I confess I was thrown off by "autoimmunity" as I thought it would be a GOOD thing, my reasoning being that an "Autoimmune Disorder" is a bad thing. But I was wrong! I am happy to have learned this new thing today, which is:
"Autoimmunity is the system of immune responses of an organism against its own healthy cells, tissues and other body normal constituents."
I’ve never heard the sun thing, interesting - any idea why that might be? Avoiding carbs/sugars seems to help me a bit, I think. Do you have any good links for common triggers, how to spot them, etc? I never seem to ‘learn’ mine because there’s always so many possibilities of what could have triggered a flare.
I don't have an autoimmune disease. But a friend of mine had lyme disease => stomach bleeding => allergies to all the foods (when undigested food gets into your bloodstream, your body reacts to it much the same way as it would a virus).
Both then and now, as some of her allergies are starting to fade, the trick was limited experimentation. Get to a known good state. Spend a week exposing yourself to small, then medium amounts of whatever you want to test. Observe your reaction. Repeat for something different the next week. You can test removing stuff from your diet this way too, but it's hard to identify false negatives: "I didn't get better -- does that mean I'm not allergic to this food, or that there are more triggers I still need to remove?"
It's basically the scientific method: form a hypothesis, establish a control, make a modification, observe results. It takes a lot of patience, but if your condition has a big enough impact on your life, is probably worth it. The hardest part is probably getting to a known good state. My friend was able to take an allergy test and err on the side of eliminating foods, to help her get there faster. I don't know what might help you; I'd recommend making a plan with your doctor.
An elimination diet is critical to under standing ones sensitivities.
I once spent a month eating nothing but sweet potatoes
. Best I ever felt. Afterwards I could quickly tell what was an issue. Which was most everything not on strict AIP diet.
The Auto immune protocol diet is an excellent place to start. Focuses on inflammation.
