Healthline (http://www.healthline.com/health/autoimmune-disorders#Overview1) describes them as, "...your immune system, which defends your body against disease, decides your healthy cells are foreign. As a result, your immune system attacks healthy cells." So essentially, it's like your own body is allergic to itself thus attacking healthy organs and tissues in your body.
Your immune system decides that you are its enemy and starts a war with itself. There are no cures, there is only treatments. Sometimes, it's not eating a certain mineral (Celiac), taking a hormone pill (Hashimoto's), injecting a cehmical your body has stopped making (Diabetes Type 1), and steroids and low dose Chemo (Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Crohns, Ulcerative Colitis, etc.).
" There are as many as 80 types of autoimmune diseases. Many of them have similar symptoms, which makes them very difficult to diagnose. It’s also possible to have more than one at the same time. Autoimmune diseases usually fluctuate between periods of remission (little or no symptoms) and flare-ups (worsening symptoms). Currently, treatment for autoimmune diseases focuses on relieving symptoms because there is no curative therapy." There are more than 100 and counting diseases that fall under the umbrella of autoimmune diseases, so this link is a little off. One of the sayings we have is: once you have one Autoimmune Disease you have all of them. Meaning, more likely than not, you will get more than one in your lifetime. Probably not all, but at least more than one.
Many come on slowly and many hit you like a train, coming all at once. We don't know how they start or where, many theories are only speculations- so there is no proof. So because of this, we don't have a cure for any of them, we only have treatments meant to either slow the disease or treat the symptoms. Stem Cell treatment is showing some very promising treatment for people with Autoimmune Diseases. It doesn't cure it, but it does stop it. One of my good friends and mentors are about to start a trial for her's at the end of the year. I am crossing my fingers that she is safe and it works because if it works, then others may be able to get this treatment and leave a normal life after.
What are the most popular Autoimmune Diseases?
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(Healthline)
A Few statistics on Autoimmune Diseases from AARDA (https://www.aarda.org/autoimmune-information/autoimmune-statistics/)
• 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.
• A close genetic relationship exists among autoimmune disease, explaining clustering in individuals and families as well as a common pathway of disease.
• The National Institutes of Health (NIH estimates up to 23.5* million Americans suffer from autoimmune disease and that the prevalence is rising. We at AARDA say that 50 million* Americans suffer from autoimmune disease. Why the difference? The NIH numbers only include 24 diseases for which good epidemiology studies were available.
• Symptoms cross many specialties and can affect all body organs.
• Initial symptoms are often intermittent and unspecific until the disease becomes acute.
• Research is generally disease-specific and limited in scope. More information-sharing and crossover among research projects on different autoimmune diseases is needed.
• Research is generally disease-specific and limited in scope. More information-sharing and crossover among research projects on different autoimmune diseases is needed.
• NIH estimates up to 23.5 million Americans* have an AD. In comparison, cancer affects up to 9 million and heart disease up to 22 million.
• NIH estimates annual direct health care costs for AD to be in the range of $100 billion (source: NIH presentation by Dr. Fauci, NIAID). In comparison, cancers costs are $57 billion (source: NIH,ACS), and heart and stroke costs are $200 billion (source: NIH, AHA).
• NIH research funding for AD in 2003 came to $591 million. In comparison, cancer funding came to $6.1 billion; and heart and stroke, to $2.4 billion (source: NIH).
• The NIH Autoimmune Diseases Research Plan states; “Research discoveries of the last decade have made autoimmune research one of the most promising areas of new discovery.”
• According to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Women’s Health, autoimmune disease and disorders ranked #1 in a top ten list of most popular health topics requested by callers to the National Women’s Health Information Center.
• NIH research funding for AD in 2003 came to $591 million. In comparison, cancer funding came to $6.1 billion; and heart and stroke, to $2.4 billion (source: NIH).
• The NIH Autoimmune Diseases Research Plan states; “Research discoveries of the last decade have made autoimmune research one of the most promising areas of new discovery.”
• According to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Women’s Health, autoimmune disease and disorders ranked #1 in a top ten list of most popular health topics requested by callers to the National Women’s Health Information Center.
• Medical education provides minimal learning about autoimmune disease.
• Researchers have identified 80-100 different autoimmune diseases and suspect at least 40 additional diseases of having an autoimmune basis. These diseases are chronic and can be life-threatening.
I am hoping this shows how deadly some of them can be and how important it is that these diseases get more awareness. I will do another post on what the symptoms are and how it can affect a person's life.
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