Reviving a decades old hypothesis of autoimmunity

[Snowdrop]

A brief article discussing ideas around autoimmunity. I thought it might be interesting although it's rather short with not much detail. Here's one para:

The scope of the problem is tremendous. The NIH has estimated that more than23 million Americanssuffer from autoimmune diseases—a burden associated with a health-care cost of$100 billion per year. And the morbidity and mortality attributable to autoimmune conditions cannot be ignored. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis have a60 percent increased riskof death from cardiovascular disease, for example. And patients with systemic sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that causes thickened, tight skin and disruption of the normal structure and function of organs such as the heart, lungs, GI tract, and kidneys, experience a loss of life expectancy of16 years in men and 34 years in women.
Link:
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/43798/title/Body--Heal-Thyself/

 

[*GG*]

A brief article discussing ideas around autoimmunity. I thought it might be interesting although it's rather short with not much detail. Here's one para:

The scope of the problem is tremendous. The NIH has estimated that more than23 million Americanssuffer from autoimmune diseases—a burden associated with a health-care cost of $100 billion per year.

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/43798/title/Body--Heal-Thyself/

Hmm, is this a different statistic from the $20 Billion plus CFS cost the economy?

GG

 

[alex3619]

Hmm, is this a different statistic from the $20 Billion plus CFS cost the economy?

I suspect it is. This would probably be for recognized autoimmune conditions.

 

[Snowdrop]

Yes. I guess what caught me about it is that I had been browsing around some science news sites late in the evening and autoimmune conditions seem to be gaining more interest. I thought it might be a good thing for us even though there is no recognition of ME and still debate as to what ME actually is. Certainly even when virology is suspected many of us have autoimmune conditions as well.