I've had some sort of autoimmune thing hitting me almost every decade of my life (and then clearing up): eczema, asthma, vitiligo and most recently psoriasis. Usually quite mild, but I worry that the next one in the progression will be arthritis. Most doctors' explanations can be summarised into a shrug. Would be a relief to know what's going on in there.
Hey: do you have any stomach problems? Because that was me (up to and including the arthritis part) and then my "IBS" turned out to be Crohn's disease and once I started treating that 90% of my other shit vanished. Things were so bad back then that I was seriously considering a hip replacement to make the pain stop, but today I just hopped off the exercise bike and feel totally fine.
Oh dear, I hope not. I do tend to have the occasional need to visit the mens room several times a day (but only at a level where it's just the mildest of inconveniences). I'd be really worried if it was IBS. The prospect of that getting "upgraded" to Crohn's is downright terrifying. Maybe I'll ask my GP next time.
It could very well not be that, but I always feel compelled to mention it just in case I can spare someone else the same "three years of confusion to figure out what was wrong" fate that I suffeed :P
And even more broadly speaking, if your immune stuff does progress, the good news is that treating the biggest baddest one (in my case, the Crohn's) usually treats the myriad smaller ones with it. So if you ever end up arthritic enough to get treated for that, the treatment should knock down your psoriasis and other stuff too!
^ Likewise if certain foods set you off and those foods are actually "good for you". If you feel like crap after eating a ball of grease, that's one thing, but it turns out leafy greens aren't supposed to give you a nuclear-level stomachache.
At first, a mix of mesalamine and oral steroids; then I graduated to Remicade and a low dose of methotrexate to stop my immune system from creating antibodies against the Remicade. And that's basically it.
I should also note that even when I was only taking mesalamine (a drug that works in your GI tract and basically nowhere else), my arthritis pain improved drastically, so it wasn't just the result of steroids having a general anti-inflammatory effect. Treating my intestines alone was enough for me to stop walking with a cane.
Autoimmune disorders all have a common root of gut dysfunction. I suffered from chronic inflammation for five years, the ultimate solution was a double capsule probiotic and eating more fiber. Most probiotics have a single capsule that opens in the stomach and all those CFUs are killed by stomach acid.
