Positive ANA: What might be the cause?

Hi calcium level in blood. Peeing all the time, insomnia, aching bones, anxiety,

Stress. Have you gone thru changes in your life recently or are you living under stress?

There are several autoimmune diseases that will cause positive ANA results...PBC, Sjogren’s, RA, etc. Not a lot is known about what causes autoimmune diseases, triggers may be infections and toxins, including mercury. I did have my metal fillings removed more than 25 years ago, but tested positive for ANA about 1.5 years ago and have PBC, Raynaud Syndrome, and Sjogren’s. Certainly removing toxins from our body, eating well, etc. is important, but we may never know what caused our illness. I’ve had an impeccable diet, eating organic, no sugar, no red meat, etc. for decades and I have three autoimmune diseases.

If you haven’t had a full panel of labs to find out if you have other autoimmune issues you might consider doing this. Many are related and ancillary to each other. For me anyway, neuropathy is new and is assumed to be caused by Sjogren’s, with which I was only recently diagnosed. Since most of us will not find cures it’s a matter of treating our wide range of symptoms, which, I’m discovering vary depending on the disease and may require seeing multiple specialists.

Hi,
I have seronegative RA. My RA testing (except for ANA) has always been negative. My ANA test first tested positive at beginning of pandemic. A year later, it was a bit worse. I was referred to aRA who did ultrasound and found erosions. The more I read about this, the more I realize that depending on RA blood tests is totally not the gold standard and can cause delays in diagnosis. My first really bad symptoms started 10 years before ANA showed positive. Up until then, everything was negative for RA. My grandfather had RA so there was a family component. I wished I had pushed harder sooner and not waited until the pain was unbearable.

Welcome @klw, I know you are not alone. My mother had severe RA and I've always worried about getting it. I do have degenerative arthritis but so far no RA. You may be interested in joining the conversation in the following discussion:

-- Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) - Introduce yourself and meet others: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/comment/729751/

Have you done any research on what helps or found anything that helps your symptoms?

Rick, have you contacted mercury toxicity researchers directly? Like the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences? Or, ones affiliated with hospitals? I recently contacted a research center in immunology, sent a brief on my medical history, recent blood labs, and symptoms and a research MD, specialist in Sjogren’s and other autoimmune diseases, replied to me the next day. We spoke for about 20 minutes and he asked me to send my full lab report and a couple hours later he wrote back.

After looking at my labs he confirmed that I most likely do have Sjogren’s and outlined the specialists I need to see and tests I need to have. He’s also concerned, due to other indicators in my labs, that I may have another disease going on which requires some special test not very many labs can do. So, I at least have a mission to work with specialists and hopefully get the tests and treatment I need. I live in a rural area so few, if any, MD specialists know much about rare autoimmune disorders. But, I am at least more hopeful.

I continue to do yoga (intermediate class; however, we have been together 10 years and I pretty much modify everything). The one thing I have found after research is the harm that sugar has (worsening inflammation). I am a sugarholic. When I get stressed I eat candy. Just went through rough bit and ate sugar all day for days. I am now paying the price. What I need to find is something other than sugar/food that can help me destress.

Meditation can help
In fact anything can help if your mindset tells you it will.
Create something to take the place of sugar whenever you crave it or when you get stressed. Work at not getting stressed - it’s only caused by your perception it’s not reality. First of all though, don’t have any sweets in the house. Then whenever tge craving hits, have a large drink of water, or go for a walk, or dance, or ring a friend. It’s an addiction so have a little by way of maple syrup or honey each day at first, slowly cutting it back