Millions of Americans suffer from autoimmune conditions. While many of them can live a normal life, some struggle to cope with work and their daily tasks. At Knox Wellness Experience in Knoxville, TN, we help patients with a wide range of conditions, including Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, fibromyalgia, MTHFR, and rheumatoid arthritis. Read on to find out more about those conditions, their symptoms, and how they can be treated.
What Autoimmune Conditions Are Serious?
Almost every autoimmune issue is serious because it’s very hard to find a cure or an effective treatment method. If you’d like to reduce your risk, a healthy lifestyle that includes nutritious foods, plenty of exercise, and low levels of stress is the best advice you can be given. You’re less likely to develop an autoimmune disease, and if you do, your symptoms will be milder than those of someone with an unhealthy lifestyle.
Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis
This autoimmune disorder occurs when the immune system attacks your thyroid gland. As a result, your thyroid is not able to function as normal, and your hormones are thrown off balance. People with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis often have a lump on their neck caused by their enlarged thyroid. This isn’t cancerous, but it can make swallowing, speaking, and breathing more difficult.
Patients also suffer from an underactive or overactive thyroid. If the thyroid is underactive, the person might gain weight, feel more tired, and experience muscle weakness. The cold affects them more than usual, and they might become depressed. The most common symptoms of an overactive thyroid are feeling too hot, tremors, anxiety, weight loss, a rapid heart rate, and sweating.
Who Suffers from this Condition?
Women are more likely to get Hashimoto’s thyroiditis than men. The disease is most common in people between the ages of 40 and 60, but it can occur in younger patients. Sometimes, women develop it during pregnancy. This condition is often genetic, but scientists haven’t found any genes linked to it yet. People who already have another autoimmune disease like rheumatoid arthritis are more likely to develop Hashimoto’s.
How Serious Is It?
At first, patients might only notice subtle changes when they develop the disease. However, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis can be life-threatening if the symptoms aren’t treated. The enlarged thyroid can make breathing difficult, and problems with thyroid function sometimes lead to heart disease, high cholesterol, and mental health issues. Birth defects in babies born to women with Hashimoto’s are common.
Fortunately, quick treatment can reverse the symptoms, so not everyone with this condition has to suffer for the rest of their lives. Patients might require medication, but this should be supplemented with holistic remedies like a good diet, regular exercise, and supplements.
Fibromyalgia
Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition that causes increased pain and sensitivity. Sufferers feel tenderness all over their bodies or at various sites. Often, the discomfort is present in the arms, legs, head, chest, buttocks, abdomen, and back. Other common symptoms are trouble sleeping and chronic fatigue. Some people also suffer from muscle stiffness, numbness or tingling in their extremities, and digestive issues like constipation or bloating.
The mental fog that sometimes accompanies fibromyalgia is often called “fibro fog.” Patients might also become more sensitive to stimuli like light, noise, temperature, and odors.
Who Suffers from this Condition?
Almost anyone can develop fibromyalgia. It occurs in children and young people, but it is most common in middle-aged patients. Women are more likely to suffer from it than men. Certain other diseases, particularly ones that cause chronic pain, make fibromyalgia more likely. They include lupus, chronic back pain, depression, anxiety, irritable bowel syndrome, and rheumatoid arthritis.
How Serious Is It?
Different people experience fibromyalgia differently. While some can easily cope with their symptoms, others become extremely sensitive to pain and can no longer take part in their regular activities and work. The disease often causes a lower quality of life, more frequent hospitalizations, and a higher rate of other rheumatoid conditions.
However, the most serious problem is that people with fibromyalgia are at risk of mental health issues like depression because they are constantly in pain. Patients are more likely to die from suicide than the average population. For this reason, taking good care of their body and using holistic treatments to increase wellness is crucial.
Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase (MTHFR)
MTHFR is a common gene mutation. Around 30-40% of people have the C677T mutation, and 7-14% have the A1298C mutation. Some people even have both. The symptoms vary greatly from person to person, and research is still ongoing. However, scientists believe that MTHFR can increase a person’s risk of several conditions.
Some common ones include cardiovascular issues like blood clots and strokes, colon cancer, leukemia, migraine, nerve pain, and chronic fatigue. People with MTHFR mutation might develop mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder more easily. Some women have multiple miscarriages and pregnancies with neural defects.
Who Suffers from this Condition?
MTHFR is always genetic, so it’s virtually impossible to prevent. Research has shown that people of Hispanic or Asian descent are much less likely to have the A1298C mutation than Caucasian people. On the other hand, around 25% of people of Hispanic descent are homozygous for C677T, but only 10-15% of people of Caucasian descent have two identical alleles of this gene.
How Serious Is It?
Patients have been living with this autoimmune issue for many generations, and most of them don’t even know they have it. However, this doesn’t mean that the condition isn’t serious. As mentioned, the risk of severe problems during pregnancy are much higher than in the general population. If you’re worried about your health, ask us to recommend an at-home genetic testing kit.
Once you’ve been diagnosed, you might need to take medication to address your high homocysteine levels. Many doctors also recommend the use of supplements to make up for deficits. Eating a balanced diet, stopping smoking, and getting enough exercise are important lifestyle changes that can improve the quality of life of people with the MTHFR mutation.
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis is one of the most common autoimmune conditions. It is a chronic inflammation that starts by affecting your joints, but it can move around in the body and cause serious damage. RA happens when your immune system starts mistakenly attacking your own cells. The first symptoms are swollen, tender, and warm joints and joint stiffness that is usually worse in the morning than during the day.
Patients might also experience increased fatigue and a loss of their appetite. At first, the smaller joints in the person’s fingers and toes are affected, but the condition progresses to the wrists, elbows, shoulders, ankles, knees, and hips. Sometimes, other tissues like the eyes, lungs, heart, kidneys, and bone marrow become inflamed. Over time, the condition causes permanent changes to the appearance of the joints.
Who Suffers from this Condition?
Doctors aren’t sure why rheumatoid arthritis occurs. While there aren’t any genes associated with the condition, genetic factors might make patients more susceptible to environmental issues like infections that can then cause rheumatoid arthritis.
People who smoke and are overweight are more likely to develop this condition than others. However, there are also several factors outside the patient’s control. Women and those with a family history of the disease are more prone to rheumatoid arthritis. It usually begins in middle age, although some people develop it at a younger age.
How Serious Is It?
Most patients don’t suffer from life-threatening complications, but the condition affects their quality of life. Over time, it can prevent them from working and taking part in activities they used to enjoy. Rheumatoid arthritis also increases the likelihood of several other diseases, including osteoporosis, infections, lung disease, heart problems, and lymphoma.
If you notice any of the above-named symptoms, come to the clinic to get diagnosed. Although there’s no cure for rheumatoid arthritis, patients sometimes need medication or even surgery. Positive lifestyle changes can make a massive difference to the severity of the disease. That’s why we often recommend that sufferers reduce their stress levels, eat a healthy diet, and apply ice or heat to their joints.
Get Help with Your Autoimmune Issue Now
Autoimmune conditions are extremely common, and they can affect a patient’s life significantly. Some diseases like Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, fibromyalgia, MTHFR, and rheumatoid arthritis can cause complications and increase the patient’s likelihood of developing a life-threatening condition. Get in touch with us at Knox Wellness Experience in Knoxville, TN to book your appointment and find out more about our treatment methods.
