Originally Posted by ellsac

I echo what Mrs. D said. I have some autoimmune conditions already, and a history of bad Lyme Disease (confirmed by blood tests and the whole nine yards as a child).

My doctors believe, although it can't be proven, that my autoimmune diseases are due to my body's immune system going a bit bonkers from the Lyme Disease. I was sick with Lyme for almost a year before diagnosis, and it got all over the place in my body. My immune system was obviously trying hard to kill it off, but was unsuccessful.

The Lyme cleared up with antibiotics-high doses-on and off for 6 months. couple decades later, I got whacked by my first autoimmune disease, which had probably been brewing for some time, and just waiting for the right stressful situation to pounce.

Now, 5 years later, I have idiopathic small fiber neuropathy. ALL my labs are perfect-including the known autoimmune causes. My neuro thinks mine probably is some sort of overly diligent immune system issue I have going on, combined with a less than stellar endocrine and hormonal profile (due to my autoimmune diseases), but that the autoantibodies are simply ones we don't know about yet and have no way to find.

Either way, my options are possibly trials of plaquenil (considering it), extra steroids (already take them in really low doses since my body makes no cortisol), or diet and supps.

For now, it is just diet and supplements. The supplements do seem to help. Maybe in the future I'll consider something else if my symptoms become too much for me to handle on my own.

Also, there's a big difference between taking supplements that are necessary for immune health, and taking ones that are for boosting the immune system. Big difference between "support" and "boost"...although it can get somewhat confusing if you're not reading carefully what nutrients are for what body processes and so forth.