Why “Autoimmunity” probably doesn’t exist

[pattismith]

I subscribe to Prof Paul Ewald's view that infectious pathogens are the major causal factor in autoimmune diseases, cancers and other chronic diseases (including serious mental health diseases).

I suspect that the reason we are seeing a great rise in autoimmune diseases and cancers may be in part because of liberal values and the sexual revolution, as well as because of globalization and global travel.

This is because both liberal values and globalization allow pathogens to spread between human beings, which means that 21st century man may be experiencing viral and pathogenic overload.

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I do share your opinions.
in human history, Neolithic Revolution was the first step of this infectious and toxic overload:

-Domestication allowed virus and bacteria to spread from animals to humans (herpes for example)
-Cereal crops and conservation brought fungal toxins
-Increased demography (edit : and demographic concentration) brought epidemics rise

These phenomenon produced a drop of life expectancy when we went from Paleolithic to Neolithic eras.

 

[Sidny]

That's what I assumed (that the authors do not deny that autoimmune diseases exist vs. they are just defining them in a new way). Both of my two main treating doctors believe 100% that the Mono virus/ EBV led to my autoimmunity. They feel that my body kept trying to attack the Mono (which was long gone but I tested IgM+ and EA+ for EBV for many years after) and it finally shifted into autoimmunity.

I do not have Celiac but my Endo suggested to avoid gluten b/c it mimics the Hashi's autoantibody (or whatever part of the thyroid it attacks-- I cannot remember)?! I have been gluten free for 5+ years but on the rare occasion that I eat gluten, it is okay since I am not allergic to it. But I avoid it to slow down the autoimmune attack on my thyroid.

Seems the authors are calling for a paradigm shift in that the word itself, “autoimmunity” is misleading and implies by definition, the body attacking itself when in reality the body is just mounting an immune response for example, against persistent viral particles many of which are immortalized by living intracellularly unlike flu and rhino viruses that are transient and totally eliminated by the body.

So I would imagine under their model that Hashimotos, or Sjogrens for example could retain their labels just not be referred to as autoimmune in the traditional sense. Their putting the terms “autoimmunity” and “autoantibodies” in quotes leads me to believe they don’t lend much credence to the terms as a whole and in one part of the paper they say the term autoantibodies should be retired.

The author also argues here there’s no such thing as “past infections” per say when it comes to certain microbes as they’re known to persist in tissues and indeed in the case of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s studies are showing persistent herpes virus in brain tissue that are suspected to drive the dementia process, likewise enterovirus is showing up in brain tissue of Parkinson’s and ALS patients while EBV has long been linked to MS.

Here the author Amy Proal discusses the trouble she has in understanding the mechanisms behind the “pathogen trigger” model

That’s interesting in regard to avoiding gluten I have heard this before too, I think that’s accurate and has to do with molecular mimicry.