The auto-immune disorders in my immediate family are pretty heavy:

My mom has multiple sclerosis (struck at age 25, in remission until a few years ago), Type 1 diabetes (onset at age 35, which is rare), and also suffered a bout of tuberculosis shortly after the diabetes was diagnosed (her father and brother had it, too, and my younger brother and I had to take antibiotics for a year when we were kids because our TB susceptibility was so high).

My brother also got juvenile diabetes at the same age my Mom did: 35. Neither of them were overweight.

One year before that happened, my brother's daughter (age 11) was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes.

(there was no other diabetes in our family until my Mom's, except my dad's aunt who was fat and had Type 2. No other MS either.)

My sister had arthritic lupus; fortunately, it seems cleared up since she stopped working the swing shift. She still looks way older than me, tho; and is only 11 months my senior.

Perhaps not coincidentally, all three of them smoke like chimneys.

I have wondered on occasion if I might have a tendency towards any of the disorders mentioned in this thread. Both my maternal and paternal grandfathers died of bowel cancer (it was detected after it had already gone too far). So I have this fear, perhaps understandably. I also know a couple of people who had UC and had all or part of their colons removed.

I do feel that with age and experience and listening to my body I have learned how to take better care of myself...try to eat right and in healthful combinations. I think many people have stomachs of steel in their youth and just carry on eating the same way for years even though most adults have much more delicate digestion than they'd like to believe. And with my obvious genetic tendency towarsd auto-immune disorders I think not living healthfully would just be stupid of me.

I am always shocked to realize the dependency of Americans on OTC products like antacids or laxatives. Anyone using these products with anything approaching, you'll excuse the pun, regularity, should seriously consider sweeping lifestyle changes. I think relying on such "cures" also speaks to this embarassment or fear people experience when addressing what is, after all, a basic human function. All holistic healing systems will tell you that proper assimilation and elimination of nutrients is the root of health. Yet American doctors don't even take courses in nutrition in medical school...nor in stress management, something also at the root of many auto-immune disorders.

It is also true most auto-immune disorders (including diabetes, multiple sclerosis, lupus, chronic fatigue syndrome, and fibro-myalgia) affect women more often than men...