Women are four times more likely to be diagnosed with autoimmune conditions than men. Female hormones and X chromosomes play a part in this, but it’s mostly due to the health cost of being a woman in today’s world. Because of cultural and social gender differences, women are often exposed to more trauma-inducing events and tend to experience higher levels of stress than men.
The immune system is the body’s natural defence mechanism. When illness or injury strike, it releases chemicals designed to heal the cells it perceives to be under attack. When this happens in the absence of illness or injury, the immune system targets healthy tissue – in other words, the body fights itself.
You can inherit a genetic predisposition to autoimmunity, but your genes still need an environmental or emotional trigger to be activated. Those triggers could be anything from an abusive relationship to the pressures of being the primary caregiver. If you’re genetically vulnerable to autoimmunity and you’re struggling with the demands of your daily life, it’s likely that you’re living with one or more autoimmune conditions.
Centuries of social and cultural influence have dysregulated women’s immune systems. We face the impact of sexism and misogyny every day in so many ways, from coercive control to social shaming or the disbelief of medical practitioners when we try to report our symptoms. That’s why I do what I do. If the body can attack itself, that means it can also heal itself. I want to help you create the conditions that make healing possible. I want to help you take back control of your body.
Your DNA is not your destiny. Our lives may be changed by autoimmunity, but we can take action to mitigate or reverse those changes. If you inherit genes that make you susceptible to an autoimmune condition, you can still alter the way your body reads the DNA contained in those genes. The science of epigenetics tells us we can positively influence our biology by adjusting our lifestyles. We can take the smallest actions every day to change the bigger picture of our lives.
Copyright © 2025 yogacoachjo - All Rights Reserved.