The Autoimmune Epidemic (On-Topic, Non-Truther)

An article that summarizes autoimmune diseases and the rapid increase in incidence that has occurred over a few decades in industrialized countries.

The Autoimmune Epidemic: Bodies Gone Haywire in a World Out of Balance
Scientists worldwide puzzle over an alarming rise in the rates of autoimmune disease, while the media remain mute.

By Donna Jackson Nakazawa / Touchstone/Simon & Schuster
March 18, 2008, 9:00 PM GMT

http://www.alternet...._out_of_balance

 

Another paper that offers a good summary of autoimmune disease trends.


Questions Persist: Environmental Factors in Autoimmune Disease
Environ Health Perspect. 2011 Jun; 119(6): A248–A253.
doi: 10.1289/ehp.119-a248
PMCID: PMC3114837

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3114837/

From the paper:

"According to current estimates by the National Institutes of Health, as many as 23.5 million Americans may be afflicted with at least one autoimmune condition.3 But Rose says that number doesn’t account for 2010 U.S. Census data, and moreover, it’s drawn from the 24 autoimmune diseases considered in Rose’s assessment, when the actual number of these illnesses ranges from 80 to as many as 120.4 The actual size of the affected population in the United States could be as high as 50 million people,5 according to the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (AARDA), an advocacy group in East Detroit.

Autoimmune diseases tend to cluster among family members. Finger’s first child, for instance, has autoimmune hepatitis, while her sister has type 1 diabetes. However, even though identical twins have the same genetic susceptibility to inherited illness, Rose says it’s possible only one will develop an autoimmune condition, suggesting the involvement of environmental triggers.

Scientists define those triggers broadly: chemicals, infectious agents, stress, hormones, drugs, diet, weight gain, behavior, and more have all been cited as etiological factors. Rose acknowledges that changes in diagnosis might account for some of the increase. “That’s hard to rule out because there’s a lot more clinical awareness of these diseases now than there used to be,” he says. “But there are also some very good studies that show real increases, particularly for type 1 diabetes.”6,7 Given that type 1 diabetes has been well characterized for decades, this offers compelling evidence to date that rising incidence is not simply an illusion based on better diagnosis."

 

Why Was It Necessary To Start A New Thread.......All Of This Was Covered By Your Previous Thread...???



Cheers Glen.

 

I think the inclusion of on-topic means no one is allowed to disagree with him