Autoimmune disease is a lifestyle disease. It starts developing, on average, 8 years before you would ever get a diagnosis. All along your body is telling you something is wrong through symptoms.

Looking back now, I can see some of the symptoms I missed. This was right around the time I had decided to quit my job and work for myself. I had a landscape architecture business in San Francisco, a new mortgage (my first) at a super awesome live/work loft with my fiancé and boy did I feel the pressure to make my success happen.

I was gaining weight even though I was super active. I was totally allergic to gluten but ignored the bloated feeling I’d get. I was exhausted every afternoon. I either ignored these or decided I was “getting old” at the age of 30.  I also had a lot of difficulty sleeping even though I was exhausted.

In this case, stress was a huge trigger for me in the development of my autoimmune diseases. Eating food I was allergic too was one of the causes of my leaky gut which also can lead to autoimmune disease.

Understanding the variety of root causes and triggers is so important in becoming aware of your body. We’re so quick to ignore anything out of the ordinary and then, eventually, that symptom becomes the new “ordinary”. This goes on until your body screams so loudly that you can’t ignore it anymore. Then comes a diagnosis.

Here are some common root causes and triggers:

• Leaky gut (can be caused by chronic NSAID use, birth control pills, toxins, pathogenic infection, stress, gluten or other food sensitivity and stress)
• Stress (see above)
• Hormone imbalance
• Trauma (emotional and physical)
• Infections (gut, mold, fungal, viral, lyme)
• Environmental frequencies (EMFs and radio waves)
• Microbiome diversity (limited diet can affect this)
• Food quality (glyphosate contamination, gluten, heavy metals, arsenic)

There are over 100 autoimmune diseases already identified, heart disease is one of them. More and more, science is discovering that environment/lifestyle plays the largest role, not our genes, in the development of these.

Our body is like an ecosystem. Everything is interconnected. So when you’re diagnosed with Graves disease, it’s not a disease of the thyroid, it’s a disease of the immune system.

Autoimmune disease is a lifestyle disease. We aren’t a product of our circumstances, we’re a product of our decisions. We decide our environment, our habits, our beliefs and our thoughts.

Remember that autoimmune disease doesn’t happen to you, it happens for you. It’s a gift. An opportunity to transform and change your life. My life is forever transformed in the most powerful way thanks to the wakeup call I’ve been given. My journey to put all of my autoimmune diseases into remission is an exercise in personal growth.

If you’re ready to investigate your triggers and transform your life,  Book a free chat with me today to learn how I can help.