Psychology Topic 5 Assignment

SCI ENCE

THINGS

YOU NEED

TO KNOW

ABOUT10

1 THE IMMUNE SYSTEM

IS LIKE AN ARMY

It guards against disease-causing organisms by releasing its

soldiers (a.k.a. antibodies), proteins in the blood meant to neutralize

a threat. This is the immune response. “It spends the earliest years

of your life distinguishing friends from enemies so it can protect

you from invaders,” explains Anca Askanase, M.D., director of the

Columbia Lupus Center. But sometimes the immune system mistakes

healthy cells for an invader and sends antibodies to attack them,

which is what happens when you have an autoimmune disease. This

assault on healthy cells can happen anywhere in your body, from

your skin (as in psoriasis) to your thyroid (as in Hashimoto’s disease).

AUTO

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Some are common (allergies, IBS), while others are less so (lupus, multiple sclerosis). Here’s what to look out for so you and your doctor can keep you healthy.

IMMUNE DISEASES

G E

T T Y

I M

A G

E S .

THEY RUN

IN FAMILIES

Doctors know there is

a genetic component to

autoimmune diseases

and that certain ones

are more common in

specific ethnic groups. For

instance, lupus (painful

and damaging body-wide

inflammation) is more

likely to affect African-

American, Hispanic,

Asian, and Native Amer-

ican women, while Cau-

casians are more likely to

develop type 1 diabetes

(in which the pancreas

produces little or no

insulin). Recently, doctors

have learned that a single

gene may cause differ-

ent diseases in different

people—you might have

Crohn’s disease (which

affects the digestive sys-

tem), while the same gene

gives your mother alope-

cia (in which the immune

system targets hair folli-

cles). “Some genes carry

risk for multiple diseases,

and some increase risk for

just one,” says Timothy B.

Niewold, M.D., director

of the Judith and

Stewart Colton Center

for Autoimmunity at

NYU Langone.

Environment also

plays a role, via exposure

to chemicals and pollut-

ants in the things we eat

and use. “For instance,

we know smoking

increases the chances of

developing rheumatoid

arthritis twofold,” says

Dr. Niewold, “and people

may have different levels

of susceptibility.”

2

SCI ENCE

G E

T T Y

I M

A G

E S (

2 ).

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MORE WOMEN GET AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS

A full 75% of the 23 million sufferers in the U.S. are

women, but it’s unclear why. “We can tell that

women have a stronger immune response in general,

because men are about two times as likely to get

cancer and infections,” says Johann Gudjonsson, M.D.,

Ph.D., the Arthur C. Curtis Professor of Skin Molecular

Immunology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

“That stronger response is a double-edged sword: It’s

good for protection, but it predisposes women to an

out-of-control immune system.”

An autoimmune disease

may seem to come out of

nowhere or arise after an

unrelated illness—even

a common one like the

flu—so scientists are

looking into whether

viruses or infections

could be triggers. One

virus being studied for

a possible connection

to lupus and multiple

sclerosis (MS) along

with other autoimmune

diseases is the Epstein-

Barr virus (EBV). Most

people encounter EBV

at some point in their

lives, and usually it stays

dormant in the body. But

researchers have found

early evidence that for

some people EBV “turns

on” the gene associated

with these autoimmune

diseases, increasing the

chances of developing

one of them.

3

4

SYMPTOMS

CAN APPEAR

SUDDENLY

G E

T T Y

I M

A G

E S .

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66 PREVENT ION.COM • J U N E 2 019

SOME DISORDERS

HAVE THE SAME

SYMPTOMS

“Many autoimmune

diseases have symptoms

in common,” says

Dr. Askanase, and many

of these can be signs of

something else entirely.

“Often one of the first

clues is extreme fatigue,

which might be dismissed

by doctors as simply a

consequence of being

overworked,” she says.

