About Autoimmunity

I’d never heard of Antiphospholipid Syndrome, but I had heard of autoimmune diseases and I understood in some nebulous way that they were chronic energy sappers. I had a mental picture of autoimmune patients as semi-invalids, delicate flowers that needed coddling to avoid the stress of everyday living. Definitely not my style. My whole life, I’d bloomed under the stress of the deadline, hurried days and long nights of committed overachievement. I thrived on it. Or so I told myself.

Excerpt from Scrambling Back

An autoimmune illness occurs when a body’s tissues are attacked by its own immune system. Patients with autoimmune diseases frequently have unusual antibodies circulating in their blood that target their own body tissues.

Autoimmune diseases are more frequent in women than in men and many researchers believe estrogen influences the immune system to predispose to autoimmune disease.

There are more than 100 autoimmune diseases. Examples of well-known autoimmune diseases include lupus, juvenile (type 1) diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Learn more about autoimmune disease here.