January 01, 2018

The State of AIP 2018

41 minutes

The AIP community has changed… a lot! Since our humble beginnings in approximately 2011, our movement has grown exponentially. This growth has been overwhelmingly positive, but there have been some downsides to it as well. Considering all the growth and change, we’ve decided to start 2018 with a “State of AIP Address” here at Autoimmune Wellness.

We’d like to have a discussion about the roots of AIP, where we are at now, and where we think things are heading. Most importantly, with that longview in mind, we want you, our community, to help us focus our energy.

We believe in the concept of servant leadership and want to find out how we can continue to strengthen and refine the AIP movement from your perspectives. We are poised to see AIP move into the mainstream and we want to make sure it arrives there with your needs out front.

Before we begin…

This is a long post! If you’d rather listen to the content in podcast form, you can do so below. But don’t forget to fill out our survey when you’re done.

First, a brief history of the AIP movement (2011-2016):

2011

The earliest threads of AIP began to take form in 2011 when some early-adopters (us!) were introduced to the idea of eating an autoimmune-specific elimination diet through the work of Robb Wolf, Chris Kresser, Loren Cordain, and Datis Kharrazian.

2012

In 2012, Sarah Ballantyne started blogging about her experience with Paleo and began to research and refine the elimination diet, providing the first comprehensive guidance on elimination and reintroduction of foods.

Later in 2012, a few early-adopters started blogging about their personal experiences on the elimination diet and connected to form the beginnings of the AIP community. The first year or so, there were six of us: Mickey (Autoimmune Paleo), Angie (Alt-Ternative Autoimmune), Eileen (Phoenix Helix), Sarah (The Paleo Mom), Whitney (Nutrisclerosis), and Christina (A Clean Plate). At the time we were all very much in the middle of our healing journeys with diverse autoimmune diseases, but we connected on the idea that diet was key.

2013

2013 was a time of grassroots growth for AIP. In April, Mickey released the first ebook about AIP, The Autoimmune Paleo E-Cookbook. This was the year Sarah Ballantyne was heavily researching the protocol and publishing more in-depth articles about the “why’s,” nutrient density, and reintroductions. It was also the year that we started to consider the lifestyle piece in managing our conditions. Our group was still small, but this year another dozen or so bloggers started sharing their stories and recipes with the burgeoning community.

2014

2014 was the breakout year for AIP. In January, Sarah Ballantyne’s complete guide to AIP was released, The Paleo Approach, and went on to become a New York Times Bestseller later that summer. In March, the print version of The Autoimmune Paleo Cookbook came out. And later on in the year we got The Paleo Approach Cookbook, a second offering from Sarah Ballantyne, and Angie Alt’s The Alternative Autoimmune Cookbook, along with a few other fantastic AIP ebooks. SAD to AIP in SIX had its first enrollment guiding 25 members through a phased transition to AIP. In these early days, the community was looking for recipes and support, and the offerings this year definitely answered that call! At the end of 2014, the very first AIP restaurant, Mission: Heirloom opened its doors in Berkeley, California, and the first AIP podcast, The Phoenix Helix Podcast joined the airwaves!

2015

January 2015, Angie and Mickey announced that they would be joining forces and blogging together, along with community voices, at autoimmune-paleo.com. At this point, the community had grown to tens of thousands of people, as evidenced by the movement’s exponential growth, engagement, and connection on our site and across all social media platforms (especially Instagram!). The movement was now large enough to support big in-person gatherings, with many meetup groups springing up, authors holding book tours, classes being given, and speaking at conferences about the protocol. This was the year that we started overhearing folks in the grocery store talking about AIP, and we had a large enough base of people who had experience with the protocol to start featuring success stories other than our own on our site. By the end of 2015, there were over 15 books and programs for people following AIP!

2016

2016 AIP started infiltrating progressive doctors’ offices and went global. In the early days, people found out about AIP from reading online or picking up a copy of our books. This year, the functional and alternative medicine communities started hearing about AIP and we heard more and more from both our followers and clients that their doctors were recommending this approach. A GI doctor reached out to us about the positive results one of her IBD patients had with AIP, and that discussion turned into a full-blown medical study using AIP, later that year.

Also in 2016, it became clear to us that our movement was no longer US-based, as both international readership and membership in the blogging community grew exponentially. The AIP movement began to grow in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South America, Europe, and even the Middle East. Our discussions also shifted to encompass the lifestyle changes, implementation, and patient advocacy. We released our co-authored book, The Autoimmune Wellness Handbook and started The Autoimmune Wellness Podcast as guides to those who were not only looking for dietary information, but a well-rounded guide to all of the areas important to living well with autoimmune disease.

