Common Autoimmune Symptoms & Triggers

Autoimmune diseases can affect any type of person at any age. In the interest of spreading awareness about autoimmune disorders, this post provides an overview of the most Common Autoimmune Symptoms & Triggers.

When you’re having physical problems, it can be very difficult to target exactly what’s going on. Even though there are a large variety of illnesses that can cause certain sets of symptoms, these messages from your body can be very helpful in detecting what the problem may be.

You might even find it helpful to keep a journal so that you can keep track of when symptoms take place.

Most Common Autoimmune Symptoms

Autoimmune disorders are known for certain symptoms that seem to be common among the entire category of illness. Symptoms of flare ups like swelling, pain in hands and feet, numbness in hands and feet, hair loss, and fatigue, are all hallmarks of autoimmune disorders.

One thing to note however, is that a disorder like irritable bowel disease (IBD) will have other symptoms that are more associated with your digestive tract. Still, others like rheumatoid arthritis are more likely to be centered in the joints of the hands, neck, and feet.

Symptoms can be just one or two, or multiple, depending on what disorder you have and which underlying conditions you may have as well. Here is a list of some common symptoms to look out for:

• Constipation
• Diarrhea
• Fatigue / tiredness / sleeplessness
• Heart palpitations
• Joint pain / stiffness
• Mood swings / nervousness
• Muscle soreness / muscle fatigue
• Nausea / vomiting / indigestion / reflux
• Numbness / tingling
• Skin rashes / skin disorders
• Weight gain / weight loss

The important thing here is to take note of what areas are being affected and then make the connection between the area and which disorder this may be related to with the help of a competent physician.

Frequency of Symptoms

One of the most frustrating things that people with autoimmune disorders can experience is that many of these diseases have times when it seems as if they aren’t a disorder at all.

Flare-ups can be triggered by external factors or have no noticeable triggers. When symptoms are not present, these periods of time are known as remission.

This can be very psychologically jarring for a person who is suffering from this type of disorder because they are constantly waiting for another flare-up. That can be a major hindrance to social interactions with friends, colleagues, and loved ones.

Be Detailed

One thing that’s very important to do and relation to recording symptoms of a possible autoimmune disorder, is that you don’t want to ignore anything. Leaving out any crucial information can lead to a misdiagnosis or to a medical professional ignoring your complaints.

The difficult nature of these diseases make it absolutely necessary to include every detail, and any other information that could have a serious impact on a diagnosis. In fact, many people report experiences where they have forgotten or omitted important information that led to an incorrect diagnosis.

This is why it’s important to keep your own medical journal and thoroughly organized records, including lab work, medications, supplements, etc. I like to keep mine in a Dropbox folder, but you could also use Google Drive or even a well-organized physical filing cabinet.

With autoimmunity, you are in this for the long haul. So keeping your records in order can make such a difference in feeling like you have a handle on everything that is going on. Simply knowing where it all is if (and when) you need to revisit your records can help to create a sense of calm and reassurance in you, which can help to reduce anxieties.

Most Common Autoimmune Triggers

One difficult thing about trying to deal with an autoimmune disorder is that there can be so many different factors that come into play. This is one of the details that can make it extremely difficult to find out which disorder it may be, let alone how the sickness began in the first place.

Luckily, the research that scientists have been doing in recent years has given a fair amount of insight into what kinds of things to watch for. Read on to learn a few examples of what might trigger an autoimmune disorder.

Stress, Trauma, Anger, and Anxiety

After a large portion of studies have collected information about the effects of extreme emotions on your health, researchers have discovered that sustained stress can cause damage to your immune system, and can trigger varieties of autoimmune disease.

The majority of patients studied and surveyed during these studies reported that the first manifestations of illness took place during emotionally jarring times. Many of these included caring for aging and sick loved ones, financial stress, or the dissolution of marriage.

It’s also SO important to note that mental un-wellness can be a symptom OF autoimmunity, not just a trigger to autoimmunity. For example, many people with autoimmune thyroid disease report their anxiety and/or depression being reduced or even eliminated once their thyroid levels were optimized through diet, lifestyle, and proper thyroid replacement hormone medication.

Talk- and hypno-therapy has helped me personally work through past trauma. And especially so when I did my therapy with someone who knows exactly what it’s like living with chronic illness and autoimmunity. For a wonderful therapist who “gets it”, please check out Kerry Jeffery of Emotional Autoimmunity, and tell her Samantha sent you.

Gluten

In the last six years, gluten has become somewhat of a four-letter word among those who are newer to the natural health community.

Even though there’s a large portion of literature that is devoted to getting people to stop consuming gluten, not very many people understand exactly what gluten is or what its function might be. Gluten is a protein that is found in wheat, rye, and barley among other grains.

Some people who experience the effects of autoimmunity might believe that they have celiac disease, but when they’re found to show no signs of the disease they continue to consume gluten. (GASP!)

Unfortunately, this could be the beginning of a very serious battle with autoimmune disease as gluten has been mentioned by experts as a property that exacerbates leaky gut (a precursor to autoimmune disease). Even food simply exposed to gluten can be damaging to people who are especially sensitive, as seen in restaurant cross-contamination or in food manufacturing processes.

Gluten-free grains & some other foods

This might be serious bit of bad news to a lot of people who have been doing their best to avoid gluten (I’m so sorry!), but many of proteins contained in these foods are very similar to gluten and could also create many of the same symptoms.

These types of foods are called gluten cross-reactors…meaning your body chemically views them in the same way that it views gluten, and treats it as such -causing a gluten-like reaction even in the lack of presence of gluten. See a more comprehensive list as well as targeted ingredient myth-busting information here.

Keep in mind that not all of these symptoms may manifest the same way, and they can take place outside of the gut. It would be a good idea to get blood tests that are focused on figuring out what is going on in your immune system. This would give doctors much clearer information on which they can base a diagnosis.

For recipes free of gluten and cross-reactors, please visit my recipe archives and also check out my cookbooks! I’ve chef-created hundreds of easy, delicious recipes that are both comforting and nutritious with your gut integrity in mind.

Toxic Agents

Their number of compounds and new chemicals that have been formed as a byproduct of man-made processes. Some of these toxins are so dangerous that they can arrest neurological functions in the brain, or important processes that keep your cells alive.

While there are portions of these toxins that occur that can occur in nature, it’s still understood that some of the most detrimental toxins are the ones that are created as a result of man-made processing. This is why it’s so important to check your household products (beauty, hair, cleaning, laundry, soap, fragrances, etc) on the EWG Skin Deep Database to see how they rate for safety, and what each ingredient may be affecting in your body.

Please see this post to learn 8 Icky Cleaning Chemicals to Avoid as well as this post to discover toxin-free DIY Skincare from Your Kitchen.

Do you feel you know what your autoimmune triggers and symptoms are?

Let me know in the comments what triggers your autoimmune symptoms and what you experience. I’d love to hear (and send you a virtual hug).

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