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Ari Tamani's avatar

My question is, what is the evolutionary advantage of having autoimmune issues? My theory is that it potentially helps in fighting diseases from the various environments we were forced into.

Also, it’s not necessarily just an Ashkenazi thing. My mother is Mizrahi and she passed her Hashimoto thyroiditis on me.

Hal Bogotch's avatar

Two close cousins of my mother's have had ALS (f/k/a Lou Gehrig's disease) — I guess it goes to show that it's best not to ignore this type of occurrence, especially when patterns seem to emerge.

Cynthia Lazar's avatar

Thank you for your excellent article. I feel like you’ve left out the most interesting point. The increased immune response that might be responsible for Crohn’s disease would have conferred a benefit during the plague of the middle ages.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/black-death-immunity-gene-crohns-disease-health