Lifestyle and Autoimmune Disease: It's Still About Your Gut, but Not All About What You Eat

A variety of factors contribute to the development of autoimmune disease, among them genetics, leaky gut, and nutritional deficiencies. Although the power of therapeutic diets in the management of autoimmune disease is becoming increasingly recognized, an underemphasis on lifestyle contributors to immune dysfunction and gut health jeopardizes the efficacy of nutritional intervention. Chronic stress, inadequate sleep, inactivity and overtraining each negatively impact the health of the gut by interfering with digestion, damaging the gut barrier, or altering the gut microbiome. Understanding why and how to address lifestyle factors will enable the autoimmune disease patient to fully benefit from diet modifications.

Abstracts and information about the Ancestral Health Symposium can be found at www.ancestralhealth.org/ahs14program.