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. These diseases tend to run in families.

There are more than 80 types of autoimmune diseases.  Since many have similar symptoms, it makes it hard for your health care provider to know if you really have one of these diseases, and if so, which one. It may take a while to get a diagnosis and this can be very frustrating.  In many people, the first symptoms are being tired, muscle aches and low fever.

The diseases may also have flare-ups, when they get worse, and remissions, when they all but disappear. The diseases do not usually go away, but symptoms can be treated.

Topics covered here:

Diabetes

Multiple Sclerosis

Lupus

Rheumatoid Arthritis

Diabetes (Type 1)

Diabetes means your blood glucose, or blood sugar, is too high. With Type 1 diabetes, your pancreas does not make insulin. Insulin is a hormone that helps glucose get into your cells to give them energy. Without insulin, too much glucose stays in your blood. Over time, high blood glucose can lead to serious problems with your heart, eyes, kidneys, nerves, and gums and teeth.

Type 1 diabetes happens most often in children and young adults but can appear at any age.

Symptoms may include:

- Being very thirsty

- Urinating often

- Feeling very hungry or tired

- Losing weight without trying

- Having sores that heal slowly

- Having dry, itchy skin

- Losing the feeling in your feet or having tingling in your feet

- Having blurry eyesight

- A blood test can show if you have diabetes. If you do, you will need to take insulin for the rest of your life.

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

Visit these sites for more information:

Diabetes:Type 1 (American Academy of Family Physicians)

Your Guide to Diabetes: Type 1 and Type 2 (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases)

Medicines for People with Diabetes (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases)

Dealingwith Diabetes (American Diabetes Association)

Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a nervous system disease that affects your brain and spinal cord. It damages the myelin sheath, the material that surrounds and protects your nerve cells. This damage interferes with messages between your brain and your body, leading to the symptoms of MS. They can include

- Visual disturbances

- Muscle weakness

- Trouble with coordination and balance

- Sensations such as numbness, prickling, or "pins and needles"

- Thinking and memory problems

No one knows what causes MS. It may be an autoimmune disease, which happens when your body attacks itself. Multiple sclerosis affects woman more than men. It often begins between the ages of 20 and 40. Usually, the disease is mild, but there are people who lose the ability to write, speak or walk. There is no cure for MS, but medicines may help to slow it down and help control symptoms. Physical and occupational therapy may also be helpful.

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Visit these sites for more information:

Multiple Sclerosis:Hope through Research (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke)

MultipleSclerosis (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research)

Diagnosis: The Basic Facts (National Multiple Sclerosis Society)

Disease-Modifying Drugs (National Multiple Sclerosis Society)

"ButYou Look So Good!": Managing Specific Issues (National Multiple Sclerosis Society)

Lupus

Lupus is a disorder where your immune system attacks healthy cells and tissues by mistake. This can damage your joints, skin, blood vessels and organs. There are many different kinds of lupus. The most common type, systemic lupus erythematosus, affects many parts of the body. Discoid lupus causes a rash that doesn't go away. Subacute cutaneous lupus causes sores after being out in the sun. Another type can be caused by medication. Neonatal lupus, which is rare, affects newborns.

Anyone can get lupus, but women are most at risk. Lupus is also more common in African American, Hispanic, Asian and Native American women. The cause of lupus is not known.

Lupus has many symptoms. Some common ones are

-Joint pain or swelling

-Muscle pain

-Fever with no known cause

-Red rashes, often on the face (also called the "butterfly rash")

National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases

Visit these sites for more information:

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases)

Lupus (Easy to Read)  (National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases)

Immune Suppressants and Lupus (Lupus Foundation of America)

Steroids and Lupus (Lupus Foundation of America)

Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a form of arthritis that causes pain, swelling, stiffness and loss of function in your joints. It can affect any joint but is common in the wrist and fingers. More women than men get rheumatoid arthritis. It often starts between ages 25 and 55. Symptoms may come or go so that you have the disease for only a short time, but the severe form can last a lifetime.

Rheumatoid arthritis is different from osteoarthritis, the common arthritis that often comes with older age. RA can affect body parts besides joints, such as your eyes, mouth and lungs. 

National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases

Visit these sites for more information:

What Is Rheumatoid Arthritis? (National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases)

Arthritis Advice (National Institute on Aging)

Rheumatoid Arthritis and Complementary andAlternative Medicine (National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine)