Stress Triggers Autoimmune Diseases: Fact or Fiction?

"Why do 80% of patients with autoimmune diseases, like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, thyroiditis and multiple sclerosis, report that their symptoms first appeared after a period of extreme stress? On first blush, this association seems counter intuitive. When one is stressed, large amounts of the stress hormone cortisol are pumping through your body, and cortisol is amongst the most potent anti-inflammatory hormones your body makes. Logically, when you are stressed, your immune system should be tuned down - not turned up as in autoimmune diseases."

"Without data, physicians often considered this an imaginary association. Compounding the problem is that autoimmune diseases occur in females of all species at a 2 to 10-fold higher rate than in males. Not helping was the centuries-long dismissal of many illnesses in women as "hysteria." In fact, the word hysteria is derived from the Greek for uterus or womb: "hystéra.""

"I even attributed the perceived association to coincidence - that is, until I developed inflammatory arthritis and Hashimoto's thyroiditis after a period of prolonged stress. I began to wonder what could account for the connection. I had been a long-distance caregiver for years when my mother was dying of breast cancer, and before that when my father died after a long decline from a Parkinsons-like dementia."

Most patients with autoimmune diseases report symptom onset after extreme stress, despite cortisol's anti-inflammatory role during stress. Chronic stress impairs stress-hormone receptors, reducing cortisol's anti-inflammatory effects, which can allow immune activation. Autoimmune diseases have increased prevalence alongside environmental exposures and stress. Females have 2–10 times higher incidence than males, and female illnesses were historically dismissed as 'hysteria.' Personal experience links prolonged life stressors — caregiving, bereavement, divorce, job stress — to onset of inflammatory arthritis and Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Engaging the seven domains of integrative health can reduce stress and help modulate autoimmune disease.

Read at Psychology Today