Understanding Autoimmune Illness

by Pamela Rice Hahn

Your body constantly battles forces that are out to cause you harm, such as dangerous bacteria and viruses. Sometimes even despite your concerted efforts of practicing good hygiene and other preventative measures, one of them slips by and enters your body. When all goes according to plan, your immune system zaps these nasty microorganisms and all is well.

Other times, something triggers the “oops” mechanism in your body and your immune system becomes overactive and, in essence, gets a bit mixed up about what specifically it’s supposed to be doing. When that “oops” happens, your immune system begins to attack the healthy cells it’s supposed to be protecting.

The result can be that an autoimmune illness develops.

Women and Autoimmune Illnesses

There are more than 80 autoimmune illnesses.

Autoimmune illness affects more than 50 million people in North America. While men are by no means immune, women are more likely to acquire an autoimmune illness — often at ratios as high as 50 to 1!

Dr. Sherine E. Gabriel, in an interview about Autoimmune Diseases in Women on the Mayo Clinic Web site, says that autoimmune disorders may be more prevalent in women because “[t]here are some links to the hormone estrogen, but beyond that we know very little.” Naturally, while unavoidable, comments like that cause frustration for those who suffer from such syndromes. Someone with an autoimmune illness is left to search for answers where often there aren’t any. Our health problems confound the medical community as much as they do us.

It appears that hormones aren’t the only culprits. Dr. Gabriel says that current research indicates that autoimmune disorders are caused by multiple factors: “genetic, hormonal and environmental.” She says, “The current thinking is that in order to get an autoimmune disease, you must first be genetically susceptible. … Then you have to be exposed to an environmental trigger such as a virus. The evidence here is much weaker. These are the two key factors. If this happens when your hormones are in a particular state, such as during pregnancy, you could be even more susceptible. I don’t think the cause of autoimmune diseases will turn out to be one thing. It will be a combination of factors that act together to cause these diseases.”

It’s also believed that heredity can make a difference as to which autoimmune illness somebody acquires, because it’s a redundant fact of life that different genes respond differently to different factors.

As if coping with an autoimmune illness isn’t enough, those who have one illness are susceptible to acquiring another. For example, it’s known that Grave’s Disease (autoimmune thyroid failure) often leads to autoimmune ovarian failure. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia are often also associated with Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

A Diagnosis Can Be Difficult to Obtain

As most of people with autoimmune illnesses already know, these various factors also make the diseases difficult to diagnose and treat. Not only can one disease precipitate acquiring another, but many autoimmune illnesses also have overlapping symptoms. In addition, while it’s obvious that not everyone has the same hereditary make-up, we also haven’t been exposed to the same environmental factors and other exposures either. That’s just one of the reasons why, even once an autoimmune illness is isolated and diagnosed, one treatment that works for one person may not help another.

What can be even more frustrating is that there doesn’t appear to be anything one can do to prevent such illnesses. Little is known about which environmental factors trigger responses that can lead to an autoimmune illness.

Some symptoms improve during pregnancy; others can get worse. Women who have never given birth are susceptible to some illnesses; childbirth seems to trigger others. So much depends on the individual. Oral contraceptives that can protect some women increase the likelihood of autoimmune disease in others.

Studies show that smoking may increase the chances of acquiring rheumatoid arthritis. In most cases, however, there is just too little known at this point as to what to do and what not to do to avoid becoming a victim of an autoimmune illnesses. Therefore, those who are living with an autoimmune disease experience the frustration that it’s impossible to know how to protect others in the families from acquiring the same problems. While not technically contagious, because it also isn’t known exactly what happened to cause the illness, it’s impossible to know how to caution anyone else about what things to avoid in order to avoid or evade a similar fate.

The good news in all this is that in most cases, an autoimmune illness in and of itself is seldom fatal.

The bad news is that most do decrease a person’s lifespan.

Knowledge is power. Understanding your body and how it responds to different “triggers” is your first step in managing your autoimmune illnesses. Educating yourself about treatments and ways to cope with your illness (and thereby improve your quality of life) is the next one.

Revision Copyright © 2010 Blue Rose Bouquet Group, LLC
All Rights Reserved

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