Test Your Knowledge Of Autoimmune Diseases

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic systemic autoimmune disease that primarily affects the lining of the synovial joints and is associated with progressive disability, premature death, and socioeconomic burdens.

An autoimmune disorder occurs when the body's immune system attacks and destroys healthy body tissue by mistake.

In autoimmune disease, your body thinks its own tissues are foreign invaders that must be attacked. It also means that, unlike a simple rash, you can't get rid of it with an over-the-counter skin treatment.

Hashimoto's thyroiditis can cause your thyroid to not make enough thyroid hormone. It is an autoimmune disease. It occurs when your body makes antibodies that attack the cells in your thyroid. 

Rheumatoid arthritis happens when the immune system doesn't work properly and attacks the lining of the joints, called the synovium. The disease commonly affects the hands, knees or ankles, and usually the same joint on both sides of the body, such as both hands or both knees.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic disease that causes inflammation in connective tissues, such as cartilage and the lining of blood vessels, which provide strength and flexibility to structures throughout the body.

An allergy occurs when the body overreacts to an allergen or 'trigger' that is typically harmless to most people. Examples of allergies include: hay fever (allergic rhinitis) asthma.

In multiple sclerosis, the immune system becomes confused and attacks the protective myelin coating around our nerves by mistake. If myelin is damaged by the immune system, the nerve can't communicate properly and may eventually die.

Autoimmunity is caused by the breakdown in self and nonself discrimination. 

Autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) occurs when your immune system mistakes red blood cells as unwanted substances. As a result, your body produces antibodies that destroy red blood cells, which can lead to a low amount of red blood cells (known as anemia).

In Type 1 diabetes, the body does not recognize its own insulin-producing beta cells , so the immune system attacks and destroys them as if they were invaders. The body needs insulin to metabolize sugar and turn it into energy.

Celiac disease, sometimes called celiac sprue or gluten-sensitive enteropathy, is an immune reaction to eating gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. If you have celiac disease, eating gluten triggers an immune response in your small intestine.

With Graves' disease, your immune system attacks your thyroid gland, causing it to make more thyroid hormones than your body needs.

In Sjögren's syndrome, the principal inflammatory targets are the salivary and lacrimal exocrine glands, resulting in dryness of the mucosal surfaces of the mouth and eyes.

Coeliac disease (CD) is an enteropathy, characterized by villous atrophy, which occurs in genetically susceptible individuals. It affects mainly the proximal small intestine, and is caused by an intolerance to cereal storage proteins found in wheat, barley and rye.