I had an autoimmune disease, then the disease had me (2013)
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Re: I had an autoimmune disease, then the disease had me (2013)
#2Summary generated by smmry:
Autoimmune disease occurs when, for some reason, the body attacks its own healthy tissue, turning on the very thing it was supposed to protect.
Even the term "Autoimmune disease" may be imprecise: we don't know in every case whether autoimmune dysfunction is the cause of the disease, rather than, say, a consequence.
Thyroid patients tend to be preoccupied with antibodies, but Rose, who now runs the Center for Autoimmune Disease Research at Johns Hopkins, notes that one culprit in Hashimoto's might be the T-lymphocyte-you could have a low antibody count and still be quite sick, or a high antibody count and feel fine.
The American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association estimates that as many as fifty million Americans suffer from autoimmunity, which makes it one of the most prevalent categories of disease, ahead of cancer.
A lot of people with autoimmune diseases would like to see the establishment of clinical autoimmune centers, where a single doctor would coördinate and oversee a patient's care, as at a cancer center.
A common symptom of autoimmune diseases is debilitating fatigue.
The real coming to terms with autoimmune disease is recognizing that you are sick, that the sickness will come and go, and that it is often not the kind of sick you can conquer.
Re: I had an autoimmune disease, then the disease had me (2013)
#3Summary generated by smmry: Autoimmune disease occurs when, for some reason, the body attacks its own healthy tissue, turning on the very thing it was supposed to protect. Even the term "Autoimmune disease" may be imprecise: we don't know in every case whether autoimmune dysfunction is the cause of the disease, rather than, say, a consequence. Thyroid patients tend to be preoccupied with antibodies, but Rose, who now…
The last two lines above are certainly true.
googles smmry
Re: I had an autoimmune disease, then the disease had me (2013)
#4[deleted]
Re: I had an autoimmune disease, then the disease had me (2013)
#5Summary generated by smmry: Autoimmune disease occurs when, for some reason, the body attacks its own healthy tissue, turning on the very thing it was supposed to protect. Even the term "Autoimmune disease" may be imprecise: we don't know in every case whether autoimmune dysfunction is the cause of the disease, rather than, say, a consequence. Thyroid patients tend to be preoccupied with antibodies, but Rose, who now…
Interestingly, this summary completely overlooks the actual point of the article, which is the author's difficult and emotional coming-to-terms with an unknown illness, engagement with medical uncertainty, and attempts to maintain a sense of self.
I guess this is because smmry uses entropy-based methods of summarization where personal pronouns and mental states are relatively probable / low information content? In any case, it's a good read for developing empathy—chances are you have a friend going through this stuff.
Re: I had an autoimmune disease, then the disease had me (2013)
#6Summary generated by smmry: Autoimmune disease occurs when, for some reason, the body attacks its own healthy tissue, turning on the very thing it was supposed to protect. Even the term "Autoimmune disease" may be imprecise: we don't know in every case whether autoimmune dysfunction is the cause of the disease, rather than, say, a consequence. Thyroid patients tend to be preoccupied with antibodies, but Rose, who now…
This is a good example of how hard summarising a long-form article is. I give this attempt a C-
Re: I had an autoimmune disease, then the disease had me (2013)
#7Summary generated by smmry: Autoimmune disease occurs when, for some reason, the body attacks its own healthy tissue, turning on the very thing it was supposed to protect. Even the term "Autoimmune disease" may be imprecise: we don't know in every case whether autoimmune dysfunction is the cause of the disease, rather than, say, a consequence. Thyroid patients tend to be preoccupied with antibodies, but Rose, who now…
> Summary generated by smmry
Please don't post these here. HN comments are for conversation between people.
Re: I had an autoimmune disease, then the disease had me (2013)
#8When I was a lot younger than I am now, I was rushed to a hospital ~1000KM away from where I live, with liver-function-markers shooting through the roof.
After 2 weeks of checking everything in every way possible, they figured I had auto-immune hepatitis (body attacks my liver). That explained why I had been very tired, doctors said I'd take about 6 months before I could return to school, because I would be too tired and might get ill because my immune system would be weaker as I ate medicine limiting my immune system.
After 2 weeks of staying mostly home, eating immuno-repressant, I was bored as hell, went back to school and was back in full form, and I rarely get a cold or anything.
Never had any symptoms other than yellow eyes when it was worst, and extreme tiredness when it was the worst, apart from that it only shows itself when people actually analyze my blood...
No one really knows what the cause is, but there are many theories. It's fun to add some mystery to life, there's still a lot to discover ^^
Re: I had an autoimmune disease, then the disease had me (2013)
#9I want to use HN to do a quick informal survey on this topic: please state # of your male friends with similar conditions, # female friends with similar conditions, country or state, and whether you live in an urban vs. rural area (yes I know that this is a crappy methodology and likely a very biased sample)
Re: I had an autoimmune disease, then the disease had me (2013)
#10I have CFS/ME which I manage to about 60% normal. It's not enough and like many I'm doing enough to continue existing but nothing more. My next experiment is Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) which sadly had to be bought illegally over the Internet so it's taking a long time to get. Has anyone here tried this? Did it work?