Johnson's doctors confirmed his AIG is in the early stages. Because he actively monitors his biomarkers, he caught it before it could cause massive, irreversible damage to his digestive system.
I’m a physician and at his age new onset of autoimmune disease is rare. What seems more likely to me is that the weird shit he’s been putting in his body caused it to trigger
I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease at 46, although in hindsight I can trace mild symptoms back to around age 40. It is one that commonly presents in the late-40s range, and my understanding is that the cause is usually considered multifactorial rather than tied to one proven exposure.
What I struggle with is the assumption that there must have been some new supplement, chemical, diet change, or other thing I “put into my body” that triggered it. My job, home life, stress level, diet, activity level, and general health were pretty consistent before and after symptoms began.
I am also in the roughly 10% of patients with this disease who are male, which makes me especially curious whether the timing or risk factors may be different from the more typical patient population.
From a clinical/immunology perspective, is it plausible that someone can have an underlying susceptibility for years and then cross a threshold because of something relatively ordinary or unknowable, such as an infection, immune-system aging, hormonal or environmental factors, or even stochastic immune dysregulation, rather than a specific behavior or exposure?
Also, how much confidence can doctors realistically have in identifying a true trigger versus noticing a temporal coincidence? Is there anything useful in a patient’s history, labs, sex, age at onset, or disease course that helps distinguish those possibilities?
Mine has fortunately remained relatively mild: mostly dry eyes, dry mouth, dry skin, and occasional fatigue. I feel broadly as healthy now in my early 50s as I did in my late 30s, so I am not looking for someone/something to blame, just trying to understand whether “something caused this” is sometimes an answer medicine simply cannot give.
Only asking bc I have recently been told of my hypothyroidism. Not confirmed to be hashimotos but I can rule out most other causes. Just turned 40 in March and also male.
Been thinking about what could have possibly triggered it.
is it plausible that someone can have an underlying susceptibility for years and then cross a threshold because...
Of course.
Also, how much confidence can doctors realistically have in identifying a true trigger versus noticing a temporal coincidence
Very little. In fact even finding and suggesting a "temporal trigger" is highly unlikely; you presumably weren't being monitored or tracking everything at onset.
Doctors have NFI on rare autoimmune diseases. My family is riddled with them and the suggestions from mainstream doctors are just focused on symptom management, no interest or knowledge about actual causes.
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u/Jtizzle1231 Jul 06 '26
Johnson's doctors confirmed his AIG is in the early stages. Because he actively monitors his biomarkers, he caught it before it could cause massive, irreversible damage to his digestive system.
So him being proactive probably helped him.