Article on whether autoimmune disease is a side-effect of a strong immune system

[Crabb]

Coronavirus had me wondering about whether autoimmune diseases make you more or less susceptible and in my googling I came across the following article (it's a few years old) newscientist.com/article/20...

[asiatic]

I found this article of interest. I always had a strong immune system and avoided the usual childhood ailments and later colds and flu before being diagnosed with Graves in my seventies . The suggestion that self-reactive antibodies help clear dying cells and may play a role in watching for cancer cells has made me rethink that perhaps my immune system hasn't failed me after all. Thanks for posting.

[Hillwoman]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting.

Some of the observations directly contradict the experience of some people here, but no doubt they will chime with others. I don't really agree that autoimmunity is quite the health benefit claimed in the article, but it's an interesting point of view.

A related point: one of the reasons I've heard put forward for the particular deadliness of Spanish Flu in young people post WW1 is that their stronger immune systems were able to mount such an aggressive counterattack that it led to a 'cytokine storm'. This is an over-reaction of the immune system that is deadly in its own right, since the whole body is subject to its own viral counterattack. This isn't autoimmunity, but there are obvious parallels.

I saw a documentary a few years ago which examined some possible reasons for differing mortality rates in certain parts of the world. One area examined was Glasgow. It was suggested that extreme poverty in the first half of the 20th century, together with overcrowding and the consequent high incidence of infectious illnesses led to a widespread immunological compensation or adaptation that was passed on to subsequent generations in the form of a tendency to autoimmune disease - an overactive but misdirected immune response.

My father's family grew up in the industrial north of England and were severly impoverished. Subsequent generations have passed on the autoimmune tendency. AI conditions are supposedly passed down the female line through mitochondrial DNA, but that has recently been called into question by genetics research - which might explain my ownautoimmune inheritance.

[Hidden in reply to Hillwoman]

Can you explain what's meant by: ''led to a widespread immunological compensation or adaptation'' ?

[Hillwoman in reply to Hidden]

Simply, that throughout those communities, the repeated challenges to the immune system by infectious illnesses led to a genetic adaptation. The adaptation promoted an inflammatory response initially to infection, in order to fight it. But in subsequent generations the inflammatory response occurred with non-infectious stimuli, so the body's own tissues came under attack from the immune system: autoimmunity.

[Batty1]

I had severe psoriasis my entire life and hardly ever had the flu or colds, I was always told your immune system works overtime because of your skin condition (not sure about this).

Fast forward to today I take immunosuppressive drugs which has cleared my skin condition up I use to be (80-85% covered in psoriasis prior to immunosuppressive drug) to currently having (2% coverage)and still I hardly get sick ....although I seem to get more mild head colds on immunosuppressive drug then without and I seriously wash my hands like a mad person (lol)

[RockyPath]

Yes, autoimmune diseases are a sign of a very vital immune response (Yay for something). I'm sorry I cannot recall where I read it last week but people of the female persuasion, due to the necessity (usually) of carrying a fetus to term, come equipped with a much more robust immune response than males. This makes for a great propensity to develop autoimmune diseases.

If you read the COVID-19 news, more men are dying than women. They're the weaker sex.