Robert Whitfield MD explains autoimmune diseases, which doctors have recognized since the 1800s but diagnoses have exploded since the 1980s. There are roughly 100 to 150 autoimmune conditions, many triggered by molecular mimicry, where the immune system mistakes the body's own cells for invaders.
Questions this video answers
About 100 primary autoimmune conditions, plus an additional ~50 conditions with an autoimmune component (speaker's estimate of ~100–150 total).
Since the 1800s (speaker statement).
Since the 1980s (speaker statement).
I mean, it is pretty remarkable how, how common these things are, but not normal.
Maybe for my audience, you explain how you feel about terms like or leaky gut and how, you know, autoimmunity predates.
You know, it's from the 1800s, basically, autoimmune disorders.
And then we still have them in a very, you know, complex environment and ever becoming more complex environment.
Yeah, well, yeah, there's over 50 different autoimmune conditions. Or let me say it this way more expansively. There's over a hundred different autoimmune conditions and an additional 50 above that, 100 that have an autoimmune component. So we're talking about 100, 150. And you're right, every few years there's new diseases or there's diseases that are found, new mechanisms as to having autoimmune components to their pathogenesis. Like they're finding autoimmune components to things that were otherwise not considered autoimmune. And with time, if you think about this, what can happen in another 10 years of research and understanding these mechanisms of actions for different diseases? I think most chronic diseases are going to be found to have autoimmune components at the very least of them because it's this, this seminal event of molecular mimicry when, you know, the immune system kind of has this case of mistaken identity and is attacking different parts of the body. There's nothing new, but there's more and more being labeled as autoimmune and more and more people being diagnosed with them. I mean, now it's, it's significantly higher. Exploded since the 1980s, specifically. I mean, it is pretty remarkable how, how common these things are, but not normal. We should not normalize these things that Even since the 1980s, I mean, we are significantly more. The rate of someone being diagnosed, diagnosed today is significantly, significantly higher. So it is something that we need to explore.
