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#autoimmune disorder
cosmiccripple · 5 months
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if you are sick, i don't give a shit if it's just a cold, wear a FUCKING MASK!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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esotericalqueer · 17 days
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no need to credit, just don’t claim my work as your own!
you deserve to exist without shame. you may have limitations and that is ok; you do not exist to motivate those with healthy, functioning bodies. navigating a society that was not made with you in mind is difficult, you are doing amazing! do what is best for you; don’t try to keep up with unrealistic expectations. take care of yourself, you are worth the effort <2
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samwisethewitch · 6 months
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Tried a new restaurant yesterday and got burned. 🫠 But at least I can show y'all what I do for flareups. Part of why I like having tinctures on hand is because it makes it easier to grab something when I feel bad.
I hope this helps y'all next time you have tummy troubles!
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wikipediapictures · 7 months
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Vitiligo
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danny-ric · 7 months
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"Hashimoto's/hypothyroidism isn't a real disability. You're just being dramatic."
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purplesaline · 2 months
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What is an autoimmune disorder?
Okay so think of it like this. Imagine a little 600 sq ft apartment. That's your body. Viruses and Bacteria are like thieves breaking into the apartment.
Obviously this is bad so you decide to get a guard dog to protect you. This is your immune system. Some people have a little pug, which isn't the most effective, and some people have a German shepherd or a rottweiler and they do a pretty good job.
Some people, though, have a border collie or a malinois that only gets one short walk per week and is left in the 600 sq ft apartment all alone for 10+ hours a day. These are the people with autoimmune disorders
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kores-pomegranate · 4 months
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Just a quarterly update and reminder that existing with mental illness is really hard. Existing with chronic illness is really hard. Existing with both is really hard, and most people with chronic illness don’t get to exist without some kind of mental illness on top of it.
I have cyclothymia (which I just call bipolar for expediency’s sake), AuDHD, probably some type of connective tissue something or other, an autoimmune disorder, and chronic migraine.
When any one of those things flares up, they all flare up. Over Thanksgiving, I had a flare in my autoimmune disorder that triggered a depressive episode and migraine. I’ve spent the last several days feeling like I’m barely hanging on. Some small corner of my brain has known since Thursday that something is up, and I keep reminding myself that this is temporary and that I won’t always feel this bad.
But dear god, sometimes it is truly exhausting to know that while I definitely won’t always feel this bad, there will be moments throughout my life where I will feel this bad, or worse. I’m tired of everything being hard. I’m tired of feeling stressed and lonely and sad. I’m tired of feeling unsure of if my feeling of loneliness is because I crave more attention than is realistic to receive, or if I’m actually asking myself to be okay with a level of isolation that isn’t okay.
Today, my soul and my body feel heavy. Hopefully, tomorrow will be lighter.
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anotherdayforchaosfay · 11 months
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I'm making this poll because some folks think autoimmune disorders are rare. This is entirely untrue. To prove the point, please reblog and answer this poll. No need to include tags. I want more people here aware they are not, in fact, alone.
Fun fact: having one can result in later developing more.
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speebit · 28 days
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HAPPY RARE DISEASE DAY!!!!! if you haven't already, inform yourself about PANDAS, PANS and basal ganglia encephalitis. we have it and it is SO UNDERRESEARCHED as a chronic illness and decently rare, and very commonly mistaken and misdiagnosed as a plethora of other things. it's more common in autistic people. GIVE A FRIEND WITH PANDAS/PANS/BGE 100$ TODAY. WE ARE SUFFERING.
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petiolata · 4 months
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Going to see a new specialist today. Mentally preparing myself to be mansplained and gaslighted, maybe treated to completely unconcealed disgust over my minor bodily imperfections.
Like yeah it might go fine and they might be qualified and treat their patients decently, but it's such a tossup even with a woman doctor, and with a male doctor it's been like...99% of them have been an ass in some way.
So, best to expect the worst. Then the blow doesn't sting as much when it's given. And if it's not, holy shit, what a pleasant surprise.
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weirdbrainweirdbody · 8 months
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Why I hate how dandruff is presented
You've all seen the jokes- old man with dandruff, shaking his head and a cloud of snow falls down, dandruff just being there for a laugh... It's never treated as anything serious, ever. It's just a joke! And just a joke about old men at that.
