Things you should know about Autoimmune Disease on World Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Arthritis Day

World Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Arthritis Day, or AiArthritis Day was established in 2012 by the International Autoimmune Arthritis Movement (IAAM) and is celebrated every year on 20 May. Aimed at raising awareness about autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases that appear with arthritis as a significant component.

Since the term ‘arthritis’ covers over 100+ conditions that include joint pain, Autoimmune Arthritis Diseases are a small group of like ailments that share the two symptoms and treatment strategies. By making a separate day for this group, awareness about these particular, systemic, and in some cases deadly diseases can, at last, be brought to a global level.

This day is intended to raise awareness about Autoimmune Arthritis diseases, specifically that they are not equivalent to having ‘arthritis’, or just joint involvement.

Arthritis is a common health problem, influencing more than 350 million individuals worldwide and a main source of disability. It is an expansive description covering more than 100 different types of common disorders of the joint that influence individuals of all ages, races, and two genders. Autoimmune arthritis refers to the autoimmune types of the disease The World Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Arthritis Day, or AiArthritis Day, is an annual event to join community resources and drive global awareness about such sort of arthritis.

On May 20 every year, the world observes Autoimmune Arthritis Day, an event aimed at raising awareness about autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases that appear with arthritis as a major component.

The day is being coordinated since 2012 by a US-based non-profit organization – International Foundation for Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Arthritis (AiArthritis).

Since 2012, the International Foundation for Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Arthritis (IFAA) has been organizing this event on May 20 every year.

It is estimated that around 300 million individuals worldwide are diagnosed with at least one AiArthritis disease. Notwithstanding, IFAA research proposes that more than 50% of patients go undiagnosed or are diagnosed with an “undifferentiated” disease, expanding this number to an expected 450 million.

According to AiArthritis, a great many individuals have either type of autoimmune arthritis disease in the world and about 50% of people with an autoimmune arthritis disease don’t get an appropriate diagnosis or are diagnosed with an undifferentiated disease.

Undifferentiated disease refers to when the individual doesn’t give clear signs of a single disease yet has symptoms of more than one autoimmune arthritis disease.

What is an autoimmune disease?

“Auto” is a medical term for “self.” The immune system is your body’s defense system. It protects you from disease and infection. The immune system usually attacks attacking bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells. With an autoimmune disease, your immune system attacks your own body.

An autoimmune disease is a condition where your immune system erroneously attacks your body.

The immune system normally guards against germs like bacteria and viruses. At the point when it detects these foreign intruders, it conveys an army of warrior cells to attack them.

Regularly, the immune system can differentiate between foreign cells and your own cells.

In an autoimmune disease, the immune system mistakes part of your body, similar to your joints or skin, as foreign. It releases proteins called autoantibodies that attack healthy cells.

Some autoimmune diseases target just a single organ. Type 1 diabetes harms the pancreas. Different diseases, like systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), influence the entire body.

There are various autoimmune diseases

Side effects of autoimmune diseases are different relying upon which disease you have and which part of your body is influenced

Doctors do blood tests to check for an autoimmune disease

Doctors treat autoimmune diseases with drugs that slow down the immune system

Autoimmune diseases may attack almost any part of your body:

• Blood cells (autoimmune hemolytic anemia)
• Blood vessels (vasculitis)
• Joints (rheumatoid arthritis)
• Skin (lupus, bullous pemphigoid, or pemphigoid Vulgaris)
• Lungs and kidneys (Goodpasture syndrome or lupus)
• Brain and spinal cord (multiple sclerosis)
• Thyroid (Graves disease or Hashimoto thyroiditis)
• Pancreas (type 1 diabetes)

What causes an autoimmune disease?

Your immune system attacks your healthy tissues. Here’s how it works:

Typically, your immune system protects your body from disease by attacking substances (like bacteria or viruses) that are risky or unhealthy

In autoimmune diseases, your immune system mistakes healthy parts of your body for an attacking substance

Your immune system at that point attacks your healthy cells or tissues actually like they were something that would make you sick

This causes the symptoms of an autoimmune disease. ​

A few people are bound to have an autoimmune disease since it runs in their families.

Women are almost certain than men to have an autoimmune disease.

Autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases

Our immune system is intended to protect us from unsafe substances yet when it begins to malfunction and begins to harm healthy cells, it prompts autoinflammatory and autoimmune diseases.

