What does it auto immune disease really mean?

[Anonymous]

I have seb derm and it said its auto immune

[BeMuse]

Autoimmune diseases occur when your immune system attacks your own body's healthy tissue. Self/nonself discrimination is at the very core of immunology. Your immune cells are killers looking for a fight all day every day. They seek out foreign bodies and attack them with everything they got. When they have bad instructions they attack your own cells just as often which leads to damage of your healthy tissue. Cytotoxic T-cells skate the finest line by reading the MHC complex. They are seeking out your own seemingly healthy cells that have been infected internally (i. e. virus) and have put out a distress signal as a warning presented on the surface of the cell. If they have the wrong programming, they will wholesale slaughter all healthy cells that have similar molecular shapes on their cell surface. That said B cells malfunction as well. Generally they are activated by T-cells which cause them to proliferate, but certain microbial antigens can activate B cells directly in the absence of T-cell. Thus if their programming is wrong and they think your cells are those microbes they can wreck havoc on the body. Generally their genetic fidelity is relatively good but problems do occur. Macrophages are another big culprit. When they are messed up, they can upregulate the production of inflammatory cytokines that recruit other macrophages and monocytes to attack a particular type of cell/tissue.

[Asker]

I heard its because of trauma/ emotional abuse so your body wants to suicide even though you dont kill urself your body will do it for you hence why you have auto immune disease because of trauma.

[BeMuse]

Nah. Generally it's due to some sort of mutation in a particular gene. For example you might get an infection from a particular virus that causes an insertion mutation which screws up your DNA in particular cell lines. Certain vaccines (i. e. COVID vaccine) can also create similar problems. Some people have proposed certain autoimmune diseases may arise from physical trauma like a very bad car accident, which leads to mass inflammation/tissue necrosis and then immune cells recognizing mitochondial DNA as foreign so they start attacking all your cells being that cells need mitochondria to produce ATP (energy)

[BeMuse]

Theoretically if you were under chronic high stress circumstances, that could lead chronic tissue damage via the cardiovascular system (i. e. high blood pressure), which might produce a similar results as a car accident. You immune system would assume something is wrong because there was a constantly a lot of damage.

[BeMuse]

The same would be true of the endocrine system. If constantly molecular signalling occurs due to some sort of emotional stress that could lead to feedback loops within certain cell types that could cause cellular damage. That also might lead to mitochondrial stress and dysfunction. It's not really the emotional trauma that would be the direct cause, but it could contribute indirectly I suppose...

[shortster]

Auto immune diseases reduce your ability to fight off infections.

[Asker]

I heard its because of trauma/ emotional abuse so your body wants to suicide even though you dont kill urself your body will do it for you hence why you have auto immune disease because of trauma.

[shortster]

Depression does reduce your ability to fight off infections, but it doesn't increase your likelihood of getting one. Nor does it cause your body to self sabotage.

[burlen]

Autoimmunity is a condition in which the body's immune system mistakenly targets and attacks its own cells and tissues. Normally, the immune system defends the body against harmful substances like bacteria and viruses. However, in autoimmune conditions, the immune system fails to distinguish between foreign substances and the body’s own cells, leading to inflammation and some damage to various organs and tissues. The condition and symptoms can be managed with treatment and lifestyle changes.

[Astarlessnightsky]

Your body attacks itself.

Your white blood cells see regular cells as the enemy and attack them.

[boggboss]

I could be wrong but I think its where the body attacks itself causing the issue

[In_Trance]

These are fixable

[Asker]

Mine is not. ☹️no permanent treatment.