When a patient has an autoimmune disease, it means the immune system isn’t functioning perfectly. What it decides to attack, we’re never quite sure we understand in medicine. Like why the thyroid? Why the joints?
Regardless of the target, we have cytotoxic T cells and antibody-producing B cells, and they’re designed to fight invaders. Then we have regulatory T cells that create balance. When the first two cell types get out of whack and the third doesn’t create that balance, now we have what we call an autoimmune response.
The way I describe it to patients is if we’re on a playground, the kids playing there are protective of their playground. When a kid comes in to cause trouble, the immune system, or the kids already on the playground, fight and kick out the bad guy. That’s how it’s regulated.
To expand this metaphor, let’s say there is no bad guy for the kids to unite against, so they get bored and pick out someone already on the playground to bully. That’s how the human immune system acts toward our organ systems in cases of autoimmune disease.
This post was originally published in Chiropractic Economic.
