redgrave, the Olympic champion. Those who think it’s funny need to stop and ask themselves why they feel the need to take joy from another’s suffering.
In fact auto-immune conditions are on the rise & the UK and US in particular have a higher prevalence. It is difficult to pinpoint why, there could be underlying population characteristics or genetics that cause these two countries to have higher prevalence, or it could be better diagnosis or disease awareness in these countries that results in more diagnosed cases. Testing bias is most likely a factor. With all of the amazing technology in the west it still took me over 3 years to get a diagnosis and in the end it took a sigmoidoscopy to confirm it. I can’t imagine many people in India have access to a sigmoidoscopy.
It’s not diet.
If it was I wouldn’t have it. There is a clear genetic factor in my case, two of my brothers have it, my mum’s sister and a third cousin of mine. We all have very different lifestyles. A bad diet doesn’t help with anything but it doesn’t cause UC.
I became a yoga instructor at the age of 30. Since then I’ve been meditating, doing all the breath practices, gut massage, sauna, high quality wholefoods, focused on self inquiry and building self awareness. DAILY. I have always balanced my physical output as best as I could with recovery.
I’ve had the usual ups and downs a human being has. I’ve met so many people who have had it worse, who do not look after themselves and they aren’t healthy but they don’t have UC or any autoimmune condition.
“It’s stress” they say. I certainly believe stress has a strong influence on UC but it isn’t the cause. Stress fucks everyone and will poke at any vulnerability you may have.
“It’s environmental factors.” So elusive. Is it the air pollution? Potentially. The heavy metals ever pervasive in our environment? I’m sure they don’t help. The micro plastics? The mercury in the fish, the pollutants in our skin creams and cleaning products? The antibiotics (definitely on to something here), the medications in general? The reduction in soil quality? I’m sure there is a cumulative effect of all of these factors pressuring our immune system response but not one area has been proven to have a direct link to autoimmune disorders.
Yet they are rising.
Females are 80% more likely to develop an autoimmune condition. This is an astonishing statistic.
Just on my client list alone I have women with endometriosis, IBD, type 1 diabetes, psoriasis, arthritis and eczema.
They all present differently. Some are obese, others lean, some very healthy and fit, others getting there.
I was one of those women that could go entire winters without getting a cold, and I got the flu about once every 4/5 years. This is important because research shows women’s bodies are more effective at preventing infectious disease. If a woman and a man are exposed to the same infectious disease, the woman’s immune system is more likely to respond. If that response is too strong, it can lead to inflammation and cause damage to healthy tissues and organs.
Females have better innate and adaptive immune responses to disease-causing pathogens than males. Females also produce better protective antibodies following vaccination. This protective immune system response has a dark side.
Another reason women are at higher risk is hormonal differences. Many autoimmune diseases tend to get better or worse in response to female hormonal changes, especially during pregnancy.
But just make sure you eat organic food ladies, that’ll sort it. A woman actually said this to me. I was literally the original green juice girl in my early 20s before it was even a thing. I wish people would at least do a bit of research before spouting ridiculous nonsense. Assumptions are the mother of all fuckery.
I was quoted a statistic recently by functional nutritionist Vince Pitstick who claims that 1 in 7 women will have autoimmune conditions by 2030 if the numbers continue on their current trajectory. Whilst I cannot fully verify that I can confirm that the prevalence is on an upwards trajectory and western medicine is failing in this area.
In fact western medicine is very bad at dealing with chronic illness in general.
I am eternally grateful to it for helping me through a life threatening flare up in 2021 when I was undiagnosed, but since then it’s not been very good. The medication currently on offer doesn’t treat UC, they simply provide a plaster and cause a cascade of issues alongside.
Prednisone in particular is effective for reducing inflammation (although not in my case) but can cause weight gain, muscle loss and osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes and hypertension. It’s also a horrible drug to be on causing irritability and mood swings.
I’ve been very thorough with understanding the underlying causes of UC in my own case, I have notes I keep, I’m organized with it and I read the research, no I mean I actually read multiple studies and compare and contrast, not just the abstract and summaries to confirm my confirmation bias. I have developed a network of experts I can go to with questions. Ultimately I came to the conclusion that genetics + underlying trauma + antibiotics (average use) + a giardia parasite added up to my over-active immune response.
