Autoimmune diseases affect roughly 5 to 10 percent of the U.S. population, and women carry about 80 percent of the burden. The science is clear that chronic stress and adverse childhood experiences raise the risk in a dose-dependent way, with each additional ACE increasing autoimmune disease prevalence by about 10 percent. A large Swedish cohort found a 36 percent higher risk of autoimmune disease in adults with stress-related disorders, rising to 46 percent for those with PTSD.

That's what the science says. Sara Hirsh Bordo went further. Filmmaker, founder of Women Rising, and author of Autoimmunity & The Good Girls, she funded the first survey at the intersection of female empowerment and autoimmunity in 1,000 American women and found a striking pattern: more than 6 in 10 with autoimmune disease were the eldest or only daughter, and more than half were raised as the family caretaker.

Her thesis: a self compromised creates immunity compromised.

We cover:

• The eldest daughter, only daughter, lifelong caretaker pattern
• How chronic self-betrayal correlated with Sara's own diagnoses and relapses
• Reframing self-prioritization as foreign, not wrong
• The little-T trauma of being raised to fear disappointing others
• Practicing safe disappointment as a muscle to rebuild
• The body speaks story, not just science
• Raising daughters who can fall, get dirty, and get back up
• Imperfection as the path forward
• Readiness, healing, and what it takes to live differently

Autoimmunity & The Good Girls is available now wherever books are sold. A portion of Sara's proceeds benefit the Society for Women's Health Research.

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