14 DAY TRIAL // Starting from the more common term IQ, the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (AARDA) has formulated the term "AQ" for Autoimmune Quotient.
Just like the intelligence, AQ is also inherited.
To assess your family's AQ, here are some clues:
1. There are 23.5 million Americans with autoimmune diseases and the percentage is increasing, while cancer is found in up to 9 million and heart disease in up to 22 million.
Autoimmune diseases are amongst the first 10 leading causes of death in children and women under 65, but less than 6 % of Americans could name an autoimmune disease.
Over 80 conditions are proven to be autoimmune and some other 40 diseases seem to be.
They affect from the kidneys, skin, heart, liver, lymph nodes, thyroid to the central nervous system, involving the fields of endocrinology, neurology, dermatology, rheumatology, gastroenterology and hematology, and others.
The most known autoimmune diseases are multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, scleroderma, polymyositis, vasculitis, lupus, Sj?gren's disease, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), type 1 (juvenile) diabetes, Crohn's disease and Graves' disease. They install when the immune system takes the body's own proteins as foreign and starts producing antibodies that destroy the body's healthy cells and tissues.
Women, usually in the childbearing years, are more predisposed to them, representing about 75 % of these patients.
2. The autoimmune diseases are genetically determined by multiple genes that rise the vulnerability or susceptibility. That's why autoimmune diseases will concentrate on families that have a general vulnerability to them. One family member can develop autoimmune hepatitis; another, celiac disease; another, rheumatoid arthritis.
That's why family history of these diseases can reveal your own vulnerability: if one grandparent or parent or sister or uncle suffers of an autoimmune disease, you could be at risk. A doctor can appreciate quite accurately - based on this history - what your risk is and order appropriate tests.
3. The autoimmune diseases often induce symptoms that, apparently, may seem unrelated, and which sometimes even last throughout somebody's life.
A complete list of every major symptom offers the right clues for a diagnosis.
Diagnosis of autoimmune diseases can be challenging and patients can get a diagnosis of a serious autoimmune disease in 4.6 years, after seeing 4.8 doctors, as symptoms vary largely even within the same disease. 46 % of the patients were initially suspected of hypochondria (excessive concern about one's health).
Since the autoimmune diseases attack multiple systems, their symptoms can often be deceiving, not to mention the limited current knowledge in the field of the autoimmune diseases.