What Are Autoimmune Diseases: Types, Causes, and Symptoms

A healthy immune system serves as the body’s defence mechanism. It identifies and eliminates harmful pathogens, such as bacteria, viruses, and abnormal cells. By distinguishing “self” from “non-self”, the immune system protects the body from disease while preserving its tissues. However, when this system malfunctions, it can mistakenly identify the body’s cells as threats, a dysfunction known as autoimmunity.

According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), autoimmune diseases affect an estimated 15 million or 4.6% of the U.S population. Over the years, more people have begun to suffer from autoimmune conditions like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and celiac disease much more frequently. These conditions can be challenging to live with and can significantly impact one’s quality of life.

In this article, we will look at autoimmune disorders and how to cope with them. We will also learn about the different roles, genetics and the environment play in autoimmune diseases.

What is an Autoimmune Disease?

Autoimmune diseases occur when the body’s immune system mistakenly identifies its healthy cells or tissue as foreign threats. This causes the immune system to attack the body itself, leading to inflammation, tissue damage, and impaired organ function.

An overactive immune system is at the root of many autoimmune diseases and often results in a chronic and progressive condition.

Autoimmune disorders can affect virtually any part of the body, including the skin cells, joints, muscles, nerves, glands, digestive organs, and blood vessels.

When an autoimmune disorder occurs, the immune system’s faulty targeting leads to the destruction of healthy tissue and disrupts the body’s ability to maintain homeostasis.

How Autoimmune Disorders Affect the Body

Studies show that there are more than 80 known autoimmune diseases.

They range from common ones like type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis to rare autoimmune diseases, like stiff person syndrome and Goodpasture’s syndrome, which result in digestive and kidney diseases.

But to understand how autoimmune disorders affect the body, it is important to understand the biochemistry of the immune system.

The immune system protects the body by recognising and responding to harmful substances like bacteria, viruses, parasites, cancer cells and even transplanted organs. These harmful substances have special molecules called antigens (found inside or on the surface of the substance) which the immune system can detect and respond to.

When the immune system (B-cells and T-cells) comes in contact with these potentially harmful antigens, it learns how to fight them. B-cells produce antigens, which are proteins that attach to specific antigens and neutralise them or mark them for destruction. Once exposed, the antibodies remember these antigens for a faster response in the future.

But in autoimmune diseases, the antibodies mistakenly see healthy cells as threats and attack them.

This faulty immune response results in symptoms and presentations of the autoimmune disorders explained below:

Chronic Inflammation: When the immune system produces antibodies (autoantibodies) that attack healthy cells, it causes persistent inflammation. Inflammation is the root cause of most symptoms, as seen in the insulin-producing cells found in type 1 diabetes, swelling, pain, and tissue damage found in rheumatoid arthritis.
Systemic Effects: Some autoimmune disorders are organ-specific, while others, such as Lupus, affect multiple systems in the body.
Tissue Damage and Organ Dysfunction: Depending on the specific disease and the affected area, repeated attacks by autoantibodies lead to tissue damage and even organ failure. A good example of this is the tumour necrosis factor, which plays a key role in the development of autoimmune diseases by promoting chronic inflammation and tissue damage.
Flare-ups and Remissions: Many autoimmune diseases have no cure, so the symptoms come and go. Periods of worsening (flare-ups) may alternate with periods of relief (remission).

The specific effect of autoimmune diseases on the body depends on many factors. While autoimmune diseases have no cure, they can be managed by controlling inflammation and managing similar symptoms.

Types of Autoimmune Diseases

According to the Global Autoimmune Institute, autoimmune diseases may be classified based on several criteria, namely: anatomical criteria, immunological criteria and other approaches.

The anatomical criteria are used in clinical settings to differentiate whether they affect one or multiple organs in the body.

Autoimmune disease can be:

Systemic autoimmune diseases affect and damage multiple tissues or organs in the body. Some systemic autoimmune diseases include Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), and Psoriatic arthritis.
Organ-specific autoimmune diseases occur when a person’s immune system attacks a single tissue, organ, or system. Some organ-specific autoimmune diseases include Multiple sclerosis (MS), Celiac disease (digestive tract), Graves’ disease (thyroid gland), Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease (inflammatory bowel disease) and Autoimmune muscle disease (e.g., myasthenia gravis).

Immunological classification of autoimmune diseases is based on Gell and Coombs’ Hypersensitivity Types II, III and IV. Other approaches for classifying autoimmune diseases include laboratory and imaging techniques, as well as proteomics, genomics, and metabolomics.

A scientist in a lab using a micropipette to transfer liquid samples into test tubes, likely researching autoimmune conditions involving digestive and kidney diseases. The study could relate to hormone imbalances such as too much thyroid hormone or explore how autoimmune flare-ups might be affected by physical therapy outcomes.

Common Examples of Autoimmune Diseases

Out of the over 80 autoimmune diseases identified and recognised by scientists, some of the most common autoimmune disorders include Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis and Celiac disease.

