Integrative Management of Autoimmune Disorders

Abstract

Autoimmune disorders affect approximately 5-8% of the European adult population and represent a substantial and growing healthcare burden spanning rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, and related conditions. Conventional management has transformed over the past two decades with biologic DMARDs, JAK inhibitors, and targeted immunomodulators producing unprecedented disease-control outcomes in many autoimmune conditions. Despite this progress, meaningful patient populations remain on combination therapy with suboptimal disease control, face treatment-tolerance issues, or seek integrative options to reduce disease activity flares and support broader quality of life. Ayurvedic medicine has a substantial framework for autoimmune and chronic inflammatory conditions under the Amavata (rheumatoid-arthritis-like) and Kushta (chronic inflammatory dermatoses) categories, with documented clinical evidence across multiple autoimmune indications. This study reviews 58 primary clinical studies published between 2008 and 2021 on integrative management of autoimmune disorders, grouped under five approach frames: IM1 (rheumatoid arthritis integrative management), IM2 (inflammatory bowel disease integrative management), IM3 (psoriasis and autoimmune dermatoses integrative management), IM4 (autoimmune thyroid integrative management), and IM5 (integrated biologic-Ayurvedic combination therapy). Each frame was scored with the Integrative Autoimmune Management Index (IAMI). Rheumatoid arthritis integrative management (IM1) scored highest at IAMI 0.832, with integrated biologic-Ayurvedic therapy (IM5) at 0.810 and inflammatory bowel disease (IM2) at 0.782