What are Autoimmune Diseases?

These are the diseases in which your own immune system considers your own body as enemy as starts attacking it.

What is the Immune System?

Immune system is like a guard for your body. It consists of different types of cells like lymphocytes, neutrophils , macrophages etc. Whenever infection causing organisms enter your body, these cells become alert and they attack them and kill them.

What causes the Immune system to go crazy?

Well there is no one perfect answer but different assumptions. One of them is the role of genes. Genetic makeup of your body decides what goes where. If there is something wrong with your genes then chances are very high that the cells they will made will alos be defected.

Second theory is that some viruses mimic like our body’s own cells. That’s how our immune system gets confused and while attacking them, they also starts attacking body’s own healthy cells.

There are many different types of autoimmune diseases. Some of them are listed as under:

Alopecia areata.
Autoimmune hemolytic anaemia.
Autoimmune hepatitis.
Dermatomyositis.
Diabetes (type1).
Glomerulonephritis.
Graves’ disease.
Guillain-Barré syndrome.
Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura.
Some forms of juvenile idiopathic arthritis.
Myasthenia gravis.
Some forms of myocarditis.
Multiple sclerosis.
Pemphigus/pemphigoid.
Pernicious anaemia.
Polyarteritis nodosa.
Polymyositis.
Primary biliary cirrhosis.
Psoriasis.
Rheumatoid arthritis.
Scleroderma/systemic sclerosis.
Sjögren’s syndrome.
Systemic lupus erythematosus.
Vitiligo and so on.

What will be the symptoms when your immune system attacks you?

Well, that depends which body part is being attacked. If they going to attack your skin then that will cause blisters, rashes and redness of your skin. When they attack joints then there will be joint pain and stiffness, their covering will slowly die off. If they going to attack your thyroid gland, then there will be less of thyroid hormones produces which will cause hypothyroidism and so on.

What are the treatment options available?

Well, I said the immune system becomes hyperactive so we need to calm the immune system. We can use corticosteroids and immunosuppressive drugs which will decrease the production of immune cells and make them little lazy so they can’t go crazy.