Tiffany Raiford
Autoimmune diseases are conditions where your immune system mistakenly attacks your own body, thinking it is fighting off harmful invaders. It can lead to a wide range of symptoms, some of which might not seem related at first. Here are 20 signs that you might have an autoimmune disease.
Fatigue
Fatigue may be a common signal of you having autoimmune diseases. This can happen when our immune system, by mistake, attacks our organs, resulting in swelling and irritation. Fatigues could make you feel tired all of the time, regardless of how much sleep or relaxation you are getting.
Joint pain
Joint pain in autoimmune diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis, takes place when your immune system attacks the liner of your joints. This causes swelling, mainly pain and stiffness within the joints. It is not only a little discomfort for now or then, but it can be a regular pain that could make it hard to move.
Skin issues
Skin troubles in conditions like psoriasis and lupus manifest when your immune device attacks your pores and skin cells. This can cause red, scaly patches, hives, or even blisters in your pores and skin. It is no longer only an ordinary rash or inflammation; it is your body’s response to your immune system attack, leading to inflammation.
Digestive problems
Digestive problems in diseases like Crohn’s disorder and ulcerative colitis occur when your immune system attacks the lining of your intestines. This can cause symptoms like stomach pain, diarrhea, or even bleeding. These signs may be repetitive and disrupt your daily life.
Weight changes
Weight changes, like unexpectedly losing or gaining weight without trying, can be a signal of an autoimmune disease. When your body is continuously inflamed, it may mess with your metabolism; that is how your body makes use of energy. This can cause your weight to go up or down all of a sudden.
Recurring fever
Recurring fever means having low-grade fevers that keep coming lower back with no clear cause. This can be a signal that your body is fighting against itself in an autoimmune response. When your body is in this sort of combat, it could make your body temperature go up.
Muscle aches
Muscle aches in autoimmune diseases are due to your immune system attacking your very own muscular tissues, leading to inflammation. This irritation causes pain and a feeling of weakness in your muscles. Unlike the brief pain you may experience after exercise, these muscle aches are deeper and more chronic.
Swollen glands
Enlarged lymph nodes mean that your immune system is working hard. In autoimmune diseases, this can occur because your body is attacking its very own tissues. This attack makes the glands in your lymph nodes swell up. It is like your body’s alarm system going off, showing that something is not right inside.
Hair loss
If you are experiencing thinning hair or bald patches, it can be a signal of autoimmune diseases like Graves’ sickness or Alopecia areata. Graves’ disease can cause brittle hair along with other symptoms like insomnia, irritability, weight loss, and shaky hands. Alopecia areata, however, specifically affects your hair follicles, leading to patchy hair loss as your immune system mistakenly attacks these follicles, preventing hair growth.
Numbness or tingling
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease that damages the protective covering around nerve cells within the brain and spinal cord, slowing down the transmission of messages in the primary nervous system. This damage can lead to signs like numbness, weakness, balance difficulties, and trouble walking.
Dry eyes or mouth
Sjögren’s syndrome is an autoimmune disorder that affects the glands responsible for producing moisture in your eyes and mouth. As a result, people with this disease often experience dryness, infection, and soreness in these areas because of the reduced production of tears and saliva. This can cause complications like difficulty in swallowing and talking and also dental issues.
Cognitive difficulties
If you have an autoimmune disease, you may find it tough to be attentive and remember things. You could feel confused, forgetful, or like your mind is simply no longer as sharp as before. This might happen because you are not sleeping well, which is not unusual when your body is managing an infection.
Anemia
When you have an autoimmune disease, it can mess with how your body makes or keeps up with your red blood cells, leading to a condition called anemia. Red blood cells are important because they carry oxygen all over your body. If you do not have enough red blood cells, you might feel tired and weak, and your skin might look paler than usual.
Sensitivity to sun
Some autoimmune diseases make your skin more sensitive to sunlight, causing rashes or other bad reactions when you are out in direct sunlight. This happens because your immune system reacts strangely to the ultraviolet (UV) rays, thinking they are a threat and causing an inflammatory reaction in your skin.
Breathlessness
Autoimmune diseases like lupus can affect your lungs by causing inflammation. This inflammation is not caused by a lung infection but by your immune system attacking the tissue in your lungs by mistake. As a result, you might feel short of breath or have a constant cough.
Palpitations
Autoimmune diseases can sometimes affect your heart. When your immune system wrongly attacks your heart, it can cause inflammation. This inflammation can mess with the normal beating of your heart, leading to symptoms like irregular heartbeats or palpitations.
Mouth ulcers
Having mouth ulcers that come back again and again might be a sign of certain autoimmune diseases, like Behçet’s disease or lupus. In Behçet’s disease, this immune response can cause painful ulcers in your mouth, as well as in other areas like your genitals and skin. If you keep getting mouth ulcers along with other symptoms, it is important to talk to a healthcare professional.
Chest pain
Chest pain is a serious symptom, and it’s important to take it seriously. In the context of autoimmune diseases, chest pain can sometimes be a sign of a condition like sarcoidosis. Sarcoidosis is an autoimmune disease that causes tiny clumps of inflammatory cells called granulomas. When these granulomas form in your lungs or lymph nodes, they can cause chest pain.
Frequent headaches
Migraines are a form of headache that may be actually intense and might even make you feel unwell in your belly or sensitive to light and sound. If you notice that you are facing complications frequently or they feel different and more painful than before, it could be a sign to pay attention to.
Raynaud’s phenomenon
Raynaud’s phenomenon is a condition wherein your palms and feet can turn white or blue, and occasionally even red when you are exposed to cold temperatures or feeling stressed. This happens because the small blood vessels in your body narrow down, restricting blood flow to those areas.
Comments
Loading…