Why 80% of Autoimmune Diseases Happen to Women & Solutions From a Renowned MD
Mel Robbins (host), Dr. Sarah Szal (guest), Narrator
In this episode of The Mel Robbins Podcast, featuring Mel Robbins and Dr. Sarah Szal, Why 80% of Autoimmune Diseases Happen to Women & Solutions From a Renowned MD explores why Women Face Autoimmune Epidemic—and How Lifestyle Medicine Heals Mel Robbins interviews Dr. Sarah (Saul) on why autoimmune diseases are exploding, especially in women, and how lifestyle medicine can prevent and reverse many conditions. They define autoimmune disease as a confused immune system waging a 'civil war' on the body, driven by three root causes: genetic predisposition, leaky gut, and triggers like trauma, chronic stress, and hormonal shifts. The conversation highlights how cultural expectations of women, adverse childhood experiences, and modern lifestyles fuel rising rates of conditions such as Hashimoto’s, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, POTS, and others. Dr. Sarah outlines practical, low-cost steps—testing, elimination diets, stress and trauma work, breathwork, and boundary-setting—to move the body from chronic dysregulation into a state of safety and healing.
Why Women Face Autoimmune Epidemic—and How Lifestyle Medicine Heals
Mel Robbins interviews Dr. Sarah (Saul) on why autoimmune diseases are exploding, especially in women, and how lifestyle medicine can prevent and reverse many conditions. They define autoimmune disease as a confused immune system waging a 'civil war' on the body, driven by three root causes: genetic predisposition, leaky gut, and triggers like trauma, chronic stress, and hormonal shifts. The conversation highlights how cultural expectations of women, adverse childhood experiences, and modern lifestyles fuel rising rates of conditions such as Hashimoto’s, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, POTS, and others. Dr. Sarah outlines practical, low-cost steps—testing, elimination diets, stress and trauma work, breathwork, and boundary-setting—to move the body from chronic dysregulation into a state of safety and healing.
Key Takeaways
Autoimmune disease is a confused immune system attacking the body.
The immune system, meant to distinguish self from invaders, starts producing autoantibodies against normal tissues, creating a 'civil war' inside the body that can manifest as over 100 distinct autoimmune diagnoses.
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Three root causes drive autoimmunity—and two are modifiable.
You need a genetic predisposition, a leaky gut (loss of intestinal barrier), and a trigger (often trauma, chronic stress, infections, or major hormonal changes). ...
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Women’s higher autoimmune rates are largely environmental and cultural, not just biological.
Beyond X–Y chromosome differences, women shoulder more caregiving, trauma, chronic stress, and hormonal flux; they’re also socialized to overfunction, suppress anger, and prioritize others—patterns strongly linked to immune dysregulation.
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Diet and alcohol directly impact leaky gut and immune confusion.
Alcohol is a proven way to induce leaky gut in lab animals, and foods like gluten, dairy, sugar, and ultra-processed products can worsen gut permeability and inflammation; an elimination diet often measurably reduces symptoms in weeks.
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Trauma and ACEs reshape the body’s entire PINE network for life.
Adverse childhood experiences dysregulate the PINE network—psychology, immune, nervous, and endocrine systems—raising lifetime risk of autoimmune disease and other chronic conditions, even if someone believes they’ve 'moved on' mentally.
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Non-specific symptoms may signal early autoimmunity and warrant testing.
Persistent fatigue, joint pain, brain fog, gut issues, night sweats, skin rashes (like psoriasis), hair loss, weight shifts, palpitations, or neuropathy—especially in clusters—justify basic immune, inflammation, metabolic, and thyroid labs rather than dismissal.
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Simple, free practices can begin to shift the body into healing.
Three core actions—getting appropriate tests where possible, trying a 3‑week elimination diet, and systematically addressing stress and trauma (via breathwork, yoga, somatic practices, and therapy)—can reduce symptoms, complement medications, and sometimes lower drug doses under medical supervision.
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Notable Quotes
“Autoimmune disease is like a civil war in the body.”
— Dr. Sarah
“Leaky gut is a loss of a boundary in your body.”
— Dr. Sarah
“It’s a health hazard to be female in our culture.”
