What's Wrong With Me?

Autoimune Disease

Posted By: Dave
Date: Thursday, October 13 2005, at 5:19 p.m.

An autoimune disease is one in which your own imune system attacks your body. This is usually a result of your imune system thinking that some part of your body is not actually a part of your body. For example, reumatoid arthritus is an autoimune disease in which the imune system attacks certain joints in the body causing the tissue surrounding them to become inflamed. The inflammation is primarily the source of the pain. Because autoimunity is such a difficult thing to treat, there are a huge variety of different treatments used. Some treatments are just aimed at treating the symptoms of the disease, while others may actually try to inhibit the imune system. Inhibiting the imune system is tricky though because you still want the body to be able to fight off anything that's not supposed to be in there. Ideally, you can just inhibit the specific antibody that's causing the problem.

Messages In This Thread

Autoimune Disease
Dave -- Thursday, October 13 2005, at 5:19 p.m.

Re: Autoimune Disease
Louis Leonowens -- Friday, April 21 2006, at 5:59 p.m.

 

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Message: > An autoimune disease is one in which your own imune > system attacks your body. This is usually a result of > your imune system thinking that some part of your body > is not actually a part of your body. > For example, reumatoid arthritus is an autoimune > disease in which the imune system attacks certain > joints in the body causing the tissue surrounding them > to become inflamed. The inflammation is primarily the > source of the pain. > Because autoimunity is such a difficult thing to > treat, there are a huge variety of different > treatments used. Some treatments are just aimed at > treating the symptoms of the disease, while others may > actually try to inhibit the imune system. Inhibiting > the imune system is tricky though because you still > want the body to be able to fight off anything that's > not supposed to be in there. Ideally, you can just > inhibit the specific antibody that's causing the > problem.
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