I had a lot of the same autoimmune problems you describe including headaches that I acquired as I got older. The short story is that I became allergic to some of the foods I loved including wine. After eliminating wine and everything with sulfites (dried fruit etc.) the headaches went away and after eliminating gluten (bread & cake) my autoimmune symptoms went away.
It took me years to figure this out. Don’t wait. Cut out everything that could be causing problems and then reintroduce them to see how you feel. It can take a couple of days to feel the effects that’s why it took me so long to figure out what was causing the problems. Putting together the cause and effect can take a while but it’s worth it to feel better.
Nobody wants to hear they can’t eat their favorite foods but for me it was an easy choice. Just know that you get use to the alternatives pretty quickly.
Good luck and I hope you feel better!
i'm curious as to how you discovered what you needed to eliminate?
I’ll give you the slightly longer version. Last year I was diagnosed with low blood platelets that turned out to be false but I was looking for all the information I could find on the subject in order to save my spleen from being removed! After months of research it seems that the NSAIDs I was taking for headaches was causing “leaky gut” syndrome and that led to autoimmune and gastrointestinal problems.
I’m not the type to get into “fad” diets but all my research pointed to “The Paleo Diet” to fix a possible leaky gut syndrome. (I didn’t know for sure but I wanted to keep my spleen!) :-) So I went on the extreme version of the diet because it eliminated virtually everything that could be causing the problem. It wasn’t easy finding things I could eat but there are more options now.
I didn’t eat any carbs except fruits and vegetables. No grains whatsoever. I lost 25 lbs in two months but by eating a lot of protein I really didn’t feel very hungry. My problems cleared up and I started reintroducing eggs, rice, oats etc. When I reintroduced pepper however my skin started acting up so now I don’t use pepper or paprika.
The takeaway:
I hope this helps.
Thanks for the recomendations, but I have unfortunately tried almost every dietary change possible. I am glad that was the answer for your illness though!! I seem to be stable with a high water and salt diet, as long as I stay on top of things:)
You're going to need more water and salt running again! :-) Stay well.