The other thing that happened is that as autoimmune diseases were discovered, they were farmed out to different specialties. The neurologists took over on neurological autoimmune diseases, the rheumatologists took over on others. So you have groups of specialists working without any kind of integration.
In your book, you argue that our environment plays a large role in this epidemic.
Between 1940 and 1980, we were engaged in the largest industrial growth spurt of all time. ... We introduced every kind of chemical you can imagine: 80,000 new chemicals have now been approved for use in the U.S.
I talked to scientists all over the world, and they suspect that these chemicals are confusing our immune systems. As you and I are talking, our immune system has been checking out the safety of foreign agents that our body is coming into contact with hundreds, thousands of times, over and over. Usually, the system works.
But what's happening now is that our immune systems are getting so many hits, nonstop - not only from these 80,000 chemicals but from our diets - that they're overtaxed. We're eating very differently than we did 100 years ago. A lot of foods that we're eating are full of chemicals, pesticides and additives as well. So our diet is also putting stress on our immune system.
Think of each new thing, foreign invader - whether it's a bacteria, virus or chemical - that comes into your body as having a bar code on it. The immune system has to read those bar codes and decide if this new invader is safe or not. What's happening with all the chemicals in our environment is that many times our immune system is presented with a bar code that is very similar to tissue in our own body. When our immune system is overwhelmed, mistakes get made. The body mistakes the tissue of the body for the foreign invader and attacks both.
Give me an example of an immune-altering chemical.
I'll give you [three]. Trichloroethylene, a solvent used in dry cleaning, paint thinners and strippers, glues and adhesives; PFOA, a breakdown chemical of Teflon found in nonstick cookware, car parts, flooring, computer chips, phone cables, carpet guard, upholstery, new clothing, grease-resistant french-fry boxes and disposable coffee cups; and bisphenol A, or BPA, a plastics building block used in baby bottles, dental sealants, the resin that lines food cans, eyeglass lenses and food packaging; and phthalates, plasticizers found in cosmetics. Recent studies show that low doses of all of these can alter the basic function of the immune system, and, in many cases, trigger an autoimmune response.
