Autoimmune Epidemic: Bodies Gone Haywire in a World out of Balance -- and the Cutting-Edge Science That Promises Hope » (Reprint)

Donna Jackson Nakazawa is an author and lecturer who specializes in family life and health issues. She has contributed to Parade, AARP The Magazine,and has appeared on ABC News and NPR radio. Nakazawa is also the author of Does Anybody Else Look Like Me? She lives in Maryland with her family. Visit her website at www.autoimmuneepidemic.com.

From the foreword by Dr. Douglas Kerr, Director, Johns Hopkins Transverse Myelitis Center

"The Autoimmune Epidemic by Donna Jackson Nakazawa is an astounding book....It is the kind of book that will rivet you and scare you. It will make you angry. It will amaze you with the courage of some of the people described in the book...The Autoimmune Epidemic is every bit as compelling as Upton Sinclair's The Jungle...It is also every bit as necessary as An Inconvenient Truth....

You will leave this book with no reservations about the veracity of the conclusions: put simply, there is no doubt that autoimmune diseases are on the rise and increasing environmental exposures of toxins and chemicals is fueling this rise. The research is sound. The conclusions unassailable....

Reading The Autoimmune Epidemic is a necessary first step. Reading The Autoimmune Epidemic is a life-altering event. It needs to be."

Publishers Weekly

Type 1 diabetes, Crohn's disease, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis-all these increasingly common illnesses are autoimmune diseases in which the immune system attacks the body's own tissues or nervous system. Equally alarming, as journalist Nakazawa tells us, is researchers' growing suspicion that autism may be an autoimmune disease, brought on in part by genetic predisposition, exposure of young bodies to man-made chemicals and perhaps viral triggers. Nakazawa (Does Anybody Else Look like Me?), who herself has been diagnosed with the autoimmune Guillain-Barré syndrome, tells of a lower-income Buffalo, N.Y., neighborhood where the growing number of relatively young residents with lupus led one persistent woman to discover that a lot where children played had been a dumping ground for industrial chemicals. She also chronicles the work of researchers at Johns Hopkins and other medical centers who have been able to regrow nerves using embryonic stem cells and destroy errant T cells of the immune system that have run amok. Included are suggestions for foods that may promote healthy immune response and consumer body care products to avoid. Everyone with a friend or family member with an autoimmune disease will find this a must read. (Feb. 5)

Forword Douglas Kerr xv

Introduction 1

Chapter One The Red Flag Disease

The Cold, Hard Numbers 23

"The Western Disease": A Raising Epidemic 25

A Growing Autoimmune Patient Laod 27

Patients on the Sidelines 29

A Case of Blinded Science 32

The Postwar Chemical Explosion: A New Plague of Autogens 38

Chapter Two The Invisible Invaders: The Driving Force Behind This Epidemic

The Burden of Chemicals We All Carry in our Bodies 44

Our Autogen-Filled World: How Did We Become So Contaminated? 46

The Danger of Tiny Doses 54

Understanding How Chemicals Trigger Autoimmunity 62

Different Autogen Thresholds in Us All 71

The Barrel Effect 72

The Story in the Numbers 75

Chapter Three Dirty Little Secrets: Cluster Epidemics from Buffalo to Texas

The Personal Becomes Political 89

The Strange History of 858 East Ferry Street 91

A Gathering Storm of Protest 98

"The Situation Is Worse Than You Think" 102

The Near Impossibility of Proving a Cluster 108

Cleaning Up the Mess, Finally 113

Clusters Around the Globe 116

Searching for a Fresh Start 120

Chapter Four A Potent Package: Viruses, Vaccines, and Heavy Metals

The Lupus Hunters 126

A Walk on the Wild Side: Changing Viruses and Global Warming 138

Avian Flu: An Autoimmune-inducing Virus 140

Vaccination Station: Autoimmunity Gets a Shot in the Arm? 141

The Role of Heavy Metals 145

The Genes-Mercury Dance 148

Looping Back to Vaccines 154

The Autism-Autoimmune Connection 155

The Hygiene Hypothesis 157

Blasting Our Cells 163

The Allergy Connection-and Why Even Those Without a Generic Predisposition to Autoimmunity Are Now at Risk 166

Chapter Five TheAutoimmune Disease Detectives: Era of the Mavericks

Cooking Up a Cure for Paralysis 179

The Blood Detectives 185

Can We Predict Who Will Develop Type 1 Diabetes 190

The Genetic Link 194

The Gender Equation 197

A Patient's Diagnostic Portrait 198

The High Cost of Preventive Treatments 199

"I Felt Like a Ticking Time Bomb" 205

The Road to Regeneration 209

The Diabetes Cure: Turning Over Paradigms 211

Can the Mouse Cure Be Applied to Humans? 215

Chapter Six Shielding Your Immune System: Rethinking Food, Stress, and Everybody Chemicals

Discovering that Food Is Medicine 221

The Rise in Factory Made Foods 225

The Autoimmune Diet 229

Choosing Organic Foods 235

The Quest for Safe Foods and Supplements 238

Understanding the Stress Connection 248

The Biology of Emotion 252

How the "Precautionary Principle" Can Help 255

Protecting Your Immune System 257

Appendix I Autoimmune and Related Diseases 263

Appendix II Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and the Autoimmune Connection 269

Notes 271

Acknowledgments 319

Index 321