The Downside of Having a Strong Immune System: Autoimmune Disease

A strong immune system helps us combat dangerous infections, and that's why nearly everyone who's trying to look after their health will think and talk about ways to boost the immune system. Unfortunately, it can also trigger autoimmune diseases such as lupus, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren's syndrome, and type 1 diabetes.

“There are so many autoimmune diseases affecting all sorts of tissues,” offered Andrea Graham, an evolutionary biologist at Princeton University, at the annual meeting of the International Society for Evolution, Medicine and Public Health in July 2016.

What could explain the existence of autoimmune disease? “One potential answer is that vulnerability to immune-mediated disease is simply the price we must pay for potent and rapid defense against infection.”

People Who Have Strong Immune Systems Live Longer, But Not Always Better

Dr. Graham and her colleagues analyzed data from a long-term study of elderly people in Taiwan. This research endeavor has collected blood samples from and secured medical records of more than 1000 people born between 1892 and 1953, and followed their health for 27 years.

The study collected data on the participants' physical, emotional, and psychological health, and persuaded them to participate in overnight hospital stays so the researchers could take 12-hour urine samples and fasting blood specimens. Researchers measured everything that would be measured at a doctor's office, and did DNA testing to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (mutations), telomere length (a measure of how many more times a cell can divide), and the presence, absence, and activation of 164 genes. The oldest participants in the study 27 years ago are, of course, now deceased, but the research team was able to get measurements from 639 of the volunteers in 2000 and 2006.

One of the many laboratory measurements in the study was the level of "self-reactive" antibodies. These are antibodies that are capable of attacking not just a germ, but also the body's own tissue. The researchers found that participants with the highest levels of self-reactive antibodies were 33 percent less likely to live (or rather, to not pass away) in any given year. However, they were also much more likely to develop chronic autoimmune diseases, especially lupus, which can have a large negative impact on a person's quality of life.

How Can a Super-Healthy Immune System Cause Disease?

One of the puzzles of immunology is that people whose immune systems fight off infections well often live long enough to develop autoimmune diseases. This observation contradicts the widely held view that when it comes to immunity, more is better — and we should therefore do everything we can to "boost our immune systems".

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Dr. Graham explains that optimal immunity requires not just the right type of immune response but also the right amount of response. Excessive immune responses not only can destroy healthy tissues, they can also deplete the body's resources for ordinary maintenance and repair.

Sometimes, the most effective response to an infection isn't to activate the immune system to kill the causative pathogen, but instead to "starve" it out by depriving the disease organism of the level of nutrients it needs without depriving the body of level of nutrients it needs.

And sometimes the immune system's defense against one infection makes another infection worse. This is what happens in people who have both malaria and intestinal parasites. The parasite-killing cytokines that defeat malaria protect intestinal parasites, and vice versa. When it comes to immunity, more isn't always better.

Optimal Immunity, Not Maximum Immunity

There is an astonishing range of diseases that are caused by or aggravated by an overactive immune system.

These include allergies of all kinds, Alzheimer's disease, anemia, ankylosing spondylitis, autism, arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, celiac disease, congestive heart failure, Crohn's disease, type 1 diabetes, eczema, fibromyalgia, fibrosis, gallbladder disease, gastroesophageal reflux disease, Guillain-Barré syndrome, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, heart attack, autoimmune hepatitis, kidney failure, lupus, multiple sclerosis, neuropathy, pancreatitis, psoriasis, rheumatic fever, scleroderma, stroke, and complications of surgery.

That list was intimidating to read through, but even more so to consider when you're thinking about ways to boost your immune system.

Except for allergy, most of these conditions are driven by cytokines, chemicals generated by the immune system against a microorganism that have a molecular configuration that causes them to attach to certain kinds of healthy cells like a key fits in a lock. Long after the immune system has vanquished an infection, it continues to attack healthy organs.

Immune hyperactivity tends to wax and wane. There can be a long period in which an autoimmune disease produces relatively few problems, only to burst into full symptoms when some other infection, or some inappropriate use of an immune stimulant, reactivates the misguided immune attack.

​What can you do to avoid over-stimulating your immune system? To a certain extent, immune diseases are hereditary, but they almost always have environmental triggers, some of which you can modify or influence:

• The older you get, the more important it becomes to avoid infections. It may or may not be a good idea to get immunizations against common infections. If the vaccine uses a live virus or a live bacterium, ask your doctor if it wouldn't be a good idea to skip it. If the vaccine uses a dead virus or a dead bacterium, then it's less likely to trigger an autoimmune response. However, the reaction to the disease itself is usually a lot worse than the reaction to the vaccine.
• Wheat, oats, and potatoes tend to activate inflammation (which causes tissue damage) even in people who don't have celiac disease. On the other hand, rye tends to reduce inflammation. Replacing wheat with rye can make a huge difference in autoimmune symptoms in some people. The problem is that most "rye" breads also contain sneaky portions of wheat flour. Sourdough bread made with 100 percent rye flour is best if you are hoping to avoid inflammation while still enjoying bread.

READ 10 Super Powerful Herbs And Spices Your Body Needs To Boost Immune System

• Probiotic bacteria in the colon make butyric acid, which reduces inflammation in the body. There's also butyric acid in butter. Make sure you get some probiotic bacteria in your weekly diet. They occur in unpasteurized yogurts made from animal milks, soy milk, or coconut milk, and in fermented vegetables (such as kimchi or sauerkraut) that have to kept in the refrigerator, that haven't been heat-treated so they can be stored on the shelf.
• "Immune stimulant" herbs aren't a good idea if you have autoimmune disease. Echinacea, in particular, can be problematic. The problem isn't that echinacea doesn't work. The problem is that it works by providing a complex carbohydrate that "looks" like the surface of a germ to the immune system, which increases the production of T cells. The same T cells that can attack infections can also attack the linings of your joints and kidneys. For preventing colds and flu, wash your hands frequently, and avoid getting sneezed on.