Autoimmune diseases and conditions are far more prevalent than most of us realise and that is a huge problem. Given that autoimmune diseases are hardly even understood by the general population, someone suffering from a condition such as autoimmune hepatitis may not even realise what is happening until they are already in the latter stages of the disease. Therefore, the first fact everyone should know about autoimmune diseases is what they are exactly.

What are Autoimmune Diseases?

Autoimmune conditions can be defined simply as immune system malfunctions where the patient’s immune system becomes selectively incapable of recognising what they should or should not be attacking. It’s bad news when the very biological system that was supposed to protect the body from diseases starts attacking internal organs, muscles, tissues, blood vessels, nerves, and even the bones.

Aside from a high likelihood of the conditions being genetic disorders that are not necessarily but likely to be hereditary in nature, the origin of autoimmune diseases is not completely understood yet. However, most autoimmune diseases are selective in their effects, which means that although the point of origin will always be a malfunctioning immune system, which part of the body it will mistake as a pathogen differs in accordance with the concerned disease. Therefore, it is imperative for us to know at least the basics of common autoimmune disorders and their respective symptoms.

Antiphospholipid Syndrome

Antiphospholipid syndrome is an autoimmune condition where antibodies attack and damage cellular linings of the blood vessels, leading to vascular and even arterial blood clots. Symptoms of the immunity disorder may include:

• Reddish/deep red rashes on and around the knees and wrists.
• Sharp and intense pain in one or more of the limbs, or unnaturally warm and reddish limbs.
• Pain and a feeling of constriction in the chest, often accompanied by shortness of breath.
• Headache, nausea, and a noticeable decline in one’s cognitive abilities such as memory, recall, speech articulation, penmanship, etc.

If you or anyone close to you is exhibiting any of these symptoms, it is highly recommended that you seek medical help at the earliest. Since blood clots generally lead to cerebral strokes, heart attacks, permanent limb damage, and even death, early symptoms of antiphospholipid syndrome should be treated as an urgent situation.

Find an immunologist near you and book an appointment with them directly from the Circle Health website. The Circle Health Group is the UK’s largest network of private healthcare providers, with 6,000+ specialist doctors and medical consultants within their network. Rest assured that wherever you might be located in the United Kingdom, you are not too far away from one of the numerous Circle Health Group hospitals and specialist clinics in the country.

Autoimmune Hepatitis

Like the name suggests, autoimmune hepatitis is a condition where the liver swells up after being attacked and damaged by antibodies that mistake the liver itself as a pathogen. The symptoms of autoimmune hepatitis and hepatoviral hepatitis are almost identical at the latter stages and can only be differentiated once hepatoviral infections are ruled out through bloodwork.

Also, unlike hepatoviral infections, symptoms of autoimmune hepatitis will gradually become more intense if left untreated. Symptoms of hepatoviral infections (hepatitis A – E) are acute and severe, while those of autoimmune hepatitis are gradual and chronic. Early symptoms such as chronic lethargy, yellowish eyes, yellowish skin, dark yellow urine, light yellow stool, loss of appetite, nausea, frequent skin allergies, etc. are not to be ignored.

Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

One of the severest forms of autoimmune disorders known to us yet is multiple sclerosis (MS). In most cases, MS does not stay limited to just one part of the body and, consequently, our own antibodies end up completely eroding away the myelin sheaths (protective sheath of nerve cells) from our eyes, spinal cord, and even the brain itself.

The symptoms of MS depend on what stage a patient is in at that time, but weak, tight, and stiff muscles, aka spasticity is one of the earliest symptoms of MS. Other common symptoms of multiple sclerosis are fatigue, loss of bladder control, inability to recognise one’s need to urinate, poor reaction time, poor neuromuscular coordination, difficulty with motor tasks, difficulty in walking, difficulty with any physically intensive task, sudden nerve shocks (like electrical shocks), numbness, and tingling sensation near the extremities (fingers and toes mostly). Both myasthenia gravis and multiple sclerosis may lead to dropping eyelids, although myasthenia gravis can be identified by the patient’s inability to form different facial expressions which come naturally to most of us.

Other common autoimmune diseases not mentioned here include lupus, Guillain-Barré syndrome, Graves’ disease, Crohn’s disease, celiac disease, and alopecia areata among others. Frequent, allergic reactions in the form of skin rashes are by far the most common symptoms shared by nearly all autoimmune diseases. Therefore, contact an immunologist and they should be able to help in both diagnosing and treating the underlying autoimmune disease before it can do too much damage to your body.