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Taking A
Closer Look At
Autoimmune Diseases

     Your body's immune system protects you from disease and infection. But if you have an autoimmune disease, your immune system attacks healthy cells in your body by mistake. Autoimmune diseases can affect many parts of the body.

       No one is sure what causes autoimmune diseases. They do tend to run in families. Women - particularly African-American, Hispanic-American, and Native-American women - have a higher risk for some autoimmune diseases.

     Getting a diagnosis can be frustrating and stressful. Often, the first symptoms are fatigue, muscle aches and a low fever. The classic sign of an autoimmune disease is inflammation, which can cause redness, heat, pain and swelling. The diseases may also have flare-ups, when they get worse, and remissions, when symptoms get better or disappear. Treatment depends on the disease, but in most cases one important goal is to reduce inflammation. Sometimes doctors prescribe corticosteroids or other drugs that reduce your immune response.

    It's been Estimated that 1 in 12 people have an autoimmune disease, or know of someone who does. In the United States alone there are 50 million according to the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association. 30 million of them are women. A person may have more than one autoimmune disorder at the same time (overlapping). They can have as many as three or more.  
  
      Recent statistics have shown that an Autoimmune Disease is one of the top 10 leading causes of death in female children and women in all age groups up to 64 years of age. What is more staggering is that the number of people with an autoimmune related diseases, or autoimmune disorder is continuing to rise every year.

     An estimated $591Million Dollars was spent by the NIH on research compared to $6.1 billion dollars spent on cancer.

      What causes the immune system to no longer tell the difference between healthy body tissues and antigens is unknown. An autoimmune disorder can also affect one or more organ or tissue types. One theory is that some micro organisms (such as bacteria or viruses) or drugs may trigger some of these effects, especially in people who have genes that make them more susceptible to get autoimmune disorders. There is one thing that is absolutely certain. If something is not done soon to halt the effects of these disabling diseases, the numbers will continue to rise even higher. It is because of this that we must raise the awareness of all autoimmune diseases...

• Autoimmune Diseases result from a breakdown in immunological tolerance. The actual induction event(s) for autoimmune states are largely unknown.
  
• Some autoimmune diseases attack specific organs, whereas others are more systemic.

• Organ-specific autoimmune diseases include Celiac Disease, Graves disease, Hashimoto Thyroiditis, Type I Diabetes Mellitus, and Addison Disease.

• Systemic autoimmune diseases include Multiple Sclerosis, Myasthenia Gravis, Psoriasis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

• Treatments for autoimmune diseases generally involve anti-inflammatory and immuno-suppressive drugs.

Symptoms & Side Effects
of Autoimmune Diseases

• The most common symptoms associated with autoimmune disease are: Extreme Fatigue, Muscle and Joint Pain, Muscle Weakness, Swollen Glands, Inflammation, Susceptibility to Infections, etcetera.  
  
• Other symptoms and side effects which fall into search results are what the disease looks like, and how it progresses. When we speak of progression it is in relation to a flare-up or how the disease changes over a period of time. This can be days, weeks, months, or years.

How Autoimmune
Diseases Affect Society

• An overview of an autoimmune disease shows how it progresses. To be specific whether it is chronic, systemic, treatable, debilitating, atrophic, disabling, etcetera. 

• How common the disease is throughout the world. A common disease or condition, is calculated by how rare it is. For example 3 in 1 million children each year are affected by Juvenile Dermatomyositis as reported by The American College of Rheumatology. This makes it rare.

• Autoimmune Diseases affect the immune system, and other area's of the person diagnosed. They are not contagious.

• Most people with an autoimmune disease fall into a certain category. For example children affected with JM / JDM (Juvenile Myositis) are below the age of 18 years old.

• In terms of gender most women are affected more often than men. Also there are some autoimmune diseases that affect certain races, or ethnicity.

Diagnosis & Treatment
of Autoimmune Diseases

• Medicines and drugs used to treat autoimmune diseases, or specific condition fall under traditional and alternative. These can be broken down further to a certain disease or conditions. Also a specific medication for certain diseases.

• Diagnoses and determining what a condition or disease is can also be broken down into different categories. Such things as biopsies, or blood work can be used to diagnose a disease.
  

Muscle Biopsy

Drugs & Meds

• Lifestyle changes such as Diet & Nutrition Plans, or implementing Fitness & Exercise Plans to include physical therapy to fight atrophy aid in the treatment of some diseases.  
  

• There are a number of different medical Specialists who can diagnose, analyze, and treat different autoimmune diseases. Some of these are Rheumatologist, Neurologist, etcetera. 

Click To Continue Reading Page #2...   "Taking A Closer Look At Autoimmune Diseases"

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