I'm 17 years old. I've had dandruff since I was at least 11. I've been made fun of all that time for the white flakes that are a constant on my head.
I just saw dandruff as a joke, too.
At most, it was just my scalp being a bit dry, so it needed a moisturising shampoo.
Yeah.... Turns out I have scalp psoriasis. I'm in near constant pain, which gets worse whenever I'm ill or stressed, because psoriasis is an autoimmune disease. My immune system is attacking my own skin. It's gotten to the point where shampoo doesn't help. I'm just in pain, always. I'll have a doctor's appointment where we can discuss options soon hopefully.
It's painful enough that I end up with scabbing all over my scalp from scratching. I pull my hands away and my nails are bloody from repeatedly picking and itching the scabs.
So no, not just a funny joke.
When I mentioned how painful it was to my friend, (only referring to it as dandruff rather than psoriasis) he said "I didn't realise dandruff could be painful!". In fact, several conditions that can cause dandruff have the fact that they're itchy or sore in their their symptoms list- eczema, dermatitis, and of course psoriasis.
And yet people just see dandruff as a joke. Even now, I feel anxious writing this- I feel like someone's gonna read this and think 'why are they getting so serious about dandruff? Lighten up!'
Sure, for some people it's not painful. Just flaky. But even then, they can experience the same social issues I did- I still remember a pair of kids seeing my large white skin flakes on my dark hair and exclaiming that I had nits (lice for Americans), and running away shouting at me. I hate that it's treated as a joke, or stigmatised, and seen as just an old man thing.
It's an actually serious issue for so many people. Why isn't it treated as such?
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cosmiccripple · 4 months
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asked my friends to wear a mask around me when they're sick and now it's a big thing. i even said i would give them the mask to wear (even though i cannot afford to be providing them daily masks as well as my own) and they're objecting. i just wish they'd fucking care that their cold can derail my whole life.
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esotericalqueer · 9 days
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no need to credit, just don’t claim my work as you’re own!
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flametheskull-art · 9 months
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A comic about Autism. I hope some of you can relate.
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renlo · 9 months
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Pardon the lack of art! After a few years of wondering, I learned this week that I do indeed have an autoimmune disease. Ironically, I learned that many things that I thought were normal were symptoms, lol. Turns out that waking up with gritty eyes and randomly having a mouth that feels like the Sahara desert is... not entirely typical.
There are labs pending to see if there are comorbidities, but apparently for now I just need to let my body get the rest it wants, take eye drops, and watch out for inflammation. But I'm apparently healthy otherwise!
An unexpected outcome of this year is that my husband and I have both learned that we have (mild, but still potentially disruptive) chronic illnesses, so a good bit of time has been spent just figuring out how to navigate them. Thank you all for your love and support! <3
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contentment-of-cats · 2 months
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Washington Post:
Scientists found a major clue why 4 of 5 autoimmune patients are women By Mark Johnson and Sabrina Malhi February 1, 2024 at 11:02 a.m. EST
An international team led by scientists at Stanford University has discovered a probable explanation for a decades-old biological mystery: why vastly more women than men suffer from autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
Women account for about 80 percent of the people afflicted with autoimmune diseases, a collection of more than 100 ailments that burden a combined 50 million Americans, according to the nonprofit Autoimmune Association. In simple terms, these illnesses manipulate the body’s immune system to attack healthy tissue.
In a paper published Thursday in the journal Cell, researchers present new evidence that a molecule called Xist — pronounced like the word “exist” and found only in women — is a major culprit in these diseases.
Better understanding of this molecule could lead to new tests that catch autoimmune diseases sooner and, in the longer term, to new and more effective treatments, researchers said.
Women typically have two X chromosomes, while men usually have an X and a Y. Chromosomes are tight bundles of genetic material that carry instructions for making proteins. Xist plays a crucial role by inactivating one of the X chromosomes in women, averting what would otherwise be a disastrous overproduction of proteins.
However, the research team found that in the process Xist also generates strange molecular complexes linked to many autoimmune diseases.
Although scientists conducted much of their work in mice, they made an intriguing discovery involving human patients: The Xist complexes ― long strands of RNA entangled with DNA and proteins ― trigger a chemical response in people that is a hallmark of autoimmune diseases.
