What Are the Causes of Autoimmune Diseases, Including Autoimmune Thyroid Disease Like Graves' Disease and Hashimoto's Disease / Thyroid Disease Information Source

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Understanding Autoimmune Diseases, Including Autoimmune Thyroid Conditions
What Are the Causes of Autoimmune Diseases, Including Autoimmune Thyroid Disease Like Graves' Disease and Hashimoto's Disease

Adapted by Mary Shomon

Main Index / Table of Contents -- Understanding Autoimmune Diseases

What Are the Causes of Autoimmune Diseases?

Are they contagious? No autoimmune disease has ever been shown to be contagious or "catching." Autoimmune diseases do not spread to other people like infections. They are not related to AIDS, nor are they a type of cancer.

Are they inherited? The genes people inherit contribute to their susceptibility for developing an autoimmune disease. Certain diseases such as psoriasis can occur among several members of the same family. This suggests that a specific gene or set of genes predisposes a family member to psoriasis. In addition, individual family members with autoimmune diseases may inherit and share a set of abnormal genes, although they may develop different autoimmune diseases. For example, one first cousin may have lupus, another may have dermatomyositis, and one of their mothers may have rheumatoid arthritis.

Examples of Autoimmune Diseases: (listed by the Main Target Organs)
Nervous Systems:		Gastrointestinal System:
	Multiple sclerosis		Crohn's Disease
	Myasthenia gravis		Ulcerative colitis
	Autoimmune neuropathies		Primary biliary cirrhosis
	such as Guillain-Barré		Autoimmune hepatitis
	Autoimmune ureitis
			Endocrine Glands:
	Blood:		Type 1 or immune mediated
	Autoimmune hemolytic anemia		diabetes mellitus
	Pernicious anemia		Grave's Disease
	Autoimmune thrombocytopenia		Hashimoto's thyroiditis
			Autoimmune oophoritis and
	Blood Vessels:		orchitis
	Temporal artertis		Autoimmune disease of the
	Anti-phospholipid syndrome		adrenal gland
	Vasculitides such as
	Wegener's granulomatosis		Multiple Organs Including the
	Behcet's disease		Musculoskeletal Systems:*
			Rheumatoid arthritis
	Skin:		Systemic lupus erythematosus
	Psoriasis		Scleroderma
	Dermatitis herpetiformis		Polymyositis, dermatomyositis
	Pemphigus vulgaris		Spondyloarthropathies such as
	Vitiligo		ankylosing spondylitis
			Sjogren's syndrome

*These diseases are also called connective tissue (muscle, skeleton, tendons, fascia, etc.) diseases.

The development of an autoimmune disease may be influenced by the genes a person inherits together with the way the person's immune system responds to certain triggers or environmental influences.

What other factors may influence the development of autoimmune diseases? Some autoimmune diseases are known to begin or worsen with certain triggers such as viral infections. Sunlight not only acts as a trigger for lupus but can worsen the course of the disease. It is important to be aware of the factors that can be avoided to help prevent or minimize the amount of damage from the autoimmune disease. Other less understood influences affecting the immune system and the course of autoimmune diseases include aging, chronic stress, hormones, and pregnancy.

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