Debilitating autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis, celiac disease and lupus, are increasing at a concerning rate of about 20 percent annually.
An estimated 15 million people in the United States are currently living with an autoimmune disorder, a broad category of illnesses that develop when the immune system mistakenly targets the body’s own healthy cells.
Complicating the picture further, many patients are diagnosed with more than one autoimmune condition at the same time, according to a Mayo Clinic study published in January 2025.
Despite the sharp rise, researchers still do not fully understand what is driving the increase — or how best to stop it.
“Autoimmunity is probably not caused by one specific thing but is believed to be due to a number of different factors,” Dr. Gary Soffer, an immunologist at the Yale School of Medicine, told the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview.
The issue has returned to the spotlight following former tech entrepreneur and biohacker Bryan Johnson’s announcement last month that he has been diagnosed with autoimmune gastritis. Autoimmune disease can appear in more than 100 different forms.
“Bad news #1: I have an autoimmune disease. My stomach is eating itself,” Johnson, 48, wrote on X. “Bad news #2: 2–5 percent of people have this, too. Likely more, because it hides.”
Johnson, who is widely known for spending millions of dollars a year on efforts to reverse his biological age, said he is determined to find a way to treat his condition.
Unfortunately for Johnson and others like him, the consensus of the medical community is that autoimmune diseases are not curable, at least not yet.
‘Most autoimmune diseases are treatable but not truly curable, in the way we think of curing an infection or some cancer,’ says Soffer. ‘Many of them can be pushed into remission, but the underlying tendency of the immune system to attack the body often remains.’
Johnson’s belief that his stomach ‘is eating itself’ may sound dramatic but he is not entirely incorrect.
Former tech entrepreneur-turned-biohacker Bryan Johnson, 48, announced that he has been diagnosed with autoimmune gastritis diagnosis via social media on June 3
Johnson, best-known for spending millions each year to reverse his biological age, claimed he is committed to curing his autoimmune gastritis condition
Dr. Gary Soffer is an allergist-immunologist at the Yale School of Medicine
‘Autoimmune gastritis is a disease where antibodies that the body has produced attack cells in the stomach lining’ and ultimately destroy them,’ explains Dr Sheila Rustgi, an Assistant Professor of Medicine at New York-Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia University Medical Center.
The condition results in a range of symptoms, from abdominal pain and weight loss to bloating, nausea and indigestion, along with an increased risk of stomach cancer.
The compromised stomach lining can also lead to chronic deficiencies of iron and vitamin B-12, which can result in anemia, fatigue and cramping.
Johnson is not the only high-profile media figure contending with the life-changing outcomes of an autoimmune condition.
Actress Christina Applegate was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021. That condition occurs when the immune system attacks the protective sheath that covers nerve fibers, known as myelin.
Applegate, 54, who was most recently hospitalized in April, has said that she doesn’t know what triggered her autoimmune illness, which has dramatically impacted her mobility.
Johnson, however, has a hunch at what might have led to his gastritis. In a social media post announcing his diagnosis, Johnson suggested that consuming sugary foods and sodas in his youth helped cause his condition.
‘I had a few healthy years in my early 20s but then became a young father of three and began building a business. Juggling that stress and grind, I let my health slip and gained 40 lbs,’ he said on X. ‘Somewhere in that timeline, my body began developing an autoimmune process affecting my thyroid and then my stomach lining.’
Dr Soffer says that autoimmunity is ‘probably not caused by one specific thing but is believed to be due to a number of different factors. ‘Smoking, air pollution and certain chemicals,’ can contribute to autoimmune diseases, he explains, but so too, as Johnson suggests, can ‘diet, stress, sleep disruption and even vitamin D deficiency.’
What most of these potential contributing factors have in common, Soffer says, is ‘industrialization… which has brought enormous benefits [to society] but has also changed how our immune systems are trained.’
Humans today ‘spend a lot less time exposed to soil, animals and diverse microbes,’ explains Soffer. ‘This early exposure helps teach the immune system what is dangerous and what isn’t.’
Additionally, Soffer says humans now use ‘more antibiotics, eat more ultra-processed foods and are exposed to increased pollution, stress and synthetic chemicals.’ This lifestyle shift has ‘skewed’ our bodies, Soffer adds, causing our immune systems to increasingly overact, resulting in allergies, asthma and autoimmune disease.
Other potential underlying causes, including ‘genetic links’ according to Soffer, which result in multiple disorders appearing at the same time. ‘Autoimmune diseases in general tend to cluster,’ says Soffer.
In the case of autoimmune gastritis, hypothyroidism is the most common corresponding disorder. Hypothyroidism causes the thyroid gland to under-produce thyroid hormone resulting in everything from weight loss to fatigue and hair loss.
Actress Christina Applegate was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021. The autoimmine condition occurs when the immune system attacks the protective sheath that covers nerve fibers, known as myelin
Autoimmune gastritis is often accompanied by other autoimmune conditions, most notably hypothyroidism, which causes the thyroid gland to under-produce thyroid hormone resulting in everything from weight loss to fatigue and hair loss (Pictured: The thyroid gland)
Dr Sheila Rustgi is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Digestive and Liver Disease at New York-Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia University Medical Center
Johnson said he’s suffered from hypothyroidism for more than two decades. He is not alone. Roughly five percent of all Americans live with the condition; which is most common in women and adults over 60.
Also impacting rising autoimmune numbers are better diagnostic tools, observes Dr Rustgi.
‘Blood tests alone are not good enough to diagnose or rule out’ certain autoimmune diseases,’ says Dr Rustgi. ‘Certain tests like endoscopies, which are needed to diagnose autoimmune gastritis… are pretty prevalent now.’
Autoimmune gastritis sufferers also face a heightened risk of developing neuroendocrine tumors. These are ‘small, easy-to-remove [tumors] that don’t require any kind of chemotherapy or shorten the lifespan,’ explains Dr Rustgi, but ‘need to be diagnosed with an endoscopy,’ and ultimately extracted.
Although autoimmune gastritis can be managed with vitamin supplements and dietary changes, Dr Soffer says breakthroughs in an eventual cure are now on the horizon.
‘The major hurdle is finding ways to reliably retrain or reprogram the immune system,’ he explains. ‘Cancer treatments are on the cutting edge of this frontier, but there is still much to be studied and learned.’
And what about Johnson’s years of bio-hacking? Could the millions of dollars he spent optimizing nutrition, sleep habits and plasma transfusions have contributed to his gastritis, or even made it worse?
‘It’s impossible to say… because gastritis usually develops over years,’ observes Dr Soffer.
‘That said, I do caution patients about aggressive supplements… especially products marketed as “immune boosters,” which can stimulate immune pathways. There is no definitive proof that these products cause autoimmune disease,’ Dr Soffer adds, ‘but there are case reports and biologic reasons to be careful.’