Lupus is characterised by the production of anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA) and anti-dsDNA antibodies, which form immune complexes that deposit in organs, triggering inflammation (Type III hypersensitivity). It commonly affects the skin, joints, kidneys, lungs and brain. Symptoms include fatigue, joint pain, photosensitivity and fever. Lupus is prevalent among women of childbearing age.
Rheumatoid Arthritis involves antibodies such as rheumatoid factor and anti-CCP antibodies, which result in inflammation and joint destruction. RA affects the joints, particularly the small joints of the hands and feet, causing pain, stiffness, and deformity.
Multiple Sclerosis affects the nervous system (brain and spinal cord), in which T cells affect the protective covering (myelin) of nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. This damage makes it hard for messages to travel between the brain and the rest of the body. MS often presents with visual disturbances, muscle weakness, balance problems, numbness and fatigue. People with MS often experience flare-ups and remissions, or worsen progressively.
Celiac Disease affects the small intestine and is triggered by the ingestion of gluten (a protein). Gluten peptides trigger an immune response that leads to T cell-mediated damage of the interstitial villi, resulting in malabsorption, diarrhoea, bloating and weight loss.

Though these conditions can be serious, early diagnosis, proper treatment and a healthy lifestyle can help people manage symptoms and live well.

Genetics and Autoimmune Diseases

Genetics have long been proven to play a role in autoimmune conditions.

Multiple studies have proven that the following conditions are directly linked to your genes:

Rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, primary biliary cholangitis, and other conditions are connected to the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region of your genetics. In fact, in rheumatoid arthritis, the HLA gene is the most common and influential factor.

Studies in twins have found that monozygotic (identical) twins are four or more times more likely to develop autoimmune conditions than dizygotic (fraternal) twins.

Conditions like Graves’ disease, lupus, multiple sclerosis, and other autoimmune disorders are proven to have strong familial connections, and thus are more likely to be passed on from one generation to the next.

There is substantial evidence that many autoimmune diseases share a common set of susceptibility genes. If you have the same genes as your family members who suffer from autoimmune conditions, you are more susceptible to those conditions as well.

But autoimmune diseases are not all genetic. The environment also plays a prominent role in autoimmune diseases.

Role of Hereditary Factors

Autoimmune diseases often run in families, indicating a strong genetic component. Studies have shown that specific genes, particularly those in the HLA (human leukocyte antigen) region, increase susceptibility to diseases such as RA, MS, and SLE.

For example:

HLA-DR3 and HLA-DR4 are linked to type 1 diabetes.
HLA-B27 is strongly associated with ankylosing spondylitis.
HLA-DR2 is often seen in multiple sclerosis.
HLA-DQ2 and DQ8 are commonly found in celiac disease.

Twin studies show that if one twin has an autoimmune disease, the other is significantly more likely to develop one, suggesting a heritable risk. However, genes alone are not enough. Autoimmune diseases are a result of genetic and environmental factors.

Genetic Susceptibility and Risk Factors

Besides HLA, other genes, such as PTPN22, IL2RA, and CTLA4, contribute to immune dysregulation. These genes affect how the immune system responds to infections and self-antigens. Epigenetic factors such as DNA methylation and histone modifications also interact with environmental triggers to modulate disease risk.

Population genetics reveal that some gene variants, which were once protective against infections, now increase the risk of autoimmune conditions due to environmental changes.

Environmental Triggers of Autoimmune Conditions

As one study put it, “Although predisposing genetic risk factors have been identified for various autoimmune diseases, it is understood that they account only for a fraction of the overall disease.”

The rest is the result of environmental factors.

Infection is the primary trigger behind most autoimmune disorders. When infections spread through the body, it’s not uncommon for the immune system to continue attacking internal tissues even after the infecting pathogen is eliminated.

Many other triggers have been linked to autoimmune conditions:

Smoking cigarettes;

Stress;

High-sugar, high-salt, high-fat, and high-protein diets lacking in dietary fibre and micronutrients;

Climate;

Occupation;

Exposure to toxic chemicals.

All of these factors can play a role in the onset of any number of autoimmune conditions. Anything that drastically throws off the internal equilibrium of the gut microbiome may ultimately lead to conditions like MS, rheumatoid arthritis, IBD, and other autoimmune disorders.

Infection and Immune Response

Bacterial and viral infections can initiate autoimmune processes by triggering molecular mimicry, where immune responses against pathogens cross-react with healthy tissues, leading to most autoimmune diseases.

Examples include:

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is linked to MS and SLE.
The Coxsackie virus is associated with type 1 diabetes.
Post-infectious autoimmune diseases like Guillain-Barré syndrome.

Infections don’t directly cause autoimmune diseases, but they can trigger or accelerate them in genetically susceptible individuals. This further highlights the balance between genetics and environmental factors.

Lifestyle and Dietary Impact

Lifestyle and diet play an important role in managing autoimmune diseases by influencing inflammation and boosting the immune system.

A diet that is rich in anti-inflammatory foods like leafy greens, berries, fatty fish and whole grains can help calm the immune response. While processed foods, added sugars, and gluten or dairy can worsen symptoms. Hydration, along with key nutrients like vitamin D and Omega-3 fatty acids, also supports the immune system.

