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Dr. C's Journal, Medicine, Opinion, Women's Health

DR. C’S JOURNAL: WOMEN AND AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE

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Almost 80% of autoimmune diseases occur in women. Why should this be?

From the evolutionarily standpoint, perhaps up regulation of immunity conferred a survival advantage. Women spent a much greater percentage of the time pregnant in Hunter gatherer days than they do at the present time, and an active immune system may have been an advantage in getting both you and your child’s genes through the many ancient environmental hurdles.

Women differ from men in the prominence of the X chromosome, the female sex hormones, estrogen and progesterone, and, surprisingly, in their microbiome. All three areas may play a role in autoimmunity.

The X chromosome contains many genes directly tied to Autoimmune diseases. One of these is a gene for TLR-7, which is important in the innate immune response, and is linked to disorders such as lupus and scleroderma. Another Gene, TASL, increases the production of interferon, a common inflammatory factor.

Many autoimmune diseases are driven by estrogen. For instance, estrogen attaches to, and turns on the gene that codes for interferon gamma. It activates B cells which produce antibodies. Progesterone, another female hormone is elevated in pregnancy, and tends to switch on the TH-2 response, which produces more antibodies. AIRE, the immune regulator itself, is partially influenced by the sex hormones.

A severe asthmatic I was treating became pregnant, and her asthma marvelously improved. I had always thought that pregnancy turned OFF her asthma-linked TH-2 response, going against one of the observations above.

At the present stage of knowledge, individuals may respond in perplexing ways to interleukins, treatments and pregnancy. Cellular interactions are complex indeed.

The microbiome in the male tends to increase testosterone, which tends to down regulate the immune system. The reverse is true for the female microbiome.

The fact that identical twins may be discordant with autoimmune disease favors environmental factors, such as the microbiome and other extrinsics such as smoking, diet, stress and chemicals. Some of the males who get autoimmune diseases tend to be feminized, such as in the Klinefelter syndrome, which has an extra extra X chromosome, and an XXY genotype.

The use of the estrogen or progesterone in the form of contraceptives tends to increase the likelihood of autoimmune diseases. The observation that women are more susceptible to autoimmune diseases goes along with many of these genetic, hormonal, and environmental observations.

Please consult for Scientific American, September, 2021, P 40 for more information.

—Dr. C.

Medicine, Men's Health, Opinion, Women's Health

THE DOCTORS 101 CHRONIC SYMPTOMS & CONDITIONS #56: LUPUS

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Lupus, which used to be called lupus erythematosus because of its butterfly rash and light sensitivity, is an auto immune disease, along with celiac disease and several other autoimmune diseases, it is the great imitator. It can affect almost any organ system.

The great variety of symptoms, and relative rarity leads to a difficulty in establishing the diagnosis. Eventually, you may be lucky enough to  find someone who figures it out.

The butterfly rash over the bridge of the nose and cheeks is the most typical finding but it’s not present in all patients. Rheumatoid symptoms, including fatigue fever and joint involvement is common. Chest pain and shortness of breath can occur. Headache confusion and memory loss occurs. Involvement of the kidneys can also occur, it is often the involvement that is life-threatening. These are symptoms maywax and wane over a number of years.

The cause of lupus may involve a black background of infection, the medication, or even sunlight. As with most auto immune diseases, the actual cause is obscure.

Laboratory findings may include an anemia, kidney or liver involvement, and especially anti-nuclear antibody’s. Most people with lupus have a positive ANA test, but not all people with these positive tests have lupus. Other test maybe necessary.

Treatment is usually with Drugs which diminish the immune system. Targeting the B-lymphocytes specifically with rituximab or bulimumab may be helpful.

Lupus, the wolf, can be stealthy and severe. Patients often have to be their own advocate in order to get properly treated.

Please see the following mail clinic article for more information.

—Dr. C.

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Dr. C's Journal, Medicine, Men's Health, Women's Health

DR. C’S JOURNAL: WHAT IS AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE?

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Our immune system contains cells that are part of us, and they evolved to protect us. They generally do a good job of this, as witnessed by our survival in a sea of viruses, microbes, and parasites.

