There are a very large number of different types of autoimmune conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, Crohn's condition, systemic lupus erythematosus, ankylosing spondylitis, multiple sclerosis, motor neurone condition, polycystic ovarian syndrome, mitral valve syndrome, diabetes type 1, sclerodoma, autoimmune thyroiditis, Graves condition, and many others. There are a huge number of treatments aimed at the symptoms of the autoimmune conditions, but no cause has been found for any of them.

Miliaria affects the protective mucosal surfaces of the lungs and of the gastro-intestinal tract. These surfaces are open to many hundreds of different types of microbes which have coexisted with us, and all of the organisms that preceeded us in evolutionary time. If these microbes approach the mucosal surfaces, then very effective anti-microbial peptides are expressed preventing the microbes from crossing the mucosal surface and entering circulation.

In addition the mucosal lining of the intestines has very tightly packed cells, providing a physical barrier to the entry of unwanted microbes.

When the mucosal surface is affected by miliaria there is a double problem. First, blockage of the mucosal ducts prevents output of some of the anti-microbial peptides. If this reduces the output of these peptides sufficiently so that microbes can stick to the mucosal surface, then the surface sets up the second line of defence, which is inflammation. In addition the blockage of the mucosal ducts causes rupture of the ducts by the mucus output, also causing inflammation.

Both these types of subtle inflammation allow normal resident microbes, which otherwise do us no harm, to enter circulation. The human acquired immune system quickly responds to "foreign" or nonself intruders by making antibodies to them. The human acquired system does not make antibodies to components of its own body, but instead learns to tolerate these "self" components. Many of the normally resident microbes, such as the billions in the intestinal tract, are normally tolerated as though they were components of the body.

But when miliaria allows some of these microbes to enter circulation, having got past the normal innate defences, the acquired immune system reacts in a confused way by trying to make effective antibodies to the otherwise tolerated microbes. The reason for the confusion is that since the microbes are normally tolerated, there is no acquired immunity to them. The antibodies made in response to these microbes in circulation are not effective, they are faulty. They have abnormal glycosylation, i.e. missing sugars. As a result the antibodies, instead of locking to the microbes, stick to each other, forming clumps. There are many different shapes and types of clumps depending on the site of entry and type of microbe causing their production.

These clumps are clearly made of self material, they have been made by the body. But they are an unknown shape, and so recognised as nonself. So now an acquired immune system reaction is set up against these clumped antibodies. In other words an immune reaction is set up against self material. This immune reaction is initiated not only against the clumped antibodies, but also against any self material which appears to be the same material.

Thus the acquired immune system is primed to attack any type of body material which appears to be similar to whichever type of clump is being produced. It may be the synovial membranes as in arthritis, it may be the myelin sheath of the nerves, or blood cells, or beta cells of the pancreas, or the heart mitral valve, or the skin, or, in fact, the mucosal lining of the intestine itself, as in Crohn's condition.

Many researchers have sought to find the microbes causing autoimmune conditions. This is always going to be very difficult. Firstly they will not be at the site of the autoimmune condition. The microbes do not have a direct connection with the condition. They are somewhere in circulation. Secondly, unlike most infections, for example, there does not have to be many of them, and they do not need to be replicating. The mere presence of a few is enough to cause the production of the faulty antibodies, the faulty antibodies have no effect on the microbes in circulation, and so the antibody clumps continue to be produced as long as a few microbes are present.

So the first line of treatment and prevention of autoimmune condition is to treat and prevent miliaria. In the same way as other miliaria class conditions, ActiveSignal^TM products are used to prevent the HAVARDS of the mucosal surfaces from over-conservation of sodium, and other electrolytes. Secondly, by a low carbohydrate diet, and exercise if practical, blood glucose levels need to be reduced. Thirdly, it is important to maintain volume, for example with unsweetened grapefruit juice, so that the body does not detect an apparent reduction in circulating electrolytes.

The first commercial ActiveSignal product is now under development.

Since many autoimmune conditions, such as diabetes type 1, cause permanent irreversible damage, either very rapid diagnosis and treatment is essential, or alternatively a regular programme to prevent miliaria starting in the first place can be undertaken.

Volume loss during times of low oestrogen is the reason why human females are much more susceptible to autoimmune conditions than men. In evolutionary history the human female would be either producing children, or doing manual work all day long, or both, and thus maintaining volume. In present times the loss of volume, together with a diet relatively high in carbohydrate, is often sufficient to prevent the havards from resetting from adverse habituation to original habituation, resulting in miliaria and thus autoimmune conditions.

As an example of the effect of volume, if a woman with a miliaria class autoimmune condition, such as rheumatoid arthritis, becomes pregnant, then volume rises under the influence of oestrogen, the body is replete with sodium and other electrolytes, and the arthritis stops. Immediately following the birth, there is a very rapid fall in volume and the arthritis returns.

We have now seen above how the movement of normally resident microbes into circulation causes autoimmune conditions. It is also possible that introduced microbes may cause autoimmune condition in some people.

For example, vaccination with live attenuated measles virus has been very successful in reducing measles in the UK to a very small number of annual cases. The entry of the vaccine to the body causes the production of antibodies to the virus to be made, and the immunity to measles may last many years. However, measles virus is often found to lodge in the lining of the intestine. The presence of the virus in an intestine which already has some miliaria will increase the subtle inflammation, and make the possibility of an autoimmune condition more likely.

On the precautionary principle, it is highly desirable that miliaria class conditions are cleared prior to vaccinations.