Some of you were wondering why your immune system is out of whack producing antibodies that stimulate the thyroid, etc. One warrior wants to go to an immunologist to get to the bottom of this. I don’t think s/he could helpher beyond telling her what autoimmune disease she’s suffering(which she knows already) and how to treat the symptoms. Who could answer her questions if anybody are research scientists not clinicians. The immune disease that has skyrocketed in the last decade or so is asthma. There has been much speculation for why this is but the idea I found interesting was that in societies in which children are not immunized against childhood diseases and the kids actually get the diseases, there is a very low incidence of asthma regardless of pollution levels(a likely suspect)These researchers speculate that since our immune systems don’t have any real enemies to fight, it starts attacking our own tissues. I know that Grave’s patients are more prone to other autoimmune disorders-vitigo, myastensia(sp!) gravis, etc but on the board not many of you have complained of asthma. I’m not sure if the incidence of Grave’s disease has increased. Thyroid diseases are being detected much better due to the relatively cheap TSH assay. I don’t think anyone knows why our bodies start producing thyroid antibodies. Some researchers belive the antibody produced is very similar to one useful against a specific bacteria. What started as a minor infection ends up as GD. GD rears its head around pregnancy, puberty and menopause so it might be hormone mediated-men get it much less frequently. Anyways, just my random thoughts as I tried to answer my own question, why? and why me?
Sue R-K
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