— Dr. Sarah
“You can’t think your way out of trauma.”
— Dr. Sarah
“Your body is this magnificent network that is meant to support you, and we throw all these obstacles at it.”
— Dr. Sarah
Questions Answered in This Episode
How can someone practically distinguish between 'normal' stress and the kind of toxic stress or trauma that meaningfully raises autoimmune risk?
Mel Robbins interviews Dr. ...
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If a patient’s basic labs come back 'normal' but symptoms persist, what specific tests or specialists should they push for next?
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How can women start setting healthier emotional and caregiving boundaries without triggering guilt or backlash from family, partners, or workplaces?
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What does a sustainable, real-world elimination diet look like for someone who’s busy, under financial pressure, or feeding a family?
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For those with high ACE scores, what are the most evidence-based somatic or trauma-informed approaches to begin creating safety in the body?
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Transcript Preview
I posted this video and it featured Dr. Gabor Mate, a world-renowned expert in trauma, and he was talking about how 80% of autoimmune diseases happen to women. Holy cow, this topic exploded online. And you know what that tells me? That tells me that you wanna learn more about the topic of autoimmune disease, why they are impacting you or impacting the women in your life at alarming rates. So here's what I did, I called in a world-renowned expert, and she is gonna give you and me a masterclass and a private consultation on all things autoimmune disease. What is an autoimmune disease? What are the three causes of autoimmune diseases? Why exactly are rates of MS, Hashimoto's, and all kinds of other autoimmune diseases rising at alarming rates, especially for women over the past 20 years? And most of the things that you're going to learn and that she's gonna recommend cost you nothing. Hey, it's your friend Mel, and I just wanna take a moment and welcome you to the Mel Robbins podcast. First of all, I am so excited that you're here. I'm excited for our topic today. It is always such an honor to be able to spend time with you, to be together. And if you're brand new, welcome to the Mel Robbins podcast family. Because you hit play on this episode and you made the time to listen when I know you don't have a lot of time, but you found the time and you made the time to listen to this episode, here's what I know about you. First of all, you value your time and you're spending it because you wanna learn more about your health and improving the quality of your life. And today's conversation, it's gonna blow your mind and it will improve the quality of your life. See, I recently posted a very short video clip that was just a short moment from this podcast, and the video featured the renowned trauma expert and medical doctor, Dr. Gabor Mate. And in the video clip, he was explaining the four reasons why 80% of autoimmune diseases impact women. Now, this video exploded online. The only other topic I've ever seen resonate that immediately and globally was when I first shared the Let Them Theory. Based on my inbox crashing, the DMs, and your comments, I'm like, "We have got to go deep on the topic of autoimmune disease, and in particular, why is it impacting women at higher rates than men?" What do you need to know? What are the symptoms that you may have that indicate that you have an autoimmune issue but you don't even know about it? And most importantly, what can you do about it if you're concerned about your health or the health of someone you love? Well, today we're gonna talk about all of that and we're gonna leave you feeling informed and empowered. I cannot wait to introduce you to Dr. Sarah Saul. Now, Dr. Saul is a physician, a researcher, a renowned speaker on all things health. She graduated from Harvard Medical School as part of their joint medical program with MIT. She completed her residency at UCSF, one of the top hospitals in the world. Dr. Saul is the New York Times bestselling author of nine books about health. She's also a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Integrative Medicine and Nutritional Sciences at Thomas Jefferson University, and the director of precision medicine at the Marcus Institute of Integrative Health at Jefferson. Dr. Saul has over 25 years of clinical experience seeing patients, and she hopped on a plane, she flew across country for one reason: she did it for you. She's here to provide you with the information, resources, and the step-by-step treatment plan for anyone in your life who may be struggling with an autoimmune issue or just with some symptoms and they don't know what's going on. Today's conversation is a free life-changing resource for anyone in your life who is struggling with an autoimmune disease or is just chronically tired, or who has a lot of health symptoms and can't quite get to the bottom of what's going on. Well, today we're gonna do our best to do that for you. And I wanna thank you in advance for taking a moment right now to share this episode with someone you care about, because there's no doubt in my mind everything that we are about to learn is gonna improve your health and your life. Dr. Saul, thank you so much for being here.
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