What’s the difference between functional medicine and traditional medicine? What can functional medicine do for autoimmune disease?
In her book The Autoimmune Solution, functional medicine physician Amy Myers asserts that a functional medicine approach is required to treat autoimmune disease. She insists that modern lifestyles are more to blame than genetics.
Keep reading to learn what’s causing the autoimmune epidemic.
Functional Medicine vs Traditional Medicine
Amy Myers believes traditional medicine is ill-equipped to prevent or reverse autoimmune conditions. Instead, she argues that autoimmune sufferers need a functional medicine approach that holistically addresses the causes and treatments of autoimmune disease.
We’ll begin this section by explaining what functional medicine is, and then we’ll explore how it explains the causes of autoimmune diseases. We’ll also discuss why Myers believes these causes are behind an autoimmune epidemic in the US. Finally, we’ll explore how to use functional medicine for autoimmune disease prevention and healing.
What Is Functional Medicine?
Myers describes functional medicine as a whole-body approach to health that considers how all bodily systems interact, rather than treating different parts in isolation. Instead of addressing individual symptoms, it seeks to restore overall health by dealing with root causes. Functional medicine treatments include special diets and lifestyle changes while using medications only when necessary.
| Looking Beyond Traditional Medicine Other experts agree with Myers’ critique of traditional medicine. Gabor Maté, author of The Myth of Normal, criticizes what he calls the dominant biomedical model of health for its limited perspective. He argues that this model fails to understand health holistically, instead viewing health and illness almost exclusively as the result of the physical processes of biochemistry, pathology, and physiology. As such, it doesn’t consider the broader social, psychological, and environmental influencers of health. He writes that this reduces complex human conditions, such as autoimmune disorders, to mere symptoms that need to be treated or managed, often through intrusive and unnecessary pharmaceuticals or surgical procedures. While Myers favors functional medicine, Maté instead advocates for the biopsychosocial model, an approach to medicine that recognizes that our thoughts, feelings, social interactions, and environment profoundly impact our health. Both functional medicine and the biopsychosocial model emphasize the impact of the environment and lifestyle on health, and they address the root causes of illness rather than merely treating symptoms. However, the biopsychosocial model highlights—as the name suggests—psychological and social factors, including emotional balance, social connection, and a harmonious relationship with your environment. |
The Multi-Dimensional Cause: Much More Than Genetics
While traditional doctors often point to your genes as the cause of your autoimmune condition, Myers explains that autoimmunity has multiple causes beyond just genetics.
Myers believes that the genes predisposing you to develop an autoimmune condition activate when your immune system becomes chronically stressed and dysregulated. This means that while genetics play a role in causing autoimmunity, they’re not the sole cause.
Below, we’ll explore five immune system stressors that can lead to autoimmunity.
Stressor 1: An Unhealthy Digestive System
Myers argues that digestive health is crucial for immune function. She emphasizes that about 80% of your immune system overlaps with your digestive system. For example, the saliva in your mouth and the good bacteria in your stomach neutralize many of the germs that enter your body through food or water. However, many factors can disrupt gut health, including the following:
- Inflammatory foods (especially gluten, dairy, sugar, and processed foods)
- Medications (particularly antibiotics)
- Chronic stress
- Infections
According to Myers, an unhealthy digestive system can trigger autoimmunity by creating a leaky gut. Certain foods thin the lining of your intestines, allowing partially digested food particles, toxins, and bacteria to escape into your bloodstream. This triggers an immune response as your body attacks these invaders. Over time, this chronic inflammation and immune system stress can lead to autoimmune conditions.
Stressor 2: Toxins
Myers explains two ways that toxins can lead to autoimmunity. First, toxins can reduce the production of cells that regulate your immune system.
Second, toxins can confuse your immune system, weakening its ability to distinguish between foreign tissue and your own body. This happens when toxins overstimulate your immune system. It also happens when toxins alter or damage cells in your body so your immune system no longer recognizes them as part of your body.
Environmental toxins come from multiple sources—we’ll discuss four of them. The first source is water containing fluoride and chlorine.
Secondly, environmental toxins are found in toiletries. These products contain harmful ingredients like parabens, phthalates, and heavy metals.
Toxins are also found in a third source: food. For example, food can contain pesticides, heavy metals (especially fish), and chemicals leached from plastic containers and non-stick cookware.
Finally, indoor areas are sources of toxins. Homes can house toxins from building materials, furniture, carpeting, and mold growth. Indoor air can contain chemicals from cleaning products and building materials.
Stressor 3: Infections
In addition to facing toxins, our bodies also face environmental stressors in the form of germs that cause infections. Myers explains that there are two main ways infections can trigger autoimmunity. Your immune system might attack both the infection and similar-looking, healthy body tissues, or it might attack healthy tissue surrounding an infection. As a result, infections may not fully heal and the virus or bacteria may stay in your body, causing chronic inflammation. Some common infections researchers have linked to autoimmunity include the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and the E. coli bacteria.