Discovery of the role played by the Xist molecule does not explain how men get these diseases, or why a few autoimmune diseases, such as Type 1 diabetes, have a higher incidence among men.
“Clearly there’s got to be more, because one-tenth of lupus patients are men,” said David Karp, chief of the division of rheumatic diseases at the UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “So it’s not the only answer, but it’s a very interesting piece of the puzzle.”
A tale of two X’s
An illustration shows one of the two X chromosomes typically found in women being disabled to ensure the right levels of protein production. (Emily Moskal/Stanford Medicine) Autoimmune diseases have long proved difficult to address. Treatments are limited, and many of the diseases are chronic, requiring lifelong management. Most have no cure, leaving millions of Americans hoping that science will eventually offer better explanations for these ailments.
Stephanie Buxhoeveden was 25 when she began experiencing vision problems in her left eye and found herself unable to hold a syringe in her left hand — a critical tool for her nursing job. The reason: multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune condition in which the immune system attacks the protective covering of the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves.
“I was overwhelmed and scared because I knew there was no cure,” the Virginia resident said. “All of these things that I had laid out, planned and worked really hard for all of a sudden were completely up in the air and no longer guaranteed.”
Previous theories had suggested that the gender imbalance in these diseases might be caused by the main female hormones, estrogen and progesterone, or by the mere presence of a second X chromosome.
A tantalizing clue stemmed from men who have two X chromosomes and one Y chromosome, a rare condition called Klinefelter syndrome. These men run a much higher risk of suffering from autoimmune diseases, suggesting that the number of X chromosomes plays an important role.
Howard Y. Chang, senior author on the Cell paper and professor of dermatology and genetics at Stanford, said he began thinking about the ideas that led to the new discovery when he identified more than 100 proteins that either bind directly to Xist or to other proteins that bind to Xist. Looking at those collaborator proteins, he noticed that many had been linked to autoimmune diseases.
Chang and his team engineered male mice that produced Xist to test whether males that made the molecule would also have higher rates of autoimmune diseases.
Since Xist by itself is not sufficient to cause an autoimmune disease, the scientists used an environmental trigger to induce a lupus-like disease in these mice. They observed that male mice then produced Xist at levels close to those of regular female mice, and well above those of regular male mice.
In humans, genetics and environmental factors, such as a viral or bacterial infection, can also help trigger autoimmune diseases.
The scientists obtained serums from human patients with dermatomyositis, a rare autoimmune disease that causes muscle weakness and skin rash. Serum is the part of the blood that contains antibodies that fight disease. They found that in these patients, Xist complexes produce what are called autoantibodies. Instead of defending the body from invaders, as an antibody would, the autoantibody targets features of the body.
Inactivation of the second X chromosome remains an important process “that you don’t necessarily want to get rid of or tinker with too much,” said Karp of UT Southwestern.
“But this work takes it in a totally different direction, and says that the mechanism that is needed to turn off the second X chromosome, that mechanism in itself might be responsible for generating autoimmunity,” Karp said.
A better understanding of the mechanisms in these diseases would be significant if researchers can use it to develop new diagnostic tools, he added: “We are still using laboratory tests that were developed in the 1940s and ’50s and ’60s because they were easy to do, and they detected the most robust autoimmune responses.”
A long road to new treatments
Jeffrey A. Sparks, an associate physician and director of immuno-oncology and autoimmunity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital who was not involved in the study, said that it will be interesting to see how the treatment options available now might fit into this newfound mechanism.
“The sky’s the limit here,” Sparks said, adding, “I think once you understand the fundamental mechanisms, you could think about developing therapies, early detection and preventions.”
Major advances in treatment, though, may be years away, according to Keith B. Elkon, an adjunct professor of immunology and associate director at the Center for Innate Immunity and Immune Diseases at the University of Washington.
Still, he said, scientific breakthroughs in the past 20 years have prolonged the lives of many people with autoimmune conditions.
“In 1950, if you’ve got a diagnosis of lupus, it would have been as bad as getting a diagnosis of cancer,” Elkon said. “But over the last 15, 20 years there’ve been really striking breakthroughs in understanding disease. It’s at the cusp of now being manageable.”
Buxhoeveden, who is now 36 and a PhD candidate in nursing, is using immunosuppressants to manage her MS. She said she was encouraged by the fact that “we’ve made progress like this study to better understand what it is that triggers it.”
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