With over 80 autoimmune diseases with unexplained signs and manifestations that can imitate other diseases, reaching a diagnosis can be a challenging process. To understand the seriousness of these diseases, it is important to learn the basic concepts related to autoimmune disease.
Normally, your immune system can distinguish between foreign cells and self-cells and it works efficiently to maintain your health and fight against external threats.
An autoimmune disease occurs when your immune system misidentifies certain parts of your body, such as your joints or skin, as external aggression. It produces proteins known as autoantibodies, which attack normal healthy tissues and cells. The positive prime function of the immune system is to protect your body from real dangers like viruses and microbes that quickly turn around and harm you.
The immune system overreacts and attacks itself during an autoimmune attack, resulting in unhealthy and even worrisome signs that reduce the lifestyle you lead.
A few types of autoimmune diseases target a single organ, such as Type 1 diabetes, which also influences pancreatic functioning. Others, such as lupus, can impact every part of the body and many organ systems. It can be caused by a variety of factors, with some being hereditary and others being infrequent.
Types of Autoimmune Diseases
Here are some of the types of autoimmune diseases, which are prevalently seen in most patients suffering from these conditions.
1. Arthritis Rheumatoid
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease in which your immune system targets your joints. It can result in joint reddening, the warmness of joints, aches, pains, and rigidity. The condition can harm a variety of body parts in some people, such as the skin, eyes, lungs, heart, and blood vessels.
The inflammation caused by rheumatoid arthritis can also impact other organs in the body. According to a studyNational Library of Medicine
Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Brief Overview of the Treatment, this autoimmune disease impacts the small joints first, then goes on to affect larger joints, and ends up affecting the eyes, skin, lungs, kidneys, and heart. While medical advances have significantly improved alternative treatments, extreme rheumatoid arthritis may result in physical impairment.
2. Type 1 Diabetes
The pancreas produces insulin, a hormone which aids in the regulation of blood sugar. The immune system targets and eliminates insulin-producing cells in the pancreas in the case of type 1 diabetes, resulting in a discrepancy where your sugar levels are uncontrollable without outside intervention. It is an autoimmune condition that destroys insulin producing cells in the body and, eventually, is unable to produce enough insulin.
Chronically elevated blood sugar levels can harm blood vessels and organs like the cardiovascular system, kidneys, eyes, and nerves. A few symptoms, such as thirst, mouth dryness, constant urination, exhaustion, weight loss, blurry vision, and weakness, are extremely serious and must be treated immediately.
3. Multiple Sclerosis
It is a neurological autoimmune condition that destroys the protective coating called myelin sheath that surrounds nerves in the neurological system. Damage to this protective sheath decreases the rate at which messaging signals travel between your spinal cord and the brain and across other parts of the body.
This harm may trigger numbness, weakness, loss of balance, and poor mobility. The disease manifests itself in various aspects that advance at varying rates.
4. Myasthenia Gravis
Another neurological autoimmune disease, myasthenia gravis affects nerve impulses that help the central nervous system regulate the muscles. Signals cannot direct muscles to contract when communication between nerves and muscles is disrupted.
Muscle weakness is a frequently known autoimmune deficiency, which deteriorates with exercise and enhances with bed rest. Muscles controlling visual stimuli, eyelid opening, ingesting, and facial muscles are commonly detected.
5. Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBS) involves inflammation of the gastrointestinal system. The two categories of IBD influence various parts of the gastrointestinal tract.
Crohn’s illness may trigger inflammation in any part of the gastrointestinal tract, from the mouth to the anus. Only the inner lining of the colon i.e, the large intestine and the rectum are affected by ulcerative colitis. Both conditions trigger similar symptoms, which include diarrhoea, rectal bleeding, abdominal discomfort, exhaustion, and losing weight.
6. Addison’s Disease
The adrenal glands, which generate the hormonal cortisol, adrenal hormones, and androgen hormone levels, are affected by Addison’s disease. The autoimmune deficiency of cortisol can have an impact on the way the body processes and stores carbs and glucose. Aldosterone insufficiency can result in sodium loss and overabundant potassium levels in the bloodstream.
7. Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
Lupus patients produce autoimmune antibodies that can get attached to the tissues throughout the body. Lupus recurrently impacts the joints, respiratory system, blood cells, nervous system, and kidneys. Prednisone is a hormone secreted that suppresses immune system function and is frequently prescribed daily as treatment.
8. Graves’ Disease
Graves disease provides autoimmune disease symptoms that cause the thyroid gland to become overactive (hyperthyroidism). This gland releases the thyroid hormones such as thyroxine and triiodothyronine, which regulate metabolism. The major reason for hyperthyroidism is Graves’ disease. The thyroid gland secretes too much thyroid hormone, as a result of an unusual reaction from the immune system. Graves disease is most prevalent in women above the age of 20 years. However, the illness can strike at any maturity level and impact both men and women.
9. Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis
In contrast to Graves’ disease, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis occurs when insufficient thyroid hormone gets released, resulting in an autoimmune deficiency. It helps reduce hormonal production but also slowly destroys the cells that produce thyroid hormones. Hypothyroidism (low thyroid hormone levels) develops over months to years.
Common Autoimmune Disease Symptoms
There are many similar symptoms in various types of autoimmune diseases, here are some of the most commonly seen signs in patients suffering from these conditions:
- Easily getting fatigued for a longer time
- Discomfort and inflammation in joints
- Skin-related conditions
- Abdominal discomfort and digestive issues
- Constant or recurring fever
- Inflammatory glands
- Rashes
- Feeling unwell all the time
Even though autoimmune disease symptoms are common in most conditions, some may trigger dangerous manifestations that are based on types and locations of immune system failure.
Autoimmune Disease Causes
The reasons behind the autoimmune disease are not precisely known but some risk factors play a significant role in increasing your chances of triggering autoimmune symptoms. Here are some of the causes of autoimmune illnesses:
1. Genetics
Some diseases, such as lupus and multiple sclerosis (MS), are genetically transmitted. Having a relative with an autoimmune disorder can raise your chances of getting affected, yet doesn’t guarantee that you will surely develop the disease.
2. Weight
Overweight or obese individuals are at higher risk of developing rheumatoid or psoriatic arthritis. It might be that carrying more weight puts more strain on the joints and bones or just because fat tissue produces substances that promote inflammation.
3. Smoking
It has been negatively associated with a variety of autoimmune disorders such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, hyperthyroidism, and multiple sclerosis.
4. Medication Issues
Some medications, such as medicines for high blood pressure or antibiotics, can cause drug-induced lupus, which is frequently a less aggressive type of lupus. It has also been found that certain cholesterol-lowering medicines known as statins can cause related symptoms of myopathy. Myopathy is a rare autoimmune disorder characterised by muscle spasms and weakness.
You can also contract autoimmune symptoms if exposed to toxins, infections, viruses, etc. There is a higher chance of getting these conditions if you are a female as they are studied to be more at risk.
Autoimmune Disease Treatments
Treatment will be determined largely by the types of autoimmune diseases you suffer from and their degree of severity. If your symptoms aren’t severe, your doctor may advise you to control them through lifestyle modifications that will help you feel better, such as having eaten a nutritious diet, obtaining sufficient sleep, and getting adequate physical exercise with fresh air.
Immunosuppressants and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can be used to help manage the immune system’s overly active reactions and reduce the amount of body inflammation. There are also treatments available to alleviate symptoms such as pain, swelling, fatigue, and skin rashes.
Supplements can be used to replace nutritional health that the body lacks as a result of autoimmune diseases, such as thyroid hormone, vitamin B12, or insulin. If the blood is contaminated, a blood transfusion may be required to purify the blood. If the bones, joints, or muscles are negatively affected, physical therapy may assist with movement.
Conclusion
Autoimmune diseases can be pervasive or can impact different organs or body systems. Most autoimmune disorders have an evident gender disparity in occurrence, with females being impacted more frequently than males.
There is currently no way to prevent or cure an autoimmune disease, though researchers are trying to come up with a long-term solution. There are challenges, such as discovering the particular genetic behaviours of individuals who are predisposed to autoimmune disease, emphasising environmental variables that may trigger disease, and devising ways to intervene before the disease advances.
For the time being, blood tests that search for autoantibodies can assist doctors in diagnosing these conditions, and some medications can be used to calm the obsessive autoimmune reaction and reduce the amount of body inflammation.
