Autoimmune diseases are when the body attacks its own chemicals and cells due to a disruption in the body’s natural defense system. This causes your body to confuse your own proteins and cells with foreign cells, and attack your own cells – which should not happen. With over 80 types of autoimmune diseases affecting a wide range of body parts and systems, figuring out the root cause and treating the disease can be incredibly challenging. In many cases, it is unfortunately common to treat the symptoms the patient is experiencing rather than the underlying problem to try to slow down the disease process. In most cases, a full resolution of autoimmune diseases will not be achieved, so treatment should focus on both symptoms and the underlying process in an effort to slow down the progression of the disease and provide as much comfort to the patient as possible. 

So many autoimmune diseases are difficult to diagnose because they share symptoms and have similar test results. Regardless of the type of autoimmune illness you may have, it all starts with getting the most accurate diagnosis so that you can have the most accurate treatment for the autoimmune disorders and have the highest chance of success.

What Causes Autoimmune Diseases?

While the exact causes of autoimmune diseases are unknown, there are potential factors including genetics, environmental factors such as stress or environmental toxins, or pathogens like bacteria or viruses that produce toxins. Women are significantly affected more than men, though the reasons for this are unknown. Furthermore, once you have an autoimmune disorder or disease, it is possible to become affected by new ones down the line.

The U.S. National Library of Medicine shares that autoimmune disease may result in:

• The destruction of body tissue
• Abnormal growth of an organ
• Changes in organ function
• An autoimmune disorder may affect one or more organ or tissue types. 

Organs often affected by autoimmune disorders include:

• Blood vessels
• Connective tissues
• Endocrine glands that produce Hormones such as the thyroid or pancreas
• Joints
• Muscles
• Red blood cells
• Skin

Some additional potential causes for autoimmune diseases may be medicine that causes an adverse reaction in the immune system, smoking, trauma, and even changes in weight and overall health. Generally speaking, when someone is under extreme stress or duress, the risk of developing an autoimmune disease rises, and that risk becomes even higher if they are generally unhealthy, overweight, smoke cigarettes, or catch a viral or bacterial infection. Again as we mentioned earlier, autoimmune diseases are significantly more prevalent in women. 

Common Autoimmune Diseases Symptoms

While there are over 80 different autoimmune diseases, many of them share similar symptoms including fevers (often low-grade and intermittent or persistent without explanation), joint and body aches with stiffness and pains, rashes, persistent or extreme fatigue, and general flu-like symptoms of illness. According to Johns Hopkins Medical Center, autoimmune disease affects 23.5 million Americans, and nearly 80 percent of those are women. If you experience any of these symptoms, it may be due to an autoimmune disease, scheduling a doctor’s visit as soon as you can, may help get you on the road to better health and reduce any potential long-term damage from the autoimmune disease.

Women are affected significantly more than men when it comes to autoimmune diseases.

Diagnosing an autoimmune disorder can be a complicated and lengthy process, but an important one as there are different options and treatments depending on exactly how your system is affected. Testing can include physical exams, blood tests, radiology images, and in some cases even tissue biopsy. Working with your regular medical provider or a specialist is a great first step. But once you get through the diagnostic phase, it’s time to move on to treatment, and developing a treatment plan can be another challenge as well. Because there are so many factors to consider, it’s important that you work with a provider that understands your immune system and is looking at both root cause as well as your overall health. With autoimmune diseases, it is especially true that treating symptoms can cause other issues to develop as the body’s immune system may become even further confused during the treatment plan. Some medications can trigger immune system disruption, making determining what drug to prescribe a challenge in and of itself. Often, more success can be found in treating autoimmune diseases by working with an integrated wellness provider that works through functional medicine and takes a more holistic approach to correcting your entire system, body, and lifestyle to make positive changes throughout.

Once you have been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease by a specialist, we are here to further help you. Dr. J. Andre Garabedian MD, is board-certified in Family Practice and is also board-certified in Integrative Medicine. His key focus is helping patients live their best life by working together to treat the root cause of underlying issues that drive the symptoms and challenges associated with autoimmune diseases. Stay tuned for our next blog on treating autoimmune diseases later this month and contact us for an appointment or more information today.