Hairloss, severe mouth ulcers, skin rashes? Get yourself checked for autoimmune diseases

Low energy, sore joints, skin rashes and digestive issues affecting many people may have a not-socommon reason behind them — an autoimmune disorder.

The most common symptom of an autoimmune disease is inflammation; it comes to you in the form of recurring tummy troubles or a skin rash that won’t go away even after medication.

There’s a whole spectrum of autoimmune disorders like lupus, Sjogren’s syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, vasculitis and ankylosing spondylitis, to name a few.


There are also others like type-1 diabetes, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, Graves’ disease (resulting in hyperthyroidism), irritable bowel syndrome and myasthenia gravis, said Dr Raja Indana, internal medicine and lead — care team, mfine.


MORE WOMEN SUFFERERS
Doctors say that autoimmune diseases are increasing nowadays, especially among women.

Indana said: “Yes, autoimmune diseases are on the rise. Women get autoimmune diseases at the rate of about 2:1 compared to men, 5.4% of women vs 2.7% of men. The disease often starts during a woman’s childbearing age.”

Majority of the autoimmune diseases indeed affect more women than men. “It is because of the female hormones that drive them. When you look at the relative numbers, women get them more than men but it doesn’t mean that men are not completely exempted from these diseases,” said Dr Ramesh Jois, consultant rheumatologist, Vikram Hospital, Bengaluru.

According to Dr Shalini Joshi, senior consultant, internal medicine, at Bengaluru’s Fortis Hospital, “lupus is about nine times more common in women than in men. This increased susceptibility may be made possible, at least in part, due to differences related to hormones and sex chromosomes. However, to what extent these sex differences contribute to the development of lupus is largely unknown.”

WHY DOES IT HAPPEN?
Immune system disorders can happen to anyone at any age. There are dozens of autoimmune diseases, which occur when the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s own organs and tissues.

“When something goes wrong with the immune system and it starts attacking its own healthy cells, it is called autoimmune response. The body’s immunity when functioning normally will kill germs and potentially harmful cells which could turn into cancer,” Joshi said.

Studies have shown that genetics and environmental factors cause autoimmune diseases. With the rapid increase in autoimmune diseases, it clearly suggests that environmental factors too are at play along with unhealthy lifestyles, Joshi said.

Physical and psychological stress has been implicated in the development of autoimmune disease. Unfortunately, not only does stress cause the disease, but also the disease itself causes significant stress in the patients, creating a vicious cycle, she added.

However, Indana said the exact cause of autoimmune disease is not known, although there exist many theories about what leads to the malfunction. Some of the factors are environmental irritants, bacteria or virus, chemical irritants and drugs. It has also been seen that autoimmune disorders mostly run in families, he said.

WATCH OUT FOR THE SIGNS
The majority of these diseases mostly affect youngsters, Jois said. The most important symptoms are pain or swelling in the joints, difficulty in bending your fingers (joint stiffness) early in the morning and being unable to walk. “If you leave this untreated, this will become a bigger problem when it spreads to other organs of the body. In fact, diseases like lupus first start in other organs and then come to the joints. For example, people get skin rashes, eye inflammation, suffer hair loss, severe mouth ulcers — all these diseases become very complicated as they can affect any part of the body,” he said.

“A person suffering from such ailments can have one or more symptoms ranging from headaches, fever, joint pains, stiffness to difficulty in breathing, chest pain and losing weight at times. Sometimes, the patient experiences tiredness, fatigue, mouth sores and loss of hair, but because of the non-specific nature of the symptoms, they fail to seek medical attention and try to do self-medication,” explained Joshi.

Jois said: “We are increasingly recognising autoimmune diseases nowadays because of better diagnosis and better awareness among doctors. These diseases have been there for generations; now we have trained specialists designated for these diseases. There are improved tests available to give more specific diagnosis and improved medications.”

DON’T TAKE SYMPTOMS LIGHTLY
Autoimmune diseases cannot be prevented, said Jois. But early recognition and treatment is important. Once you can manage it with medication, you can arrest the spread of the diseases to other organs. For example, lupus can spread to the kidneys. In fact, for a woman with lupus, there’s a 60% chance of developing kidney disease during her lifetime. So, recognising the problem early is important, Jois said.

LOWER THE ODDS
Joshi said the best thing you can do is to lower your chances of getting lupus or other autoimmune diseases by focusing on maintaining a healthy body through regular exercise and dietary habits. Avoid smoking tobacco and consuming alcohol. Make sure you keep yourself hydrated, eat lots of fruits and vegetables instead of packaged drinks and processed foods.


AUTOIMMUNE PROTOCOL DIET
A recent, food-based approach, the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP), helps heal the immune system and gut mucosa. This approach is said to help eliminate inflammation.

According to Indana, foods to include in AIP diet are meat and fish (preferably not factory raised), vegetables (but not nightshades such as tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and potatoes), sweet potatoes, fruits (in small quantities), coconut milk, avocado, olives, coconut oil, dairy-free fermented foods, honey or maple syrup (but only to be used occasionally, in small quantities), fresh non-seed herbs such as basil, mint and oregano, green tea, bone broth, and vinegars such as apple cider and balsamic.

Foods to avoid are grains such as oats, rice and wheat, all dairy, eggs, legumes such as beans and peanuts, all sugars including sugar replacements (except for occasional use of honey), butter and ghee, all oils (except for avocado, coconut and olive), food additives and alcohol.