This is one of those posts where I have to state the obligatory, “I am not a doctor, nor a scientist, nor a fortune teller.” What I am is a student of health with 20 years experience -- now a flare-free survivor for going on 10 of those 20 years -- of the autoimmune disease, Ulcerative Colitis. So I like to think that gives me some street cred when it comes to figuring out WHY did I get this disease as well as theorizing about why anyone would get an autoimmune disease.
Just from looking at my own family, it’s easy to see that the genetic link is REAL and it is STRONG. Several years after my own Ulcerative Colitis diagnosis at age 19, my older brother began experiencing symptoms and was diagnosed with U.C. in his mid-twenties. Then, in a fascinating plot twist, just a couple of years ago my mom also started experiencing symptoms and was diagnosed at the age of 68 (now we finally know who is to blame!).
There is a ton of research out there that definitely points to genetics as being a key factor and has convinced me that many of us are born with a genetic susceptibility to specific autoimmune diseases - susceptibility meaning we are more prone to, but not necessarily destined to get the disease. Thanks to our unhealthy habits, these genes are eventually turned on by numerous factors including our poor diets and lifestyles, toxic load, stress, lack of movement, and chronic lack of sleep, and as a result, autoimmune disease then presents itself.
Looking back many years later, I believe that I’ve pinpointed the three major things that turned my susceptible genes to the “on position” and triggered my Ulcerative Colitis to present itself. Not surprisingly, two of the three are diet related.
1. 19 years of the “Standard American Diet” catching up with me - Having been born in 1980, I was in the center of the microwave/convenience food generation, and happened to come into being at the beginning of the processed food onslaught. My generation was the first to grow up eating more packaged, highly processed substances than real food. Not to mention the insane amount of sugar I’d take in each day between my Honey Nut Cheerios, Little Debbie snack cakes and Golden Graham Treats (there’s still a very small part of me that misses those evil demons of deliciousness). And let’s not forget the SODAS. I hardly remember drinking any water growing up - it was the occasional milk or sugared up juice, but mostly it was soda. Remember Crystal Pepsi? Surge soda? I mean seriously, when I think of what our generation ingested it’s a wonder any of us lived to tell about it!
2. Fast Food Explosion - To add insult to injury, a huge, sudden increase in fast food and along with it a general decline in nutrition took place in my later teenage years. As I got older and more independent, most meals were eaten out with my friends at fast food places (hello McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s, etc.) replacing the only real nutrition I was getting from my mom’s home cooked meals, which was the only time I ever saw a vegetable that wasn’t in french fried form.
3. Messing with my natural hormones - I had just started taking birth control pills less than one year prior to symptoms starting. Coincidence? I think not. Given what I’ve learned about hormones and autoimmune disease in recent years, I now realize that this was likely the biggest instigator for me. In my case it was true - you mess with nature and nature will mess with you.
There are of course other possible culprits, including antibiotics exposure as a child catching up with me, but I believe the combination of the above three big life changes was the final straw that broke the camel’s colon (the camel being me of course).
The more I talk to fellow autoimmune sufferers around my age the more solidarity I find. We all had similar childhoods. No one really questioned what our generation was eating/drinking because no one started seeing the terrible effects until it was too late.
Likewise, no one seemed to be considering that hormonal birth control might not be the healthiest idea, especially for teenagers whose bodies are still growing and developing and for those who don’t truly have a physiological need for them. This is debatable for sure but interesting to think about.
And fascinatingly, I’ve found that a lot of us experienced the onset of our disease right around the same time in our lives - in our late teenage years or early twenties, soon after starting college and other big lifestyle changes that mimic my own.
The good news is that as much as our poor diets and lifestyle can turn on autoimmune disease, making the change to a healthy diet and lifestyle can turn it back off, and keep it off!
I firmly believe that the more we as a society start living truly healthy lives, the more we will not only see ourselves become healed and stay healthy, but we will see autoimmune disease statistics, as well as many other disease statistics, begin to fall instead of continue to rise. You can find inspiration for this here and here.
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