However, just like our police force, occasionally the protective function goes awry and damage is done to our own body, in the protective act. For many years I was a practicing allergist, and observed this protective function misfiring. In allergic rhinitis and allergic asthma, tiny harmless particles in the air are interpreted by the body as a threat. The TH2 immune system, initially evolved to fight parasites, is activated, and causes considerable disease and misery.

Some of the antigenic determinants on the surface of the pollen, animal dander or dust particles are interpreted as being dangerous by the immune system, which causes chronic inflammation with acute allergy attacks.

Autoimmunity is a similar misreading, in which our own cells are deemed dangerous. In this case the immune agency is the more powerful Th-1 system, which often causes crippling or even fatal results.  

Millions of people are sickened by an immune system that is supposed to defend them.

An article in the September 2021 issue of the Scientific American lists 76 of these disorders, and classifies them as to frequency, patient gender and age of onset. It is worth reviewing, at least for the listing on page 32 and 33.

Auto immunity must be considered as a possible cause in any illness that is not easily diagnosed, common, and well known to your doctor. Many patients have to be their own advocates, and persist in trying to get themselves diagnosed.

Celiac disease, Lupus, and Addison’s disease come to mind as tricky customers. Although “autoimmune disease” in toto is common, many of the individual diseases occur in less than one in 1000 patients, and are not high on the diagnostic list of most doctors.

The skin, nervous system, endocrine system, and digestive system are the most common areas involved. Recent advances in blood and antibody testing offers to give needed diagnostic help to the medical profession. These illnesses must be detected early to avoid functional loss in the tissues and organs affected.

Treatments are improving. In the past, immune suppressing cancer drugs and cortisone were the main drugs available. With increasing knowledge of the mechanisms of the separate diseases, treatment can be directed towards the specific causative antibody, receptor, or interleukin involved, hopefully with less side effects than the shotgun drugs previously available.

As with medicine in general, these modern treatments are excessively expensive as a rule, because much money and research went into their development. Prevention is obviously preferable. A healthy diet, with its attendant healthy microbiome comes to mind, as well as the avoidance of cigarette smoking and environmental toxins.

Proper sleep, exercise, and stress relief should also be helpful.

—Dr. C.

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Dr. C's Journal, Men's Health, Opinion, Women's Health

DR. C’S JOURNAL: SOME TIPS FOR CARE OF THE FEET

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When not walking barefoot at night or on the beach, my toes have been squeezed together most of my life. Closed-toe compression stockings for my varicose veins plus inadequate space at the front of my shoes have encouraged my big toe to “scissor” and to cross over the second toe. At that point I started wearing open-toe stockings, and tried to give my toes more room in larger shoes. I also used a spacer to push the big toe out.

Walking on the beach is a wonderful place to free up your toes. For a while, I walked in the deep sand at the top of the beach, trying to get more exercise. Periodically I would get some thorns in my feet, and go to podiatrist to get them out.

During one visit, the podiatrist told me that I was getting a hammer toe in the toe right next to my big toe, and I now use a little ring shaped cushion for that second toe, incorporated with a spacer.

It is amazing how little we use the musculature of our feet, and how surprisingly well they hold up. People that are really in good athletic shape stress flexibility as being very important, and athletes often do stretching exercises before they do their workout. Practically anything that will stretch a joint is helpful, such as flexing, extending, and spreading the toes, plus flexing and extending the foot.

You can overdo it, however, as I have learned to my discomfort. You must do any exercise within the limitations of your body, beginning slowly, and working up to your desired level.

My big toe has almost no flexibility, and the joint that attaches it to the foot is enlarged and pretty fixed. I am very careful how much range and pressure I use .Even something as simple as stretching the Achilles tendon can be a problem if you do too much of it all at once. Always work slowly into your exercises to make sure that you do no harm.

Ingrown toenails have also bothered me from time to time. I very carefully try to trim them back and avoid breaking the skin; the foot is easily infected, particularly among diabetics and older people. A podiatrist is very helpful if you let things go too far.

My toenails, particularly on my big toe, are getting white and thick with a nail fungus. This can be treated with an oral medication, dispensed by a doctor or a podiatrist. I have chosen to keep it in check with clotrimazole cream, and that seems to be working. I worry from time to time about creating a resistance factor in the fungus, but they are very slow growing, and not likely to develop a mutation.

If you would like further discussion on foot exercises, please check the following reference, one of many on the Internet.

—Dr. C.

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