In addition to diet, lifestyle factors like regular exercise, sleep and stress management help control flare-ups and enhance resilience. By adopting healthier lifestyle habits and being aware of environmental and emotional triggers. Individuals with autoimmune diseases can experience improved energy levels, reduced inflammation, and enhanced quality of life, along with medical treatment.

Role of Chemicals and Pollutants

Environmental toxins like trichloroethylene, silica dust, and cigarette smoke have been implicated in autoimmune flare-ups. Air pollution, pesticide exposure, and heavy metals may increase the risk of lupus and rheumatoid arthritis by promoting chronic inflammation and oxidative stress.

Aerial view of an industrial facility emitting white smoke into the air, surrounded by roads, storage yards, and scattered construction materials. The surrounding area includes machinery, parked vehicles, and autumn-colored trees, with residential neighborhoods visible in the distance through light haze.

Symptoms of Autoimmune Diseases

In autoimmune diseases, symptoms are the signs and changes a person experiences or presents when the immune system mistakenly destroys normal tissues. These symptoms can vary widely depending on which part of the body is affected. Some symptoms are also present early, while some present later.

Early Warning Signs of autoimmune diseases include: fatigue, low-grade fever, abdominal pain, muscle weakness, joint pain and swelling, skin rashes and numbness or tingling (especially in MS).

How Symptoms Vary Across Conditions

Symptoms differ depending on the disease and the organs affected.

For instance:

RA presents with morning stiffness and joint deformities.
SLE may cause photosensitivity and kidney involvement.
Celiac disease often leads to digestive issues and nutrient deficiencies.
Graves’ disease results in too much thyroid hormone (hyperthyroidism)

Managing and Preventing Autoimmune Conditions

Most serious autoimmune diseases require a holistic approach combining medical care with supportive lifestyle changes.

For example, patients with autoimmune conditions may need blood transfusions if their red blood cells are destroyed or may be prescribed blood pressure medications if their heart or kidneys are affected.

Diagnosis often involves a white blood cell differential to determine immune activity levels. Treatment usually includes anti-inflammatory drugs or stronger therapies called immunosuppressive medicines. Managing these diseases also involves supportive therapies like physical therapy to help restore movement and strength.

Complete prevention isn’t always possible, but making informed choices around diet, stress, and environment can help reduce the risk and improve the quality of life for those affected.

Modifying Environmental Factors

Avoiding known triggers like smoking, pollutants, and processed foods can reduce certain risk factors.

Improving indoor air quality and avoiding occupational exposure to hazardous substances (e.g., solvents and pesticides) also helps prevent and control symptoms.

Healthy Diet and Lifestyle Changes

Several lifestyle and dietary habits significantly influence how the immune system functions and may either contribute to or help manage autoimmune diseases.

These include the following:

Stress: Chronic emotional or physical stress can weaken the immune system, triggering inflammatory responses and potentially exacerbating autoimmune activity. Stress hormones, such as cortisol, can disrupt immune tolerance, making the body more susceptible to attacking its tissues.

Smoking: Tobacco smoke contains many harmful chemicals that impair immune function. Smoking increases the risk of autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), Graves’ disease, and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). It also worsens disease progression and can reduce the effectiveness of treatment options.

Diet and Nutrition: Diets high in processed foods, added sugars, and trans fats can disrupt gut microbiota, increase intestinal permeability, and promote systemic inflammation. These dietary factors contribute to immune dysregulation. Conversely, anti-inflammatory diets rich in fruits, vegetables, omega-3 fatty acids, and fermented foods help maintain immune balance.

In summary, adopting an anti-inflammatory diet rich in fruits, vegetables, omega-3 fatty acids, and fermented foods can support immune balance. Regular physical activity, sufficient sleep, and stress management further improve outcomes.

Strengthening Gut Health

The gut is home to trillions of microbes that regulate immune responses.

Strengthening gut health involves using probiotics and prebiotics to balance gut bacteria, avoiding processed food that harms gut lining and including anti-inflammatory nutrients like omega-3 and fermented foods.

Conclusion: Empowering Yourself Through Awareness

Awareness is key to recognising early warning signs of autoimmune diseases, making thoughtful dietary choices, reducing exposure to environmental toxins, and supporting gut health, all of which play a critical role in strengthening the immune system and reducing the risk of flare-ups.

These proactive steps not only help in managing existing conditions but may also delay or prevent the onset of autoimmune disorders altogether.

While managing autoimmune conditions involves many factors—from lifestyle to environment—supporting your body at the cellular level can make a powerful difference in how you feel and function each day.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What triggers autoimmune disease?

Autoimmune disorder occurs when genetics combine with environmental factors like infections, stress or poor gut health, causing the immune system to destroy healthy body cells.

How to reset the immune system?

You can reset the immune system by managing stress, improving gut health, getting enough sleep, exercising moderately, and following an anti-inflammatory diet.

Is an autoimmune disease a disability?

An autoimmune disease can be considered a disability if it significantly impairs a person’s ability to work or carry out daily activities.

References

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What Are Autoimmune Diseases: Types, Causes, and Symptoms

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