Autoimmune disease affects 23.5 million Americans, and nearly 80 percent of those are women. If you're one of the millions of women affected by this group of diseases, which includes lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and thyroid disease, you may be wondering why your immune system is attacking itself.
Researchers do not know the causes of many autoimmune conditions, but genetic factors, past infections, and environmental factors can affect their development. Long-term treatments aim to reduce the strength of immune responses. Antibiotics have no involvement because these diseases are not bacterial infections.
Some common autoimmune diseases, including Type 1 diabetes mellitus, are relatively easy to diagnose, while others, such as vasculitis, Addison's disease, lupus, and other rheumatic diseases, are more difficult.
Psychological stress is reported to be a risk factor for autoimmune diseases, including Graves' disease and rheumatoid arthritis. Different types of stress and the length of time that stress is present might also affect the presentation of inflammatory autoimmune disease. There is no one known cause for autoimmunity.
The symptoms of an autoimmune disease depend on the part of your body that's affected. Many types of autoimmune diseases cause redness, swelling, heat, and pain, which are the signs and symptoms of inflammation. But other illnesses can cause the same symptoms. The symptoms of autoimmune diseases can come and go.
Age: Most autoimmune diseases affect younger and middle-aged people. Some illnesses begin specifically in childhood, as their name suggests—juvenile idiopathic arthritis and juvenile dermatomyositis, for example. Genetics: A family history of autoimmune disease puts a child at higher risk.
Current evidence implicates the momentous alterations in our foods, xenobiotics, air pollution, infections, personal lifestyles, stress, and climate change as causes for these increases.
Having an autoimmune disease
The reason is unknown, but it is likely due to a combination of genetics and environmental factors.
There are different types of infections caused by different foreign substances. An infection can be produced, for instance, by bacteria, viruses, or parasites. Bacterial and viral infections are thought to impact the autoimmune response by a process called molecular mimicry.
An increase in pollen in the spring or leaf mold in the fall may also contribute to flares. Diet: Food triggers can be different for each person. They can be a variety of things, including gluten, soy, dairy, corn, nightshades, grains, legumes, coffee, and/or eggs.
Common ones include lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Autoimmune diseases can affect many types of tissues and nearly any organ in your body. They may cause a variety of symptoms including pain, tiredness (fatigue), rashes, nausea, headaches, dizziness and more.
Women account for 80–95% of patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), primary biliary cirrhosis, autoimmune thyroid disease and systemic sclerosis, and about 60% of arthritis and multiple sclerosis patients are women.
You may have had an antinuclear antibody test, or ANA. This test is often done first to look for antibodies that can cause autoimmune problems. A rheumatoid factor test is also done to look for rheumatoid arthritis. Your doctor will look at several things to decide if you have one of these conditions.
Making a diagnosis for an autoimmune disease can be a long and frustrating process. You may need to take multiple blood tests, but these tests don't definitively determine whether you have an autoimmune condition and which condition you have.
Autoimmune disorders in general cannot be cured, but the condition can be controlled in many cases. Historically, treatments include: anti-inflammatory drugs – to reduce inflammation and pain. corticosteroids – to reduce inflammation.
Living with Symptoms, but No Diagnosis
Autoimmune diseases are often difficult to diagnose, with no one test available to determine autoimmunity. Tests like the antinuclear antibody test (ANA) or others that look for autoantibodies can indicate an autoimmune disease but may not confirm a diagnosis.
Use nutrients such as fish oil, vitamin C, vitamin D, and probiotics to help calm your immune response naturally. Exercise regularly — it's a natural anti-inflammatory. Practice deep relaxation like yoga, deep breathing, biofeedback, or massage, because stress worsens the immune response.
Thyroid disorders
When your immune system messes with your thyroid, it can cause unexplained weight changes. Your thyroid helps control your metabolism, so if it's underactive (hypothyroidism), everything slows down. That's why common symptoms include weight gain, fatigue, constipation, hair loss, and depression.
A new study has raised the possibility that stress may cause autoimmune disease, such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis, because it found a higher incidence of autoimmune diseases among people who were previously diagnosed with stress-related disorders.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease associated with many neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as depression and anxiety (39).
According to researchers, “neuroendocrine” hormones caused by stress lead to suppression of the immune system, which ultimately can lead to autoimmune disease, altering or enhancing the production of cytokines, cellular messengers involved in the pathophysiology of an autoimmune disease.