Book Review! The Autoimmune Epidemic: Bodies Gone Haywire...

So since my last miscarriage (brief moment of sadness allowed), I have checked out several books from the library concerning autoimmune disorders, purchased one that no library owned (to fulfill my need to sometimes highlight things), and done a fair bit of Internet research. I've also revisited two out of the 18 doctors on my Doctor Rundown List.

One of the books is The Autoimmune Epidemic: Bodies Gone Haywire in a World Out of Balance--and the Cutting-Edge Science That Promises Hope by Donna Jackson Nakazawa.

The gist of this book is that our autoimmune problems can basically be traced to the recent preponderance of chemicals, irritants, and pollutants we're exposed to on a daily basis. Early on, Nakazawa presents a snapshot of a middle-class mom cooking and running errands. Along the way, she uses a Teflon-covered pan, food from bottles and cans laced with BPA, sleeps on a mattress doused with flame retardant, walks on carpet lightly covered with stain-resisting-chemicals...you get the idea: "...over the past five years, they have begun studying pollution in people, and the findings are causing many researchers to reevaluate their assumptions about how successfully our bodies interface with the chemical-laden world in which we live..."

Some highlights:

In a 2003 study from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC: "each volunteer carried an average of 91 industrial compounds, pollutants, and other chemicals."

In a 2004 CDC study which tested blood and urine: "Researchers working through two major laboratories found an alarming cocktail of 287 industrial chemicals and pollutants in the fetal cord blood of ten newborn infants from around the country, in samples taken by the American Red Cross. These chemicals included pesticides, phthalates, dioxins, flame retardants, and break-down chemicals of Teflon, among other chemicals known to damage the immune system. Shortly after, investigators in the Netherlands turned up similar findings: they discovered an array of chemicals commonly found in household cleaners, cosmetics, and furniture in the cord blood of thirty newborns."

And as far as my thyroid goes: "Researchers now understand that a wide array of  environmental chemicals can act as endocrine disruptors, affecting us at much lower doses than scientists previously thought possible." Oops. This is why I despise it when people say that something is in 'too small' a dose to cause harm. I don't think we're f***ing sure what dose will or won't cause harm.

A Dr. Gerard Mullin is quoted as saying: "'Drugs alone no longer suffice as quality care...we know so much about the potential for special diets and supplementation to help modulate autoimmune disease and we have to help patients reap those benefits." Emphasis mine because I love these words.

And of course, in addition to chemicals and crap from the inanimate objects around us, what about what we're actually ingesting? Nakazawa mentions that too: "We've gone from a whole-foods diet--one in which we digested whole grains, fruits, vegetables, poultry, and livestock produced locally or on our own land--to a processed-food diet. This processed-food diet often consists of highly preserved bread products, doughnuts, prepackaged coffee cakes, and cereals laden with sugar for breakfast...what fresh foods we do consume...are sprayed liberally with pesticides and fungicides."

I wrote down some of the specific plastics and chemicals mentioned, but quickly became overwhelmed by acronyms: PFOA, PBDE,PCBs?

Admittedly, I need to reread* this book because I missed the 'promises' of hope part promised in the title. What I came away with is a) slight depression, b) the desire to grow my own food and build my own chemical-free house, and c) the understanding that (in many cases) we're screwing ourselves with our own technological advances. I don't know how to avoid these chemicals. They're on the couch I'm sitting on, covering my mattress, and have infiltrated my food either through packaging (plastic) or pesticides. Happily, I did find some PFOA-free pans at Wal-Mart a few weeks ago. Maybe the tide is turning!

While this book is a good read from a causal standpoint, I'm beginning to think I wasn't mentally prepared for the overwhelming reality of the situation...

*Footnote: I will update when I've reread and can elaborate on the hope part!

More Evidence That Auto-Immune Diseases Suck

One of the scariest things that I have been pondering lately is that my lovely envoy of doctors won't be able to find anything wrong, won't be able to pinpoint a cause for miscarriage. Remember how my Curly Haired Lady Doctor admitted that it is a possibility that my auto-immune problems* could be a cause, but that there was a) no way to tell if that was the case and b) no way to treat it? It's true. The bad news is that if you have thyroid antibodies, you're more likely to miscarry.

Stethoscope on Book by Gualberto107; freedigitalphotos.net

I recently found a site called Hypothyroid Mom! Posted there they have a series of articles. The one that sticks out to me is a post by another hypothyroid Mom (well, duh, I guess) who blames hypothyroidism for her miscarriage--Have You Suffered A Miscarriage? Your Thyroid Could Be To Blame. In the author's story, her doctors reassured her that there were no links between hypothyroidism and miscarriage (wrong!) and didn't adequately check and treat her hypothyroidism.

