If you didn’t already know, autoimmune diseases are a constant threat to millions of Americans. If you’re wondering what they are, autoimmune disease is a condition that makes our immune system function differently than it should, which only causes problems within our body.
As a response, the immune system starts attacking the host, instead of its predators. The biggest issue with an autoimmune disease is how immunity views the cells of the body.
An immune system that functions in normal parameters will have no issue in separating foreign, invasive cells and those who are of the host’s.
However, the immune system of those that suffer from this condition views some of its own cells as a potential threat. There are many forms of this condition, and in some cases, they are so severe that they require constant hospitalization.
Other times, the autoimmune disease has mild symptoms that aren’t damaging the person’s health. For example, vitiligo is a mild autoimmune condition, but it manifests through destroyed pigmentation of the skin.
While doctors haven’t yet managed to find out what causes this misinterpretation that leads to autoimmune diseases, they have discovered that some people are more at risk than others.
Find out if you might be one of them, by reading this list of symptoms. If you check off most of the points on the following page, you should definitely go to the doctor: