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Newsroom Home Newsroom / Autoimmune Disorder Treatments HSS Doctor Offers Latest Treatments... and Compassion to Patients with Autoimmune Disorders Imagine waking up one morning and feeling achy all over. As days pass, the achiness doesnât go away, and you begin to feel tired, too. Your doctor canât tell you exactly whatâs wrong. So you go to a specialist, but the cause of your symptoms remains a mystery. Dr. Michael Lockshin, director of The Barbara Volcker Center for Women and Rheumatic Disease at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan, says the culprit is often an autoimmune disorder. Patients go from doctor to doctor, often for many months, until they are finally diagnosed with one of about 80 chronic illnesses that fall into the cateogory of rheumatic, or autoimmune, diseases. "You cannot underestimate the impact these disorders have on patients, 75 percent of whom are women," Lockshin notes. "The pain and other symptoms are compounded by the fact that they are often told itâs in their head." Autoimmune diseases affect more than 12 million Americans and usually strike without warning. They include rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and scleroderma, as well as a host of other ailments. Although these disorders are not well understood, what doctors do know is that the immune system the very mechanism designed to protect the body against disease turns on itself, attacking the joints, skin or other organs at random. | |
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