Autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and type 1 diabetes are among the leading causes of death among American women under age 65, according to a new study.
However, the significance of autoimmune diseases in mortality rates has gone unrecognized since they are not classified in the same way as other conditions such as heart disease or cancer. Many autoimmune disorders are not in the list, prepared by the National Center for Health Statistics, that physicians use when recording cause of death.
Researchers examined national mortality data for 1995 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), looking for mention of 24 different autoimmune disorders, and found that, when grouped together, these disorders accounted for a very large portion of the deaths, putting it among the top 10 causes of death.
Another reason that these diseases do not show up as a cause of death is that many doctors do not list chronic health conditions as the direct cause of death when completing death certificates.
Previous research has found that about 5% of American women have an autoimmune disorder.
American Journal of Public Health September, 2000;90:1463-1466
The most important is diet, and this also happens to be one of the most important interventions for autoimmune disease. Other issues that are frequent problems are early emotional stresses, heavy metals and secondary viral infections from the previously mentioned factors.
In addition, there has been a lot of attention lately paid to the so-called "hygeine hypothesis". This basically is the theory that by living is a "sterile" environment and not being exposed to germs, especially during early childhood, the immune system is not properly "trained" and, lacking any real "invaders" to attack, may begin to develop improper immune responses to non-pathogenic substances and may even attack the body's own cells.
Additionally, Dr. Bart Classen, of Classen Immunotherapies, has found that vaccines can contribute to autoimmune disease, particularly type-1 diabetes.
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