The first mystery is why they are becoming more frequent. Across many Western countries, rates of everything from celiac disease to IBD, from lupus to type 1 diabetes, and even allergies, are steadily rising, stymieing researchers.[2] “In the last half-century, the prevalence of autoimmune disease . . . has increased sharply in the developed world,” a 2016 New York Times article noted. “An estimated one in 13 Americans has one of these often debilitating, generally lifelong conditions.”[3] In the U.K., the diagnosis of Crohn’s disease increased more than threefold between 1994 and 2014,[4]
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