AutoImmune Diseases
AutoImmune Diseases occur when the immune system goes haywire and is no longer able to distinguish between "self" and "foreign" cells. Under regular circumstances, antibodies act in a seek and destroy fashion, targeting foreign proteins such as viruses, bacteria, and other intruders, while recognizing the body's own tissue and leaving it alone. Autoimmunity results when the body wages an immune response against itself.
Autoimmune Diseases are believed to be caused by multiple factors, which include immunologic abnormalities and genetics. Though theories and hypotheses outnumber known facts, some hypothesize that autoimmunity may be caused by hidden antigens, cross-reacting antigens, alteration of self antigens that increase receptor affinity, and the failure of immunoregulation. Several theories, such as the Forbidden Clone Theory & the Sequestered Antigen Theory, exist to explain why the body no longer recognizes itself. The exact mechanism causing the self annihilation isn't fully understood, but viruses, bacteria and drugs are suspected to play a role in triggering an autoimmune process in someone already genetically predisposed.
AutoImmune Diseases are sometimes described as having an allergy to one's self, which isn't accurate since allergies generally cause inflammation, while autoimmune diseases destroy tissues. AutoImmune Diseases aren't cancers since abnormal antibodies are made by normal cells, not cancerous cells. Unlike AIDS, which is caused by an underactive immune system, autoimmunity is the result of an overactive immune system.
Autoimmune diseases can
be classified as 1.) organ specific (directed mainly against
one organ), like Addison's Disease with the adrenal gland, and
2.) non organ specific (widely spread throughout the body), like
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Dermatomyositis.
To learn more about AutoImmune Diseases please visit the the
BCCC
Specialty Report on Autoimmune Diseases and the American
AutoImmune Related Disease Association.
The remainder of our discussion will focus on the Autoimmune Diseases that Lilli experienced, Dermatomyositis and her nemesis, AutoImmune Hemolytic Anemia.
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