Jim KwikFounder, Kwik Brain · Brain Coach

The connection between trauma and autoimmune diseases!

6 Jun 2024 · 1 min

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About 80% of people with autoimmune disease have experienced trauma that triggered it. The expert describes a three-factor model: genetic predisposition, leaky gut, and a trigger like childhood trauma, infection, or hormonal shifts. Autoimmunity develops silently over 7 to 14 years before diagnosis.

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Maybe you could elaborate a little bit on the connection between psychological trauma and the development of autoimmune conditions.
About 80% of people with autoimmunity have trauma as a trigger in terms of 3 different factors that are required to develop autoimmunity. And those are genetic predisposition, leaky gut, increased intestinal permeability, and then a trigger. And that trigger can be adverse childhood experiences. It could be physical trauma, emotional trauma, toxic stress, hormonal transition, like perimenopause, Menopause or being postpartum or an infection. And one of the things that I think is important to realize as we look at the root causes of autoimmunity is that there's really a spectrum here from a state of health to autoimmune disease, but there's a vast middle ground in between where people are starting to develop inflammation and maybe attacking their normal tissues. And that can go on for 7 to 14 years before you actually get a diagnosis.