I’ve approached it from every angle.
Physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.
I’ve been tested for so many things. Recently I got a range of tests for potential allergies in my local environment and a lead toxicity test. There is nothing I could point to as any underlying single factor. Be nice to put a bow on it but unfortunately there are likely a lot of competing factors, for me and all of us diagnosed with autoimmune conditions.
Even though I am flare up free and all my bio markers are currently healthy, this can change in an instance with UC, it is a chronic condition. I sometimes recognize that ‘flare up feeling’ it’s like the ‘Friday feeling’ but opposite, and have to adapt quickly to prevent a flare up.
Chinese medicine has worked wonders for me. In particular a plant known as Qing Dai, or Indigo Naturalis. It has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antibacterial, antiviral, immunomodulatory properties and so on. It has a very good clinical effect on psoriasis and leukemia too. There are fantastic clinical trials but not enough apparently for it to be recommended by western medicine (Hmmmm), it’s been used to treat UC for centuries and has fantastic anecdotal evidence behind it. Including mine. It was recommeded to me by Dane at The Shield Program (Studies linked below)
It makes your stool blue too which I personally feel is an added benefit haha!
Making sure I get enough sleep, don’t exercise too hard (particularly hard for me since I love it), avoid coffee, red meat, manage stress, don’t over do the fiber but keep my diet varied (again hard because I always loved my veggies), reduce refined sugar, eat probiotic foods, fast regularly, have excellent boundaries and work on past trauma, are all ways I keep my immune system from getting triggered. Though it should be known I did most of these things prior to diagnosis, I’m just a little more fine tuned.
One of my best friends who has it drinks alcohol, has coffee and hardly ever gets enough sleep and she’s not had a flare up for years.
UC is so personal. Most triggers of auto-immune conditions are personal and what works for one won’t work for another. Ultimately a personalized approach is necessary for healing but unfortunately the western model doesn’t yet function in this way. Its ‘systems approach’ is failing people with chronic conditions. Rather than viewing people’s biology as a system of parts and treating each one independently, a holistic approach is needed to get the immune system working as normal.
Sadly most people cannot afford a holistic approach. Functional Drs don’t by and large take insurance and are not offered as part of the NHS, and they are very expensive.
Up to $1000 a month without tests which cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars.
There are new treatments available such as fecal transplant therapy but currently not yet offered widely enough and still very expensive.
Often even dieticians are not offered on insurance models and GI Drs don’t offer dietary advice which is shocking. I personally got a fact sheet and then had to research myself and thankfully knew a dietician who helped me out in the vulnerable time after I was admitted to hospital. I had a lot of personal knowledge on health and nutrition, I have a good sense of personal efficacy and I’m resilient enough to be able to adapt to change. I am very concerned for those who don’t have this and are just left to figure things out themselves.
This brings me to my last point, working long hours, constantly over extending our nervous systems and poverty are never explicity mentioned in environmental factors. The emphasis is usually placed back on individual responsibility. It could be categorized under ‘stress’ but I think it needs to get a mention alongside ‘get outside more, exercise, eat more fiber,’ how about..
“Is the weight of trying to survive in an individualist capitalist structure getting you down?”
I have developed a resilient mindset around it. I’ve allowed the condition to soften my drive and to find gentler ways of doing the world. My kindness and compassion to myself is naturally extending outwards and I’m grateful to find I am showing up in a more authentic way since diagnosis. Near death experiences have a way of doing that to you.
I’m also clear that this was all entirely preventable in a different world with a more holistic and personalized approach to treatment.
It solidified in my mind why I do what I do. Human beings deserve to be treated as a whole, and this is what I base my entire coaching model on.
I’m just waiting for the world to catch up.
Studies /evidence
Autoimmune on the rise
80% of women get autoimmune conditions
The link between type 2 diabetes and prednisone
Qing Dai studies (aka indigo naturalis)
Clinical trial on Qing Dai and ulcerative colitis
Clinical Trial on Qing Dai aka Indigo Naturalis
Treatment-refractory ulcerative colitis responsive to indigo naturalis
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