(Shortform note: After Myers wrote this book, a new infection linked to autoimmunity entered the world stage: Covid-19. It can lead to a hyper-inflammatory state that causes the immune system to generate autoantibodies—antibodies that “defend” your body from itself. The resultant tissue damage can release intracellular components that serve as new targets for the immune system, perpetuating the cycle of inflammation and autoimmunity. People who have had Covid-19 have a higher incidence of autoimmune diseases, especially psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, and type 1 diabetes. While infections like EBV and E. coli and their effects are well-known, Covid-19 is still relatively new, so its impact on autoimmunity is still being investigated.)
Stressor 4: Emotional and Psychological Stress
Chronic stress that’s unresolved or continues escalating for months or years can lead to an overactive immune system. According to Myers, this shows that humans evolved to handle acute rather than chronic stress. In addition, emotional and psychological stress can depress your immune system, making it more susceptible to infections.
(Shortform note: In The Myth of Normal, Maté shares an example of how a chronic stressor like institutionalized racism can impact physiological health. Institutionalized racism teaches minorities to internalize hate and reject their identities. It teaches this overtly through direct discrimination and subtly through systemic bias and cultural messaging. According to Maté, this enforced self-rejection triggers profound psychological wounds that translate into physiological stress responses. This can lead to biological responses like elevated levels of cortisol and inflammation. Over time, this can contribute to health problems such as heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes among affected populations.)
Stressor 5: Modern Hygiene Procedures
Myers adds that, although they’re lifesaving, modern sanitation and medical practices may contribute to autoimmune conditions by reducing exposure to beneficial bacteria. Factors like being born by C-section, drinking formula instead of breastmilk, and overusing antibiotics deprive children of microbes that help them develop healthy immune systems.
| It’s Possible to Be Too Hygienic Other experts agree that we’ve maybe gone too far in our efforts to protect ourselves from bacteria. Rob Dunn, author of The Wild Life of Our Bodies, argues that there’s a correlation between modern sanitation practices (like using antibacterial soap) and illnesses (like asthma or diabetes). Regular soap washes away harmful bacteria. However, antibacterial soap has extra germ-killing components like triclosan, and it seems to go further than regular soap, killing helpful bacteria that protect us from other illnesses. This effect is similar to how antibiotics kill the bacteria that make you ill, but those antibiotics also kill the good bacteria that live in your stomach. To offset this effect, experts suggest taking probiotics whenever you take antibiotics and avoiding antibacterial soap. In addition, Dunn argues that there might be a connection between autoimmune disorders and the eradication of worms that tend to live in our intestines. Usually, we see getting rid of these worms as a positive development, and there are public health programs all over the world focused on giving children medication to expel worms. However, some studies have found that children who expel worms have more allergies (just like children born by C-section or who aren’t breastfed directly). This suggests that losing the worms weakened their immunity. In addition, populations that have eradicated worms have more cases of Crohn’s disease, an autoimmune disorder. In fact, researchers treating Crohn’s patients with worms are seeing a reversal in many of their symptoms. |
The Autoimmune Epidemic
According to Myers, these environmental and lifestyle stressors are driving an autoimmune epidemic in the United States. She points to the fact that autoimmune diagnoses have tripled in the US over the past half century. Myers argues that genetic changes occur too slowly to explain such a rapid and recent increase, which suggests that environmental and lifestyle factors are behind the epidemic.
| Additional Details About the Autoimmune Epidemic Other doctors are also sounding the alarm about an autoimmune epidemic. Sara Szal, author of The Autoimmune Cure, argues that 30% of Americans have autoantibodies—triple the percentage of 25 years ago. This suggests an even faster rise in autoimmunity than the increase Myers describes. This is perhaps because the increase Myers describes is based on the number of autoimmune diagnoses, whereas autoantibodies can exist in the body before a full-fledged autoimmune disease. Also, there seems to be a gender imbalance in the autoimmune epidemic, with 80% of cases occurring in women. In The Myth of Normal, Maté argues that this is due to women’s tendency to prioritize others’ needs over their own, causing stress that weakens immunity. This is further evidence that environmental and lifestyle factors are behind the autoimmune epidemic. |
Functional Medicine’s Multi-Dimensional Answer: Alter Your Lifestyle
According to Myers, a multi-dimensional understanding of autoimmunity opens up more opportunities for prevention and treatment because many of the risk factors are in your control. She recommends you reorganize your lifestyle to limit those risk factors. This includes eliminating problematic foods, healing your gut, reducing your exposure to toxins, addressing hidden infections that haven’t fully healed, and managing stress. Unlike conventional medicine’s symptom-focused approach, this method addresses the root causes of autoimmunity.
