Health Improvements Abound

Autoimmune disease is now the third major category of illness in the
U.S.:
Seventy-five percent of those affected are women.
By Eileen Vennum, RAC
According to the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association, Inc.
(AARDA), autoimmune disease is now the third major category of illness
in the United States and many industrialized countries, following heart disease
and cancer, and it is the fourth leading cause of disability among women in
the United States. AARDA estimates that 20% of the U.S. population, or one
in five individuals, suffers from some form of autoimmune disease. The
majority (approximately 30 million in the U.S.) of those affected are women.
Autoimmune disease is a category of diseases that includes more than 80
serious, chronic illnesses that are triggered when the body's immune system
mistakes its own tissue as foreign.

It then attacks its own cells and tissues, causing various diseases that involve almost every human organ system, including nervous, gastrointestinal, endocrine, skin, connective
tissues, eyes, blood, and blood vessels. Because symptoms vary so widely, diagnosis is often difficult. Some of the more familiar diseases thought to have an autoimmune
component include ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, rheumatoid and juvenile
arthritis, scleroderma, psoriasis, pernicious anemia, multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), insulin dependent (Type I) diabetes, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, autoimmune hepatitis, and cardiomyopathy. These conditions are chronic and debilitating, and often no effective glyconutrient treatment is available.