AHS18

Approximately 50 million Americans suffer from autoimmune diseases, according to the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association. Though the Ancestral Health Community discusses treatment of autoimmune disease, it doesn’t often discuss the source of them. As with all drugs, there are side effects to vaccines and one side effect is autoimmune reactions. This session will review the primary mechanisms of vaccine-induced autoimmunity, with an emphasis on molecular mimicry, repeated immune activation and aluminum-triggered responses. It will start with the most certain reactions (those compensated by the US National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program) and the pandemic flu shot (H1N1) causing narcolepsy then move to more recent and less certain associations. Some genetic variants increase the risk of an autoimmune reaction, which will also be discussed. Finally, the presentation will conclude with several key modifications that could be made to both vaccines and the vaccine program to reduce the occurrence of autoimmune reactions.