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Our immune system serves to protect us from foreign invaders, such as bacteria and viruses. It recognizes these foreign invaders and produces specially tailored antibodies to combat them. In autoimmune diseases, however, the body's immune system mistakes normal, healthy body tissues, for foreign invaders. It produces antibodies directed at specific groups of tissue in the body, thereby destroying them.
There are, in general, 2 types of Autoimmune Thyroid Diseases:
(i) Grave's Disease (which causes hyperthyroidism) and
(ii) Hashimoto's Thyroiditis (which may cause transient hyperthyroidism, but eventually leads to hypothyroidism).
Other autoimmune conditions may co-exist. They include:
VITILIGO
The immune system attacks the pigment producing cells of the skin (melanocytes). This results in patches of skin with no pigmentation.
ALOPECIA
The immune system attacks the hair follicles, resulting in partial or complete hair loss.
TYPE I DIABETES
Type I diabetes, is also known as insulin-dependent, or juvenile-onset diabetes. It occurs when the immune system destroys the pancreatic cells responsible for insulin production.
PERNICIOUS ANAEMIA
In this condition, there is an autoimmune destruction of the gastric parietal cells, leading to the lack of intrinsic factor. Since absorption of Vitamin B12 from the gut is dependent on intrinsic factor, this condition leads to Vitamin B12 deficiency and a form of anemia, call megaloblastic anemia develops.
MYASTHENIA GRAVIS
This is an autoimmune neuromuscular disease characterized by fluctuating muscle weakness and fatiguability.
ADDISON'S DISEASE
Addison's disease is a rare condition in which the adrenal glands do not produce sufficient steroid hormones (glucocorticoids and often mineralocorticoids). One of the causes of addison's disease is the autoimmune destruction of the adrenal cortex.
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