My answer to Can an auto immune disease cause insomnia?
Answer by Connie b. Dellobuono:
Toxins, Thyroid, insomnia, autoimmune disease
In a research study in Greece regarding the bacteria Yersinia Enterocolitica, the researchers in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infection reported that the prevalance of antibodies to this bacteria was fourteen times higher in people with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis than in the control groups.
They concluded that there is strong evidence for an immunopathic causative relationship between this bacteria and Hashimoto's.
This is just one further example of what we are calling the multifactorial theory of Hashimoto's Thyroiditis etiology. In other words, various non-chemical factors might be combining with the chemical siege to cause our immune systems to make antibodies against our own thyroid glands.
If you have a family history of low thyroid, diabetes, or other rheumatic/autoimmune illness, then almost any serious physical or mental stress might trigger the primed immune system into mischievous action against the thyroid, one of its favorite body targets.
Thus, the cause of low thyroid disease may be viewed as multi-factorial, just as heart disease is multi-factorial. A person may have multiple risk factors, each of which can add to that individual's likelihood of acquiring the syndrome. Most people know that the risk factors combining to yield heart disease include family history, smoking, high blood pressure, high blood fats, stress, lack of exercise, and high levels of homocysteine.
Other than genetics and chemicals, are there other risk factors that could account for the energy epidemic that grips us? Could radiation, for example, be another cause? We know how deleterious this can be on sensitive immune balance. With the depletion of the ozone layer, our exposure to the sun's ultraviolet radiation is increasing.
Not only is the neck a likely place to receive much of this added new radiation, but the thyroid gland is particularly sensitive to it. Even more directly sensitizing to the delicate thyroid is the increased irrigation of food crops with brackish water containing significant amounts of radioactive iodine 131. This potentially toxic isotope is known to head straight for the thyroid gland and become concentrated there.
One non-chemical immune irritant on the increase is intestinal parasites. Once thought to be a problem confined to third world populations, a wide variety of mild parasitic conditions now affect the average city dweller in the United States.
Sometimes, without causing any particular distress, their presence is like a thorn in the side of the immune system, which makes increased levels of antibody against them. Increased antibody production against the parasites has a subtle way of spilling over into increased antibody production against the thyroid.
Still another possibly suspicious trend on the increase is the widespread fluoridation of municipal water supplies. This well-intended activity has been so widely accepted in today's society that it is shocking to read the mounting research casting doubt on its safety.
The short-range goal of reducing tooth decay seems to have blinded many to the long-range risks to sensitive immune balance posed by fluoridation. We discuss this in Thyroid Power.
The high stress of daily life may be as big a factor in thyroid disease as it is in heart disease. Anxiety and depression are known to have deleterious effects on immune balance. Also, the increasingly rapid pace of life may leave little time for immune-restoring activities like aerobic exercise, muscle building, or slow stretching. Keep in mind that what is disruptive to the immune system now, may be disruptive to a thyroid gland later.
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Connie's comments: Sleep, whole foods, avoidance of toxins (water,air,food,environment), exercise and de-stressing activities (massage, socializing with friends, nurturing) will help our immune system.