GreenGirl66's Journal

I got very weary of people asking how I felt only to have them think I was just "tired" ????? ( If only!)  This I found and would like to share, it's very informative and say's all the things I wish I could tell people to enhance their knowledge of the symptoms we deal with.

Let us spread the word and gain better awareness :)

SYMPTOMS OF AN AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE
Category: Life
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Symptoms of Autoimmune Diseases
The following symptoms are common in many, if not all, autoimmune diseases.
Fatigue: It’s not a good fatigue, from working hard, but an anxious, uncomfortable fatigue related to lack of sleep. Or a disruption of the energy production mechanism in cells, either from lack of oxygen, increased toxicity, infections or a malfunction of the mitochondria.
Sleep Disturbance: About 80% may wake up three or four times a night, or in some cases you don’t wake up, but in the morning you still feel like a truck ran over you. The reason for this is that subliminal seizures kick you out of stage 4, Delta sleep, to stage 1 sleep so you can’t sleep deeply and wake up not rested.
Short Term Memory Loss: Because of the low thyroid and heart complications typical in autoimmune diseases, there is a decrease in blood flow to the left lobe of the brain causing an oxygen deficiency in the brain. This can lead to the memory loss and forgetfulness that is common in autoimmune diseases.
Emotional Liability: Someone may cry more easily, be more anxious and fearful. This is caused by the illness, and is not a psychological reaction!
Depression: As with the emotional symptoms, the hypothalamus is involved. This is not clinical depression, but literally has a physical cause that is sometimes experienced as a deep depression right in the heart.
Low Thyroid Function. About 85% have this symptom, but only about 10% of the time does it show up on a typical thyroid test. If you get tested, have both a T3 and T4 done. About 10% have excessive hair loss. For most everyone, a poorly performing thyroid will show up as subnormal temperatures.
Gastrointestina l Problems: About 75% have this symptom. Can be anything from gas, bloating, cramps, diarrhea or constipation to hiatal hernia, irritable bowel syndrome or Crohn’s Disease. Sometimes taking a simple homeopathic remedy like arsenicum album, 6x or 6c and make a difference with this.
Swollen Glands, Chemical Sensitivity, Headaches: Allergies often develop, usually after 3 to 5 years. Eyes can be light sensitive for 6 months or longer. Dry eyes can develop. About 20% experience a very uncomfortable disequilibrium of vertigo, almost an out of body feeling that can be most disconcerting.
Pain and Fibromyalgia: Often diagnosed as a separate illness, fibromyalgia is basically a symptom that can occur with any autoimmune disease. If you have it, you’ve got pain. Often in the neck and in shoulder muscles extending down the back. Can be in the joints and muscles also.
Low Blood Sugar.
Candida Yeast Infections: These are very common. Check your tongue. If it has a white coating, you have it. Or take the spit test you will read about later. Women may get vaginal yeast infections caused by candida overgrowth. A candida infection can cause a number of autoimmune type symptoms. Sinus infections often are caused by candida.
Tingling hands. Ringing ears. Cold toes. Cold fingers. Metallic taste in mouth. Caused by poor circulation and who knows what.
Overdoing: You over-exercise or overwork when you are feeling good, and then feel worse for days afterward. This can cause serious problems. In healthy people the body shuts down when the anaerobic threshold is reached as a lot of pain is experienced. This warning does not occur if you have an autoimmune disease. Instead, the body continues to exercise and experiences no pain as the lactic acid builds up, and the body ends up recirculating carbon dioxide. This is not a healthy thing to have happen to you. It is important not to push too hard when you start recovering, or this will set you back and wipe you out.
Fluttering Heart. Panic Attacks. Rapid Heartbeat. Mitral Valve Prolapse. Usually blood pressure is low, though it can get high later on. The heart under pumps blood because it is getting incorrect messages from the autonomous nervous system. The body’s feedback loop picks this up and over-reacts. And you get these symptoms.
If you have autoimmune illness, it is not likely you have all these symptoms. However, you will have many of them to one degree or another.
The major symptom that labels an autoimmune disease as lupus is inflammation that can be systemic, attacking the whole body or discoid and attacking the skin. A butterfly rash is a distinctive symptom. A common test for it is the ANA blood test.
Systemic lupus attacks multiple systems in the body, which may include- the skin, joints, blood, lungs, kidneys, heart, brain & nervous system. Common symptoms can include- swelling and pain of the joints, muscle pain and weakness, fatigue, sun- sensitivity, hair loss, "Butterfly" or malar rash (a rash across the nose and cheeks), fever, anemia, headaches, recurrent miscarriages.
Symptoms of discoid lupus include a variety of different looking skin rashes, photosensitivit y, & sometimes mouth or nose ulcers.
Of course, the real issue is what to do to get over lupus.
If you have advanced lupus toxins overwhelm your body, and it ran out of glutathione long ago so it can’t get rid of those toxins. And your immune system is all out of balance, attacking your body with an over- responding Th-2 inflammatory side, while your TH-1 immune system is wiped out and not working. It’s the one that needs to be dealing with the pathogens in your body.