There are approximately

100 known autoimmune

diseases, and most have

overlapping symptoms:

diarrhea (celiac disease,

Crohn’s disease, ulcerative

colitis), fatigue (celiac

disease, fibromyalgia,

Guillain-Barré syndrome,

lupus, MS), hair loss (alo-

pecia, Hashimoto’s disease,

scleroderma), joint pain

(rheumatoid arthritis,

MS), and rash (dermatitis,

lupus, psoriasis).

A “SENSITIVE

STOMACH” MAY BE

AN AUTOIMMUNE ISSUE

Tummy troubles are

ubiquitous and are often due to a virus

or something you’ve eaten. But if they

are persistent or flare up periodically

along with more extreme symptoms

like bloody stools, pain, night sweats,

and fever, it could be irritable bowel

syndrome, a group of auto immune

disorders that cause chronic inflamma­

tion of the digestive tract.

It makes sense that other auto­

immune diseases involve gastric issues

too: Seventy percent of the cells that

control immunity reside in our guts—

command central for the immune

system. Scientists at Yale University

are looking into a connection between

lupus­like autoimmune diseases

and a faulty gut barrier that allows

gut bacteria to travel into organs.

6

SCI ENCE

G E

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68 PREVENT ION.COM • J U N E 2 019

YES, YOU CAN

BE TOO CLEAN

Our increased reliance on

antibacterials for cleaning our

homes and hands may be partly

responsible for our out-of-

whack immune systems. The

oft-debated hygiene hypoth-

esis is based on the idea that

the immune system develops

in response to encountering

bacteria, viruses, and other

germy conditions. It claims

children are being raised in

“too clean” environments with

overexposure to antibiotics and

other environmental chemi-

cals and underexposure to dirt

and microbes. Then when the

immune system is called on to

act against a bodily invader, it

doesn’t know how to react and

may go into overdrive.

SCI ENCE

G E

T T Y

I M

A G

E S .

DIAGNOSIS IS NOT AN EXACT SCIENCE

It’s hard to develop a test for a disease when you don’t

know what is causing it. “There are no perfect tests yet,”

says Dr. Niewold. One looks for antinuclear antibodies

(ANA): “If you have lupus, you’ll test positive for ANA,”

he explains. “But patients with many other conditions

would have a positive response, as would some healthy people.”

Doctors need to watch for a constellation of factors, Dr. Niewold says.

They should take into account physical symptoms—including their

severity—along with family history and the ANA blood test.

8

YOU MIGHT NEED

TO BE PERSISTENT

One of the first clues that you have an

autoimmune condition may be a vague sense

of not feeling well. Many doctors, when they

hear something so unspecific—especially when

it involves tiredness or even brain fog and hor-

monal swings—are likely to dismiss concerns,

misdiagnose the problem, or refer the patient

to a psychologist. For example, “Hashimoto’s

thyroiditis symptoms might be mistakenly

brushed off as perimenopause or depression,”

says Mary Vouyiouklis Kellis, M.D., an endo-

crinologist at Cleveland Clinic. Plus, many

autoimmune symptoms can come and go.

So if your instinct is that something is not

right, be your own advocate: The average

patient will see four doctors over four years

before receiving a correct diagnosis. If you

suspect that you have an autoimmune disease,

keep a list of unusual symptoms, no matter

how mild, infrequent, or long ago.

9

SCI ENCE

G E

T T Y

I M

A G

E S .

WE’RE LEARNING MORE EACH DAY

Despite all that is unknown about autoimmune diseases,

researchers are hopeful. Dr. Niewold believes autoimmune

diseases are an outgrowth of our bodies’ effectiveness at

fighting infections, so scientists are looking for ways to

“reeducate” the immune system. “The immune system is

really good at remembering the cells it needs to attack; we now

have to learn how to redirect the immune response when it

targets normal organs and tissues,” he says. “We have been

making so much progress.” There is much more on the horizon,

he adds, including gene therapy and possible vaccination.

10

A D

A M

V O

O R

H E

S / G

A L L E

R Y

S T O

C K

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