More evidence that hypothyroidism and thyroid antibodies could be to blame:

"The results showed that compared to normal pregnancy or spontaneous abortion, recurrent miscarriage was associated with a significant increase in the number of CD5+/20+ positive cells ...These women were also found to have a higher incidence of thyroid antibodies, with four out of the 11 patients being positive for thyroid microsomal antibodies. These results suggest that there may be an association between autoimmunity and recurrent miscarriage."

Another study found a "clear association between the presence of thyroid antibodies and miscarriage was found...This association may be explained by a heightened autoimmune state affecting the fetal allograft, of which thyroid antibodies are just a marker."

And here: "In the case of infertility, although the clinical relevance of TAI [thyroid auto-immunity] is somewhat controversial, when all available information is considered the results strongly suggest that when infertility is due to well-defined female causes, autoimmunity is involved and TAI constitutes a useful marker of the underlying immune abnormality, independently of thyroid function disorders. In the case of pregnancy loss, the vast majority of available studies clearly establish that TAI (even with no overt thyroid dysfunction) is associated with a significant increase in miscarriage risk."

Oh, joy! This study found that: "Thyroid dysfunction has been related to obstetrical complications such as premature delivery, gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, and placental abruption."

Although maternal thyroid antibodies have been associated with pregnancy loss, universal screening and possible treatment with exogenous T4 cannot be recommended because evidence is insufficient that such treatment lowers miscarriage rates. - See more at: http://www.jwatch.org/wh201208300000001/2012/08/30/management-thyroid-disease-during-and-after#sthash.LElk1di1.dpuf

Although maternal thyroid antibodies have been associated with pregnancy loss, universal screening and possible treatment with exogenous T4 cannot be recommended because evidence is insufficient that such treatment lowers miscarriage rates. - See more at: http://www.jwatch.org/wh201208300000001/2012/08/30/management-thyroid-disease-during-and-after#sthash.LElk1di1.dpuf

Although maternal thyroid antibodies have been associated with pregnancy loss, universal screening and possible treatment with exogenous T4 cannot be recommended because evidence is insufficient that such treatment lowers miscarriage rates. - See more at: http://www.jwatch.org/wh201208300000001/2012/08/30/management-thyroid-disease-during-and-after#sthash.LElk1di1.dpuf

Although maternal thyroid antibodies have been associated with pregnancy loss, universal screening and possible treatment with exogenous T4 cannot be recommended because evidence is insufficient that such treatment lowers miscarriage rates. - See more at: http://www.jwatch.org/wh201208300000001/2012/08/30/management-thyroid-disease-during-and-after#sthash.LElk1di1.dpuf

Although maternal thyroid antibodies have been associated with pregnancy loss, universal screening and possible treatment with exogenous T4 cannot be recommended because evidence is insufficient that such treatment lowers miscarriage rates. - See more at: http://www.jwatch.org/wh201208300000001/2012/08/30/management-thyroid-disease-during-and-after#sthash.LElk1di1.dpuf

More on placental abruption: "Antithyroid peroxidase antibodies are...associated with a threefold increase in the rate of placental abruption. However, this increase in placental abruption does not currently warrant routine antithyroid antibody screening during pregnancy."

The good news is that there is some evidence that treating a woman who is positive for thyroid antibodies with artificial thyroid hormones can decrease the risk of miscarriage:

"The study clearly showed the benefits of levothyroxine administration in pregnant women with AITD [auto-immune thyroid disease] not only to correct maternal thyroid function but also to reduce markedly the rate of undesired obstetrical events and lower their prevalence down to that found in healthy controls. There is no reason to believe that levothyroxine administration played a role in altering underlying autoimmunity."

But apparently not enough evidence:

Like here: "Although maternal thyroid antibodies have been associated with pregnancy loss, universal screening and possible treatment with exogenous T4 cannot be recommended because evidence is insufficient that such treatment lowers miscarriage rates."

So, as I stare down another month of various tests, part of me hopes that there is something else 'wrong' besides my auto-immunity. Something more 'fixable', more 'understood' by the medical community. Whatever the case, it's out of my control and, well, "He's got the whole world in his hands...", so I might as well relax. Or at least try. :)

*I've helpfully (sarcasm intended) hyper-linked lots of terms in this post because I've been writing for so long about various issues, I think some people who are currently reading might not know what I've been through or even what an auto-immune disease is. The Internet to the rescue!