What Is Autoimmune Disease And Why Is It On The Rise? #shorts

What actually is autoimmune disease? I think of it as like the immune system gone haywire. Inflammation is really one of the core concepts. And so we think about several main factors. Genetics, of course, are important, but really that's a minority, maybe only a third of really what's going on. And the other factors are diet, lifestyle, environmental triggers, infections. Genetic factors, again can create a predisposition almost like this fuel. But then that spark from the environment, from chronic infection, from these lifestyle factors activate these processes and make the autoimmune disease more clinically apparent. Rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto's autoimmune, thyroiditis, celiac disease, Graves disease. The list goes on. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease estimates that the cost of treating autoimmune disease in the US is more than $100 billion annually. We think that that's probably actually a vast understatement. Estimates around just 7 of these 100 plus known diseases ranges from 50 to 70 billion dollars.