A functional medicine perspective on autoimmune diseases.
Autoimmune diseases like Hashimoto’s, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis have become increasingly common. What was once considered rare now affects millions of Americans. Some are even calling this an autoimmune epidemic.
But first, what exactly is an autoimmune disease?
Think of your immune system as your body’s security team. It’s built to identify and eliminate threats like viruses, bacteria, and abnormal cells, while protecting your healthy tissues.
In autoimmune disease, the immune system gets dysregulated. Instead of staying in its lane, it starts targeting parts of the body it’s supposed to protect.
This immune response can be focused in different areas: the thyroid (Hashimoto’s), the joints (rheumatoid arthritis), or the skin (psoriasis).
The result? Chronic inflammation, fatigue, pain, and a whole host of symptoms that can make you feel like your body is working against you.
The real question is: what’s driving this immune confusion in the first place? That’s what we investigate.
The numbers tell the story: autoimmune diseases are on the rise.
Currently, about 8% of people in the U.S. have an autoimmune disease, with nearly 80% of them being women. But experts believe that number might be even higher, given how often these conditions go undiagnosed in traditional healthcare settings. In fact, a review showed that autoimmune diseases have been rising steadily for the past 30 years, with some increasing by 4-7% every year worldwide. And here’s something that might hit close to home: after having COVID, your risk of developing an autoimmune condition increases by 43% in the next 3-15 months. Yet another reason why post-COVID care is extremely important.
So, what’s going on? Are we just better at diagnosing these conditions? Is it genetics? Or is something causing more people to develop them? While genetics and better diagnosing certainly do play a role, functional medicine looks deeper. Instead of just managing symptoms after your immune system goes haywire, we help figure out why your immune system is mad in the first place—and what we can do to calm it down.
Why are autoimmune diagnoses skyrocketing?
Autoimmune diseases don’t happen in a vacuum. While genes set the stage, environmental factors and lifestyle factors pull the trigger, and we’re finding out that the world we live in right now has more triggers than ever before.
Let’s talk about some of those triggers:
Gut health disruptions and leaky gut
Did you know that 70-80% of your immune system lives in your gut? That means when gut health goes south, the immune system follows.
Leaky gut (also known as intestinal permeability) happens when the gut lining becomes damaged, allowing toxins, undigested food particles, and bacteria to sneak into the bloodstream. This sets off alarm bells in the immune system, causing chronic inflammation and, in some cases, autoimmunity.
But what’s wrecking our guts?
- Overeating ultra-processed foods (which often contain excess fats, salt, and added sugars) can contribute to extra adipose (fat) storage and chronic inflammation.
- Antibiotic overuse, which wipes out good bacteria
- Gut infections like SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth)
- Chronic stress (yes, stress affects your gut! More on that soon)
When it comes to functional medicine and autoimmune diseases, healing the gut is often the first step in reversing autoimmune symptoms.
Environmental triggers & toxin exposure
In today’s modern world, we live in a soup of potential toxins, and our immune systems are struggling to keep up.
Every day, we’re exposed to:
- Heavy metals (like mercury and lead)
- Pesticides & herbicides
- Endocrine disruptors (like BPA in plastics)
These toxins can mimic human tissue, leading to something called molecular mimicry. This is where the immune system mistakes your own body for an invader and attacks it. Over time, this confusion can trigger or worsen autoimmune diseases.
Chronic stress & its impact on immunity
Raise your hand if you’ve ever been personally victimized by stress.
Yep, just what we thought. (And you’re not alone by the way, we’ve all been there!)
Chronic stress is like rocket fuel for autoimmune issues. It raises cortisol (your stress hormone), which:
- Disrupts gut health
- Messes with hormones
- Suppresses the immune system
Basically, if your body is constantly in fight-or-flight mode, your immune system never gets a break. And when it’s overworked, it’s more likely to misfire and attack you instead of actual threats.
The functional medicine approach to autoimmune diseases.
Conventional medicine focuses on managing symptoms with things like steroids, immunosuppressants, and NSAIDs, but it rarely asks the more important question: Why is the immune system attacking itself in the first place?
Functional medicine aims to identify and remove the root causes of immune dysfunction. Here’s what that looks like in practice:
- Optimizing gut health – healing leaky gut with targeted nutrition, probiotics, and gut repair protocols.
- Reducing inflammation – identifying and eliminating triggers like gluten, dairy, and/or ultra-processed foods.
- Balancing the immune system – using adaptogenic herbs, functional nutrition, low dose naltrexone (LDN), and lifestyle changes to bring the immune response back to baseline.
- Detoxifying the body – supporting the liver, eliminating toxins, and addressing heavy metal exposure.
- Managing stress – regulating the nervous system through breathwork, movement, and mindful techniques to prevent stress-driven inflammation.
Instead of just putting out fires, functional medicine helps calm the immune system at its source so you can actually start feeling better.
What labs your doctor isn’t running (but should be!)
If you’ve ever had standard bloodwork done, you know the drill: Your doctor takes a quick look at basic inflammatory markers, maybe a CBC… and that’s about it. The truth is, autoimmune diseases often start long before they show up on routine tests.
Here are some functional medicine and autoimmune disorder labs that we perform at Ivalo MD that dig deeper:
- Comprehensive gut testing: These tests check for leaky gut, bacterial imbalances, and gut inflammation, all of which play a role in autoimmunity.
- Full thyroid panel: Many doctors only test TSH, but you also need T3, T4, Reverse T3, and thyroid antibodies to properly assess autoimmune thyroid diseases.
- Inflammatory markers: CRP (c-reactive protein), ESR (erythrocyte sedimentation rate), and homocysteine give a more precise picture of chronic inflammation and immune activation.
- Food sensitivity testing: These tests help identify foods that may be triggering the immune system.
- Toxin & heavy metal testing: We use these tests to measure exposure to chemicals and metals that could be fueling autoimmunity.
Getting the right labs can be the difference between simply managing your symptoms and getting real answers about your health.
Autoimmune diseases aren’t just bad luck or genetics.
It’s a response to modern environmental and lifestyle factors, which means there’s a lot you can do to take back control. Functional medicine especially works to rebalance the immune system by addressing the root cause.
If you’ve been diagnosed with an autoimmune condition (or suspect you may have one), the best next step is to dig deeper with the right testing and a root-cause approach. Book a consultation with Ivalo MD today to get personalized testing and a plan to start feeling better!
