Positive ANA: What might be the cause?

@Hope5000 I'm curious if you had a sed rate done and what it was. A dr. friend I had, said that ANA could respond to inflammation. But then we have to figure out where that comes from.....

@stauggroomer35 You are right. Doctors (and insurance companies!) are waiting to be slammed upside the head with an obvious diagnosis.

Since specialists won't talk to each other and often won't even look at labs other doctors ordered, it can take decades for both your symptoms and your labs to become undeniable to even the most brain dead/stubborn of physicians.

My sister has psoriasis arthritis mutilans. She gave up trying to get help until her feet got massively deformed. Then, rheumatologists couldn't deny she is sick and they finally prescribed biologics. Now, she'll have to have her feet broken apart and reconstructed.

Because, unfortunately, many doctors won't move before this point.

It's insane. But it's now healthcare in America.

I’m putting together a VA disability claim associated with toxic exposure and downstream immune/endocrine dysfunction. During my military service I was exposed via vapor intrusion to a lot of volatiles, including TCE, PCE, PCB, jet fuel, benzene and probably others; my last duty station is now a superfund site and considered one of the most contaminated sites in the US. After I separated from the military, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis in 1986, had an ovary torse due to large cysts (1997), manifested chronic ‘idiopathic’ iron deficiency anemia at least by 1993 and likely before, manifested autoimmune chronic urticaria IIb in 1996, went into early menopause between 1996 and 1998 (masked due to birth control pills), then in 2018 my feet started getting numb, my calves atrophied and I became seriously heat intolerant around 2010. In 2025, Mayo found I had sensorimotor axonal distal peripheral neuropathy and autonomic sudomotor postganglionic NLD neuropathy. I’m thinking the environmental exposure triggered immune/endocrine dysregulation. I am a GSTT1 null homozygote and likely a GSTM1 null heterozygote, which means I would have had a hard time dealing with all those chemicals (GSTT1 and GSTM1, in the detox II pathway, are basically ‘genetic hazmat suits’ and mine is pretty skimpy).

As part of the VA disability claim activity, this past February (2026), I requested all my medical records from my PCPs clinic back to 1987. In those records, I found I had a positive anti-parietal cell antibody low positive titer in 1997 that was not communicated to me, nor was it further investigated. I then did a lot of tests via Ulta Labs/Quest (my own dime) and there it was: a positive APCA and as well intrinsic factor blocking antibodies, high gastrin, high homocysteine. A subsequent endoscopy verified widespread atrophic gastritis consistent with autoimmune gastritis (given the blood tests). Apparently, my stomach mucosa has been under autoimmune attack for decades. I contacted my Mayo neurologists, who then diagnosed pernicious anemia and send a fax to my PCP with that diagnosis and as well a recommendation to prescribe hydroxocobalamin injections. However, my PCP has been silent throughout this journey (other than agreeing finally I had iron deficiency anemia and ordering an infusion after I begged; I guess it takes charting decades of anemia to convince her). Despite my Mayo docs’ recommendation, she has not yet prescribed B12 injections, likely because my serum B12 levels are on the high normal side. However, serum B12 tests are not reliable in a patient with IFB antibodies; the lab test in those cases can result in faux-high B12 levels. So, because by PCP has not prescribed B12 injections and, surprisingly, my GI is also leaning into the ‘normal’ B12 levels as not warranting injections as well (he should know better!) I am now getting hydroxocobalamin injections at a wellness clinic run by nurses at between $25 and $30 a shot, waiting until I find a healthcare professional who will provide a prescription. I have no direction from any local doctor, so am doing the British protocol for AIG patients with neurological involvement, which is an injection every other day until ‘symptoms stop improving’ and of course since the symptoms are likely those of the peripheral neuropathy, and since axons repair (if they can) at about 1mm a day, it’s going to be a long time before symptoms do anything, much less stop improving. I am trying to get another PCP for direction, or an internist, or an immunologist, but since my primary insurance is Medicare, I’m having a hard time finding any of those doctors here in Alaska who will take new Medicare patients, no matter that I have secondary insurance. Next week I will have an appointment with a nurse at a clinic founded by a naturopath, and it will be interesting to see how that pans out.

The point of this diatribe is that there are some good PCPs out there. I just don’t happen to have one. I hope I get a good one. I hope you get a good one. I hope things change for those of us who have these complex health syndromes.