Wondering what causes autoimmune diseases to arise in the first place, and how to cure autoimmune diseases naturally, are logical inquiries that may arise after being diagnosed.

Knowing that an "overactive" immune system is blamed for these painful diseases often leads to the valid question of how to normalize an overactive immune system. Learning more about how nutrition interacts with autoimmune diseases can begin to answer these difficult questions.

Improper nutrition can cause an autoimmune disease to develop, while proper nutrition can help normalize an overactive immune system. It's even possible for nutrition to cure an autoimmune disease naturally, by promoting remission of the disease. At the very minimum, nutrition can greatly improve your symptoms and help you to live with less pain. However, exactly how to achieve all of this using nutrition can become quite complicated.

One of the main reasons that the topic of autoimmune nutrition is so complicated is because people who live with autoimmune disease are more likely to suffer from eating disorders (PubMed, PubMed, American Academy of Pediatrics). Eating disorders are extremely serious medical conditions with a low recovery rate and a high death rate (Beat Eating Disorders, Eating Recovery Center, National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders).

It's common advice to recommend restrictive diets like elimination diets or the autoimmune protocol (AIP) diet to help with autoimmune disease. However, these extreme diets can trigger an eating disorder, which can become more serious than the autoimmune disease the diet was intended to help. For this reason, it's not recommended to attempt any strict diet like the AIP.

When used correctly, nutrition can greatly improve your autoimmune disease without damaging your mental health, encouraging additional problems to begin, or promoting dangerous medical situations.

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There are several reasons why nutrition is so critical for autoimmune disease management.

First, about 70% of our immune system lies within our intestines (PubMed). Since autoimmune diseases are described as an overactive immune system, nutrition and the related field of gut health have a huge impact on the overall status of your immune system, and therefore on how bad your symptoms are.

Second, a properly functioning immune system requires adequate nutrients to operate. It's important to eat well enough to support the immune system, so it has all the tools it needs to complete its essential functions.

Third, autoimmune diseases can come with a whole host of unpleasant symptoms. This includes painful inflammation, stomachaches and other gastrointestinal issues, higher risk of heart disease, and more. Nutrition can play a huge role in reducing or even completely eliminating these symptoms.

While nutrition has so much to offer anyone suffering with autoimmune disease, it's also absolutely essential to engage with autoimmune nutrition in a way that maintains a safe relationship with your body, food, and the process of eating.

Exactly what causes autoimmune diseases and how they develop is still being studied, however there are many known conditions that are often simultaneously present.

Environmental factors like food, lifestyle, drugs, and infections, can cause an autoimmune disease to begin. The rapidly rising number of autoimmune diseases in more Westernized countries suggests that environmental factors are a main driving force.

Western food in particular appears to be one environmental factor promoting autoimmunity, as the rate of disease in Westernized countries is steadily increasing. There are several theories that attempt to explain this connection.

Researchers have considered many possible causes for autoimmune diseases such as the increased industrial food additives, industrial food processing, frequent consumption of processed food and/or “fast food”, increased intake of specific nutrients (such as fats, trans fatty acids, cholesterol, proteins, simple sugars, and/or salt), decreased intake of other nutrients (such as fiber and/or omega-3 fatty acids), and more.

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Lifestyle factors like smoking, stress, your occupation, and not engaging in enough physical activity may cause autoimmune disease, as well (Pubmed, Pubmed). Genetics are also a known factor to cause autoimmune disease, as these diseases often run in families. Infections, particularly viral infections, can also cause the emergence of an autoimmune disease (Pubmed).

While many different factors can cause an autoimmune disease to develop, it is also possible to support our immune systems so that these painful symptoms reduce or even disappear altogether.

Autoimmune diseases are considered to be caused by an “overactive” immune system. However, it's worth considering the possibility that your immune system is actually reacting appropriately to a very real threat, that then shows up as an autoimmune disease. The question then becomes how to remove these threats so your immune system can be normalized and no longer needs to be overactive.

Examples of issues that can make it difficult to normalize an overactive immune system include:

• Infections (particularly subacute)
• Toxin overload
• Nutrition deficiencies
• Trauma
• Stress
• Air pollution
• Inadequate sleep
• Circadian rhythm disturbances
• Food sensitivities
• And more

It is not uncommon to see low-grade infections, also called subacute or subclinical infections, occur simultaneously with autoimmune disease. For example, a fungus infamous for causing subacute infections is Candida albicans, sometimes referred to simply as “yeast”. Research has shown increased rates of Candida in some of the most common autoimmune diseases.

When compared to healthy controls, Candida colonization is more commonly seen in patients with psoriasis (Pubmed), lupus (Pubmed), and Sjögren's syndrome (Pubmed). This same scenario may play out with other microbes that are known to cause subacute infections, such as H. pylori.

