In honor of the designation of March as National Autoimmune Disease Awareness Month by the U.S. Senate on March 4, 2010, the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (AARDA) wants to help you learn your family's AQ. AQ is a play on IQ that stands for Autoimmune Quotient. It's about knowing how likely you or a loved one is to develop an autoimmune disease, based on the prevalence of these diseases and your family history. The campaign features AARDA National Spokesperson and Actress Kellie Martin, best known for her memorable roles on "E.R." and "Life Goes On."
"Before an autoimmune disease patient receives a proper diagnosis, someone has to think of it first. While this may seem an elementary concept, it may be one of our most challenging obstacles as most physician patient history forms do not ask whether the patient's family has a history of autoimmune disease, even though we know that autoimmune diseases tend to cluster in families. Often this leads to years of misdiagnosis or no diagnosis at all," according to AARDA President and Executive Director Virginia T. Ladd. "This campaign empowers patients to take matters into their own hands and ensures that they receive proper care by learning the facts about their family history and filling in the gaps for physicians, whether they ask for them or not," says Ladd.
AARDA offers the following advice to help you determine your family's AQ.
1. Understand that autoimmune diseases constitute a major U.S. health crisis.
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), up to 23.5 million Americans suffer from autoimmune diseases; and the prevalence of these diseases is rising. In comparison, cancer affects up to 9 million; and heart disease, up to 22 million. Collectively, autoimmune disease is one of the top 10 leading causes of death in women under 65 and represents over $100 billion in annual direct health care costs. Yet fewer than 13 percent of Americans surveyed in a recent AARDA poll could identify an autoimmune disease.
2. Get educated.
There are more than 100 known autoimmune diseases and an additional 40 diseases that are suspected to be autoimmune-related. The diseases themselves can affect almost any part of the body, including the blood, kidneys, skin, heart, liver, lymph nodes, thyroid and the central nervous system. As a result, they cut across various medical specialties, such as endocrinology, neurology, dermatology, rheumatology, gastroenterology and hematology, among others.
Autoimmune diseases include multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, scleroderma, polymyositis, vasculitis, lupus, Sjögren's syndrome, autoimmune thrombocytopenia, type 1 or juvenile diabetes, Crohn's disease and Graves' disease.
Autoimmunity is the underlying cause of these diseases. It is the process whereby the immune system mistakenly recognizes the body's own proteins as foreign invaders and begins producing antibodies that attack healthy cells and tissues, causing a variety of diseases.
3. Be aware that autoimmune diseases target women.
Women are more likely than men to be affected; some estimates say that 75 percent of those affected are women. These women are usually in the childbearing years. In the past several years, autoimmunity has begun to be recognized as a major women's health issue, with the Office of Research on Women's Health at NIH recognizing it as such and the Society for Advancement of Women's Health Research naming it as one of 10 diseases that most disproportionately affect women.
4. Know that autoimmune diseases run in families.
Current research points to a genetic component in autoimmune diseases. However, autoimmune diseases are not typical genetic diseases like, for instance, sickle cell anemia, where there is a specific gene mutation. With autoimmune diseases, multiple genes are involved that collectively increase vulnerability or susceptibility. Thus, what is inherited is not one specific gene but several genes that increase risk. As a result, autoimmune diseases tend to "cluster" in families - not as one particular disease, but as a general tendency to the autoimmune process and, consequently, different autoimmune diseases. For example, one family member may have autoimmune hepatitis; another, celiac disease; another, rheumatoid arthritis.