A Growing Epidemic

Autoimmune Disorders: A Growing Epidemic

Can you imagine coming home to have your spouse accidently hit you with a baseball bat?

Let’s use John for example…

John is a working man who does many different jobs, usually coming home late to his family. One day, he worked in a particularly greasy and dirty job where he had to wear a different uniform. As he walked in the door after dark, he was not very recognizable in his dirty uniform, and so his wife grabs the baseball bat and attacks him until he turns the light on, saying “Julie, what on earth has gotten into you?”

What was the problem?

She didn’t recognize him and thought that he was an intruder.

This is similar to what happens in the body of someone who has an autoimmune disorder/disease.

Normally, the immune system cells help the good cells and try to get rid of the bad cells. For example, your body rids itself of cancer (mutated) cells on a daily basis, as long as your immune system is running strong. The cells have identifiers on the cell surface to be able to ‘communicate’. Sometimes, the cells don’t recognize each other because they are missing some of these special glycoforms on the cellular surface. Then the body attacks itself. This is why it is called an autoimmune disorder. “Auto” means self.

Cut and paste the following link to see the entire article:
http://lower.blogs.mentoring-uk.org.uk/2008/04/24/autoimmune-disorders-a-growing-epidemic/