So, what happened to the AIP movement in 2017?

Let’s take a look at some numbers. We know the AIP movement is large and continues to grow, but this becomes more clear as we look at the stats. Here is some information we’ve gleaned from our website and social media channels that helps depict the size of our movement:

Autoimmune Wellness has reached 4 million unique users with 13 million pageviews

Over 130,000 people have signed up for our free AIP quick-start guide

The Autoimmune Wellness Podcast has been downloaded over 400,000 times

86% of our readers on the site are female (compared to 93% on Facebook)

30% of our readers are 35-44, 25% are between 25-34, 20% are between 45-54, and 12% are between 55-64

We have readers from 234 countries, including places like Antarctica, Nepal, South Sudan, and Turkmenistan (yes, really!). Our highest represented international communities are Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Germany, and South Africa

We have 42 US-based AIP meetup groups spanning the entire country (almost one for every state!)

We have 23 international AIP meetup groups (including Egypt, Croatia, and Finland!)

On Instagram, #autoimmunepaleo and #autoimmuneprotocol have been used over 100,000 times each

There are over 50 recipe bloggers writing about AIP, over 30 AIP-friendly cookbooks, and literally thousands of recipes available for the elimination phase

We think it is safe to say the AIP movement is massive, engaged, continuing to grow, and thriving!

This year, the AIP community got a huge piece of validating news in the results of the first-ever medical study of the diet for those with IBD (inflammatory bowel disease). While tens of thousands of us already knew that the protocol works, having the data legitimize the efforts we’d been putting in for years and helped us open new conversations with healthcare teams. Even though the study was restricted to those with IBD, our anecdotal experience as a community says that we are likely to find similar results with other autoimmune disease types if we are lucky enough to see future studies. Here is a summary of the study results:

There were 15 participants, nine with Crohn’s and six with ulcerative colitis.

Angie’s group coaching program, SAD to AIP in SIX, was used to transition participants to AIP for the study.

By Week 6 (that was full AIP elimination), 11 of the 15 participants were in clinical remission (six with Crohn’s, five with ulcerative). A 73% success rate!

All eleven participants maintained clinical remission through the maintenance phase.

Seven of the 15 participants were on active biologic therapies but not in clinical remission at baseline, and this suggests that diet can be an important component of successful treatment.

The researchers concluded, “We did not hypothesize, a priori, that clinical remission would be achieved so early (week 6). Indeed, this proportion of participants with active IBD achieving clinical remission by week 6 rivals that of most drug therapies for IBD . . . (Konijeti, et al. 2017)” In other words, it works!!

The AIP community showed their collective creative and fundraising capacity through a successful launch of The Complete AIP Resource Library in August and November.

Over 40 recipe authors and contributors collaborated to bring a high-value, low-cost resource to the community.

Together, we were able to raise over $30,000 for charities that support the autoimmune community through research, advocacy, education, and real-food access.

This year Mickey, Angie and Sarah graduated the first 100 AIP Certified Coaches. In 2016, the three of us recognized the need to train others in this approach and started developing a certification program for those in both the natural and conventional health care systems. This year we enrolled, taught, and graduated our very first class!

The first class of AIP Certified Coaches included MDs, NDs, Pharmacists, DCs, RDs, PTs, RNs, PAs, fitness coaches, mental health professionals, NTP/Cs, CHCs, Herbalists, LaCs, and other types of practitioners.

We are happy to announce that AIP Certified Coaches are incorporating AIP into their practices around the globe, with many international coaches and others who work virtually over skype. (Looking for a coach? Check out the AIP Certified Coach Directory!

These practitioners are now part of an “army” of AIP-trained professionals, able to make an enormous impact on the chronic illness epidemic around the globe.

This year the SAD to AIP in SIX program graduates neared the 2,000-member mark. In addition to being successfully used in the first medical study to evaluate the effectiveness of AIP, it has become recognized as the most affordable, gentle, and sustainable way to transition to the protocol and achieve wellness.

Phew! No wonder we are a little tired this season ;).

How has the AIP community changed over the years?

If you are just joining our movement now, it might not be readily apparent how much has changed. Here are some of the biggest things we notice:

More resources. We’ve gone from a few blogs to countless print and digital resources to help folks cook, meal plan, and navigate their health journeys.

Doctor recommendations. We never used to...

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By Mickey Trescott of Autoimmune Wellness

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