Autoinflammatory diseases happen because of a fault in our innate immune system (the one we are born with). On the other hand, autoimmune diseases happen when our versatile immune system (the one we get after exposure to pathogens or foreign substances) begins glitching.

While autoinflammatory diseases are typically determined by genes and appear early in life, autoimmune diseases are normally triggered by a combination of genetic and environmental factors.

There are more than 100 types of autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases in the world however a few of them present with arthritis as a significant component.

Core diseases

There are more than 80 different autoimmune diseases. Here are 17 of the most common ones.

AiArthritis lists the following as the core autoimmune arthritis diseases:

• Type 1 diabetes
• Rheumatoid arthritis (RA)
• Sjögren’s syndrome
• Psoriasis/psoriatic arthritis
• Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)
• Adult-Onset Still’s Disease
• Ankylosing Spondylitis
• Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis
• Multiple sclerosis
• Inflammatory bowel disease
• Addison’s disease
• Graves’ disease
• Hashimoto’s thyroiditis
• Myasthenia gravis
• Autoimmune vasculitis
• Pernicious anemia
• Celiac disease

These diseases present with arthritis as an early clinical feature and a significant segment. Nonetheless, a few diseases might have arthritis as a component. These incorporate, yet are not restricted to, conditions like sarcoidosis, Crohn’s disease, and mixed connective tissue disease. Individuals with gout additionally experience arthritis however that isn’t expected to the autoimmune or autoinflammatory condition. Additionally, osteoarthritis is a type of degenerative arthritis that happens because of the wear and tear of joints with age.

What are the symptoms of an autoimmune disease?

Symptoms are different relying upon which disease you have and which part of your body is influenced. However, in general, autoimmune diseases cause swelling and tissue damage.

The early symptoms of numerous autoimmune diseases are basically the same, for example,

• fatigue
• achy muscles
• swelling and redness
• low-grade fever
• trouble concentrating
• numbness and tingling in the hands and feet
• hair loss
• skin rashes

Individual diseases can likewise have their own unique symptoms. For example, type 1 diabetes causes outrageous thirst, weight loss, and fatigue. IBD causes belly pain, bloating, and diarrhea.

With autoimmune diseases like psoriasis or RA, symptoms may come and go. A period of symptoms is known as a flare-up. A period when the symptoms go away is called remission.

You may have at least one of these symptoms:

• Painful joints
• Swollen, red joints
• Itching

Other autoimmune diseases may cause trouble breathing, jaundice (yellow skin and eyes), weakness, and confusion. You may develop kidney failure.

The most common symptoms of autoinflammatory and autoimmune diseases are listed as:

Severe fatigue that isn’t relieved with caffeine intake

• Fever
• Brain fog
• Flu-like symptoms – malaise, nausea, muscle weakness

On the off chance that you have arthritis too you would have the following extra symptoms that will appear (or flare-up) alongside the previously mentioned symptoms and afterward subside spontaneously:

• Persistent joint pain for more than 6 weeks
• Swollen joints
• Stiffness in the body worsens with rest

It is important to take note that not every person with an autoimmune arthritis disease will experience the entire list of symptoms.

Sometimes an autoimmune disease may cause death.

Treatment

Autoimmune and autoinflammatory arthritis is hard to diagnose since the symptoms don’t appear in an X-ray for as long as 10 years after the beginning of the disease. According to AiArthrits, the disease ought to be diagnosed within a half year for the best result, However, at present, it takes anyplace between 2 to 3 years to recognize autoimmune arthritis disease.

Treatment usually includes corticosteroids, disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, and different medications to manage inflammation and the effects for eyes, skin, heart, and so forth, if they appear. Exercise and dietary modifications are likewise proposed.

Treatments can’t cure autoimmune diseases, yet they can control the overactive immune response and cut down inflammation or if nothing else decrease pain and inflammation. Drugs used to treat these conditions include:

• nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil) and naproxen (Naprosyn)
• immune-suppressing drugs

Treatments are likewise available to relieve symptoms like pain, swelling, fatigue, and skin rashes.

Eating a well-balanced diet and getting regular exercise may likewise help you feel much improved.

The primary treatment for autoimmune diseases is with medications that cut down inflammation and quiet the overactive immune response. Treatments can likewise help ease symptoms.