I have long been frustrated by medical school education. We often used words like idiopathic or genetic to explain a disease that we did not understand.

This left us believing that our lives were predestined to be diseased, based on our parent’s history. We often subscribed a disorder to bad genes and tough luck — when the truth is usually quite far from this.

Recent science is showing that there are many disease triggers, from diet and lifestyle factors to chemicals to viral and bacterial infections.…

We are making the human host environment more hospitable for these negative events to occur by our dysfunctional modern lifestyle choices.

Over the years I have written about many different risk factors for disease. Here is a list of the top lifestyle choices that are hurting us by inducing immune shifts:

1) Lack of sun exposure. We shun the sun to our detriment. The sun induces the production of vitamin D in our skin which directly induces a gene — Foxp3 — which is necessary for the master immune dampener, known as the T regulatory cell, to default our reaction to non-pathogenic food proteins.

2) Not enough early microbial exposure. We are too clean, and this is messing up our natural immune priming. Remember the Amish/Hutterite article that proved early and often bacterial endotoxin dust exposure is beneficial in priming the immune system.

3) Too many caesarian sections and not enough breastfeeding. Similar etiology [cause] as no. 2.

4) A poorly diverse micro biome because of a high fat, high refined flour and sugar diet. The intestinal micro biome is a major player in immune competence and a poorly established flora leads to immune dysregulation and inflammation. Nutrition is the no. 1 way to heal a dysfunctional gut immune layer and prevent autoimmunity.

5) Low levels of minerals like zinc that are necessary co-factors for immune cell and intestinal cell function.

6) Over-exposure to immune damaging toxins and chemicals from our poorly regulated chemical industry and modern industrial lifestyle.

7) Overuse of drugs like steroids, antibiotics and antacids which alter the gut micro biome, immune cells and also the gastric acidity. Each one of these drug classes has a negative effect on long term health.

Think about living and life free of autoimmune disease.

This article can be found in its entirety at www.salisburypediatrics.com and click the health and wellness tab.

Dr. Magryta is a physician at Salisbury Pediatric Associates. Contact him at newsletter@salisburypediatrics.com