Page 4 - Autoimmune diseases
P. 4
To understand autoimmune diseases, it is
important that you understand a few concepts first.
One of the most important concepts to understand
is that you did not always have an autoimmune
disease. In your younger years, possibly childhood,
teenage years or as a young adult, you did not have
this problem. Then something changed within your
immune function that caused your immune system
to attack certain cells and tissues in your body. In
other words, you were not born with this problem.
It developed over time because of certain
disturbances to the body, especially to the immune
system.
The second concept that needs to be conveyed is
a general sense of how your immune system works.
The immune system is designed to be able to
recognize your cells which make up you versus
anything else that invades your body which is not
you. That which is “not you”such as bacteria,
fungi and viruses may be potentially hazardous to
your well being. The way the body recognizes you
versus not you is by distinct three dimensional
structures that exist on all surface of the cells of all
living things. These markers are called antigens and
