Myth: Autoimmune Disease Can Be Cured…

I was chatting with a new friend of mine and she asked me how long it took for me to cure my autoimmune disease. 

I said, “Oh! I’m not cured. And I never will be.” 

She was surprised and said, “But you seem like you are cured! You are so healthy.”

I have to tell you, I was flattered that she thought so! It’s most certainly validating to hear these words, since I work so hard to make healthy choices in my life to help me life happily. 

But it’s simply not true. I am not cured, and I never will be. 

So I responded with honesty. “That’s because I spend a ton of time, effort and money in managing my health. I give my body the best chance possible to be as healthy as possible. I do the work to keep my inflammation down, so that my autoimmune disease can remain under control. Basically, I spent a huge amount of energy simply managing my life so that my autoimmune diseases don’t wreck me. ”

I have said this before and I will say this again. 

Autoimmune diseases cannot be cured through lifestyle. 

However, things like proper exercise,  healthy food, plenty of water, sleep, sunshine and  stress management can most certainly keep our autoimmune diseases under control, so we may appear like we are cured. 

But I will never be cured. I will always have an autoimmune disease. And the minute I forget that, I promise that my body will remind me. 

Let me tell you a story about that. 

The year leading up to last year, I had made so many lifestyle changes for so long that I started to feel good consistently, everyday, for 9 months. Can you believe that? 9 months of feeling good- no flares! Sure, I had moments here and there of exhaustion and some other symptoms, but they were really quite manageable. 

So I started to lighten up on my vigilance. I let some of the things I used to say no to creep in. I started getting tempted by the things that people do- like eating pizza with cheese, skipping my exercises, staying up late, or having 3 drinks, or cookies! (All GF, of course. I am celiac and I don’t mess around with that). 

But I got a little taste of what a more relaxed, more “fun” lifestyle felt like, and I wanted more and more. I had said no for so long that once I said yes, the floodgates opened. 

And when my body started fighting back- I ignored it. I didn’t want to believe it. I wanted to go on pretending that this more relaxed lifestyle was working for me. Until the symptoms started piling up. That “fun” me wasn’t really fun at all. My flares came back, my anxiety increased, my panic attacks returned, my skin exploded like a teenager, and I was exhausted and had no energy. That doesn’t sound like fun, does it? 

I realized that this isn’t me. It can never be me. To feel good and whole and vibrant in my skin, I must stay vigilant. So I am back at it. Doing the things that make me feel good. 

And I have to tell you, I feel great. I hope you do too.