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Toxins have also been found to be a key factor in rapidly growing rates of autoimmunity worldwide. Toxic chemicals such as persistent organic pollutants, toxic metals, solvents, and endocrine disruptors have been shown to turn on autoimmune genes, promote immune dysregulation, deplete antioxidant reserves, promote immune barrier degradation, and more.

Reducing exposure to these chemicals and supporting the body's natural detoxification pathways can help normalize an overactive immune system (Pubmed).

Nutrient deficiencies can also add fuel to the fire of an overactive immune system. Vitamin D deficiency is particularly prevalent in autoimmune disease, and is increasingly being recognized for its importance in proper immune system functioning (Pubmed). Omega-3 fatty acid and vitamin A deficiencies may also be connected to an overactive immune system (Pubmed).

Trauma is also associated with the development of autoimmune diseases. Researchers have found connections between autoimmune diseases and childhood trauma (or Adverse Childhood Experiences [ACEs]) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Nature, Pubmed). Stress in general is also known to trigger and worsen autoimmune diseases (Pubmed).

A small but growing area of autoimmune research is food sensitivities. Food sensitivities are commonly reported by those suffering from autoimmune disease, and the research is beginning to catch up to this phenomenon reported by the community (Pubmed). The complete guide on how to safely identify food sensitivities for all types of autoimmune diseases can be found in Gain Control Over Your Psoriasis.

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Identifying these triggers is not easy. Often guesswork followed by self-experimentation is required to see if results are possible. However, identifying and removing or at least reducing your exposure to these triggers can normalize an overactive immune system, and improve related autoimmune symptoms.

It is said that there is no “cure” for autoimmune diseases. Although this may be true, the good news is that it is possible to go into remission.

A cure implies that you will never experience a symptom related to your autoimmune disease ever again. The ultimate cure would be to turn off any and all genes that are causing your autoimmune disease to be expressed. This is possible in theory, but perhaps an impossible feat in reality. Instead, it's most realistic to aim for remission.

Remission implies the disease is no longer detectable, but there is still risk of recurrence. You may have to engage in certain habits or tasks in order to maintain remission. Remission from autoimmune disease using natural methods is absolutely possible.

However, when it boils down to it, it's likely that most people simply don't care much if they are “cured” or in “remission” - they just want to feel better and not experience painful symptoms. As such, we'll use the terms interchangeably. In this way, it is possible to “cure” autoimmune disease naturally.

First, it's essential to foster a healthy relationship with food and your body. If you are suffering with disordered eating or an eating disorder, the best first step would be to seek professional help from a dietitian-nutritionist and/or therapist who specializes in eating disorders to help heal your relationship with your body and food. This may include addressing past trauma that is promoting both the disordered eating and autoimmune disease.

It's easy to make the mistake of thinking that an eating disorder looks like not eating enough or throwing up after eating - but these disorders can be more complicated than that. There are many types of eating disorders, and the same eating disorder can look very different from person to person.

If you are not actively dealing with any form of disordered eating, then the next step is to optimize your nutrition without increasing your stress levels. This is why extreme diets should not be used, and instead gentle nutrition should be employed.

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It's critical to understand that you should not try to eat “perfectly”. Sadly, it's common to see people suffering from both autoimmune disease and orthorexia, a type of eating disorder characterized by an excessive obsession with eating “healthy”. While it's important to nourish yourself well, it's just as important to not obsess over it or morph the practice into something that is, paradoxically, unhealthy. Research is now beginning to show light on this important topic (PubMed).

We created the Autoimmune Nutrition Starter Guide to help you begin navigating all of this. For more advanced readings on this topic, refer to the Intuitive Eating chapter of Gain Control Over Your Psoriasis, which is applicable to all autoimmune diseases.

Once you have built a healthy relationship with your body and food and are properly nourished, it's time to start exploring other possible threats that your immune system may be struggling with. The above section on “How to Normalize an Overactive Immune System” begins to address this topic. Further information can be found in Gain Control Over Your Psoriasis, particularly in the Lifestyle Considerations chapter.

The way to find remission and cure your autoimmune disease naturally is by healing your relationship with food and your body so you can be well nourished, then identifying additional factors that are irritating your system.

We are still learning more about what exactly causes autoimmune diseases to occur, however research has already illuminated much valuable information about this topic. Once an autoimmune disease has already begun, it's quite logical and reasonable to wonder how to normalize an overactive immune system, and if it can be cured naturally.

It takes plenty of time, patience, self-experimentation, and continued learning to identify the factors that are irritating your immune system and driving its overactivation. However, once you identify what these irritating factors are, it becomes possible to cure your autoimmune disease naturally through remission.