And that was the inspiration for this post. The longer I am blogging, the more I learn and the more I have to learn about what seems like to me, the many autoimmune illnesses that are kissing cousins of ra. Yes, I know, what a lovely thought. More things to possibly have to worry about. But I am putting this information out there because so many of us have so many symptoms that just don't quite fit under that tidy one diagnoses we were given.
So here goes! Here are some of the kissing cousins of ra...
Medline Plus gives us the following examples of (kissing cousins of ra) autoimmune diseases:
- Addison's disease
- Celiac disease - sprue (gluten-sensitive enteropathy)
- Dermatomyositis
- Graves disease
- Hashimoto's thyroiditis
- Multiple sclerosis
- Myasthenia gravis
- Pernicious anemia
- Reactive arthritis
- Sjogren syndrome
- Systemic lupus erythematosus
- Type I diabetes
And if that isn't enough to digest, here are a few more that I recently found out about!
- Autoimmune hepatitis
- Autoimmune hypophysitis - in short this means your immune system is attacking your pituitary.
I have no doubt I have missed a few of our cousins out there. So if you know of any others, ask them to join this dysfunctional family through a comment.
7 comments:
Psoriatic Arthritis
Mixed Connective Tissue Disease
Vit D / Rickett's
Polymyocitis
peripheral neuropathy
POTS or the reverse Orthostatic HYPERtension which is more rare
And there are more. This is a very good post you put up today and it needs to be known that being dx'ed with lupus or ra or whatever, just gives "IT" title. It's ALL AUTO-IMMUNE-DISORDER's. I have finally accepted this myself because i'm tired of the list of names being thrown at me.
I have AAD with MULTIPLE symptoms.
Tammy
And then there are the conditions that walk hand-in-hand with RA, like bursitis. I've been battling that particular beastie, where it's taken up residence in the bursae of both hips, for more than a year now. Grrrr...
Tammy...thanks for the additional ones. More than anything I wish someone would come up with a cure for us all. And what gets my goat is once you get one autoimmune disease...well more seem to move right on in.
Wren...and tendonitis has been a real bummer for me from the get go. Sometimes I think the tendon issues are worse for me than the ra issues but who can really tell the difference. Like which came first, the chicken or the egg :-)
Deb,
Great list! Thanks.
I have Celiac and RA and De Quervaine's Tendonitis. I agree - is it tendonitis or just RA in the tendons? And Hashimoto's, which appears to be healing with the gluten-free diet.
I have two children with celiac and RA, and I have siblings with Graves and Addisons, and a cousin with Myashtenia Gravis, so there seems to be some genetic component to this, too. My paternal grandmother was Hypothyroid, and pretty sure my maternal grandmother had Celiac. The Celiac genes are on both sides of the family tree, as I have two copies!
Just wish there was more money going into research for us.
After being diagnosed with Hashimoto's, I wound up with two thyroid cancers and had to have my thyroid surgically removed. Wow! You for sure seem like you have a genetic link. There are no others in my family with these types of problems that I have developed so I am not sure how I wound up with all of what I currently own :-) And I couldn't agree with you more, I wish that more and more research would finally come up with some cures for some these autoimmune diseases.
Great blog! I've only read the last post, so far, lots more to go. :)
Here's more for your list:
Scleroderma
vasculitis
Inclusion body myositis
I'm diagnosed with MCTD - a nice blend of the rare ones: Sjogren's, Scleroderma, Polymyositis, ... not even sure about lupus. Does it matter with so many anyway?
My blog is new, it's at:
http://annehasablog.blogspot.com
- Anne
Anne...welcome to my blog! I am so glad you dropped in but so sorry as to why you are here. You are so right with the others you have posted. Aren't relatives a pain sometimes :-) I checked out your blog and like it!
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