Are Autoimmune Diseases Becoming More Common?

If it feels as if a startling number of people in your life now struggle with at least one autoimmune ­disease, it’s not your imagination.

“Autoimmunity” encompasses more than 100 conditions in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, and the incidence of these disorders is increasing by up to 12 percent each year in the United States, warns Molly Murray, CAE, president and CEO of the Autoimmune Association. These conditions include psoriasis, celiac disease, multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus.

Today, between 15 million and 50 million Americans have an ­autoimmune condition, with estimates varying widely due to the difficulty in assessing the scope of these diseases.

And because of the complexity of diagnosing autoimmunity itself, 50 million is likely to be an under­estimate, Murray writes in a 2024 National Health Council guest blog post.

Women make up 80 percent of those with autoimmunity and are twice as likely as men to be diagnosed.

Susceptibility to autoimmune disorders appears to run in families. A particular disease may not be genetic, but if one family member has lupus, the likelihood that another may have Sjögren’s disease and a third may have rheumatoid arthritis is much higher.

“The rise of autoimmune diseases in many parts of the world is an epidemic,” says Frederick W. Miller, MD, PhD, former deputy chief of the Clinical Research Branch and retired chief of the Environmental Autoimmunity Group at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at the National Institutes of Health. “We do not know the specific causes, but given the rapid increase, it cannot be genetic changes.”

Since genetics alone are not enough to explain the rapid rise in autoimmunity, many experts — including Miller — suspect environmental triggers.

“More evidence is becoming available that the evolution of autoimmune disease … results from multiple exposures that alter susceptible genomes and immune systems over time,” Miller writes in a 2024 review. “We pay a price for altering our environment, changing our lifestyles, and ignoring climate change.”

Then there’s stress. “Chronic stress can challenge the immune system and trigger inflammation,” explains neurologist David Perlmutter, MD, FACN, ABIHM. This can lead to immune dysfunction.

And these are especially stressful times, he adds. “Unlike historical stressors that were often immediate and survival based, modern stress tends to be chronic, stemming from work demands, financial insecurity, and, importantly, social comparisons.”

We’ve also lost many of the things that softened the impact of everyday stress, such as strong community ties and time in nature.

“Stress increases cortisol levels, which can disrupt sleep and drive cravings for unhealthy foods, while toxins in the environment add to the body’s inflammatory burden,” ­Perlmutter says. “Together, these factors weaken resilience, impair detoxification, and accelerate the development of autoimmune diseases.” (For more on autoimmunity and how to cope, see “Autoimmune Disorders: When Your Body Turns on You.”)