Environment, Lifestyles, and Climate Change: The Many Nongenetic Contributors to The Long and Winding Road to Autoimmune Diseases.

ABSTRACT: A critical unanswered question is what is causing the increase in the prevalence of autoimmunity and autoimmune diseases around the world. Given the rapidity of change, this is likely the result of major recent alterations in our exposures to environmental risk factors for these diseases. More evidence is becoming available that the evolution of autoimmune disease, years or even decades in the making, results from multiple exposures that alter susceptible genomes and immune systems over time. Exposures during sensitive phases in key developmental or hormonal periods may set the stage for the effects of later exposures. It is likely that synergistic and additive impacts of exposure mixtures result in chronic low-level inflammation. This inflammation may eventually pass thresholds that lead

SUBMITTER: Miller FW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11684977 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature