50 Fun Facts About Autoimmune Diseases

The autoimmune disease lupus takes its name from the Latin word for which animal?

Wolf is what lupus means in Latin: in the 13th century the disease's facial rash was thought to resemble the animal's bite.

Which protein, found in wheat, barley and rye, triggers the immune reaction behind celiac disease?

Gluten cannot be made safe by any pill: the only treatment for celiac disease is a diet that cuts it out for life.

Which singer, who has lupus, received a kidney from her friend, the actress Francia Raisa, in 2017?

Selena Gomez came close to disaster in the operation: one of her arteries ruptured, and surgeons replaced it with a vein taken from her leg.

Which rare neurological disorder did the singer Céline Dion announce she had been diagnosed with in December 2022?

Stiff-person syndrome affects about one person in a million, and its painful muscle spasms can be set off by a sudden sound or touch.

In type 1 diabetes, the immune system destroys the pancreatic cells that make which hormone?

Insulin was first injected into a patient in January 1922, when a teenager named Leonard Thompson lay dying of diabetes in a Toronto hospital.

Which US president was diagnosed with Addison's disease in 1947, a fact made public only years after his death?

John F. Kennedy was 30 and in his first term in Congress when a doctor at the London Clinic made the diagnosis.

Which group makes up about four in five of all people living with autoimmune diseases?

Women account for some 80% of patients, and for many the illness can be triggered around puberty or pregnancy.

Which tennis champion withdrew from the 2011 US Open after being diagnosed with Sjögren's syndrome?

Venus Williams pulled out before her second-round match against Sabine Lisicki; the condition brings fatigue and muscle and joint pain.

Which skin condition did Michael Jackson first publicly say he had during a 1993 interview with Oprah Winfrey?

Vitiligo is thought to arise when the immune system destroys the cells that make skin pigment; Jackson covered his patches with pale makeup.

Which British singer of Kiss from a Rose has facial scars left by a form of lupus?

Seal's scars come from discoid lupus erythematosus, a type of the disease that affects the skin.

Multiple sclerosis strips nerve fibers of which fatty insulating layer that helps them carry electrical signals?

Myelin damage leaves scars called plaques on the brain and spinal cord, and those scars are the sclerosis in the disease's name.

The classic lupus rash across the cheeks and bridge of the nose is commonly named after which insect?

Butterfly rash spares the creases that run from the nose to the corners of the mouth, which helps give it its winged outline.

Kim Kardashian has spoken publicly about which skin condition, marked by red patches topped with white scales?

Psoriasis puts skin on fast-forward: its cells are replaced every 3 to 5 days rather than the usual 28 to 30.

Hashimoto's disease, first described by a Japanese physician in 1912, slowly destroys which gland?

Thyroid tissue is gradually destroyed, which makes Hashimoto's the most common cause of an underactive gland in developed countries.

Which autoimmune disorder usually strikes the same joints on both sides of the body, most often the wrists and hands?

Rheumatoid arthritis brings morning stiffness that can last for hours, far longer than the brief stiffness of wear-and-tear joints.

Jada Pinkett Smith revealed in 2018 that she had which autoimmune condition, a cause of patchy hair loss?

Alopecia areata usually leaves round bald spots about the size of a coin, and in more than half of sudden patchy cases the hair regrows within a year.

The prefix auto- in the word autoimmune comes from the Greek word for what?

Self is the meaning of the Greek autos: an autoimmune disease is immunity aimed at the patient's own body.

Which star of Married... with Children and Dead to Me announced in 2021 that she has multiple sclerosis?

Christina Applegate stepped away from on-screen acting after the diagnosis, and in 2024 began a podcast about the illness with fellow actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler.

Which Y-shaped proteins, made to tag germs for destruction, wrongly lock onto healthy tissue in autoimmune diseases?

Antibodies directed against the body's own proteins are called autoantibodies, and blood tests that detect them help doctors work out which illness is at fault.

People with lupus are often told to avoid which everyday trigger that can bring on rashes and flare-ups?

Sunlight carries ultraviolet radiation, which is known to worsen lupus rashes; sensitivity to light is one of the signs doctors look for in diagnosis.

Celiac disease flattens the tiny finger-like villi that absorb nutrients along the lining of which organ?

Small intestine biopsies, tiny samples snipped from the lining, are used alongside blood tests to confirm the diagnosis.

Which autoimmune condition, diagnosed in President George H. W. Bush and his wife Barbara, can make the eyes bulge?

Graves' disease gave Barbara Bush double vision in 1989; her husband's diagnosis followed in 1991, after he developed an irregular heartbeat.

Addison's disease leaves the body short of cortisol after the immune system attacks which glands?

Adrenal failure can also darken the skin, especially in places that are regularly rubbed, which is a telltale sign of Addison's.

Pernicious anemia develops when an immune attack on stomach cells stops the body absorbing which nutrient?

Vitamin B12 is stockpiled so well that a healthy body holds three to five years' worth, so the attack can go unnoticed for a long time.

In which organ behind the breastbone are T cells that would attack the body's own proteins weeded out?

Thymus tissue does most of its work early in life: the organ grows until puberty, then shrinks in size and activity.

Multiple sclerosis becomes steadily more common the farther people live from which line on the globe?

The equator pattern is partly explained by weaker ultraviolet light at high latitudes, though the Sami and Inuit remain at low risk.

What term describes a period when a long-term illness such as lupus goes quiet and its symptoms ease or vanish?

Remission is what treatment aims for, because most autoimmune diseases are chronic and can be controlled but not definitively cured.

Prednisone, widely prescribed to calm autoimmune flare-ups, belongs to which class of anti-inflammatory drugs?

Corticosteroids taken for long periods can make the body temporarily lose the ability to produce its own, leaving patients dependent on the drug.

Which sleep disorder is thought to arise when the immune system destroys brain cells that make the chemical orexin?

Narcolepsy of this kind involves the loss of only about 70,000 neurons, an attack thought to be triggered in some people by H1N1 flu.

Which autoimmune condition blocks signals from nerves to muscles, causing drooping eyelids and double vision?

Myasthenia gravis weakness gets worse during physical activity and eases after rest; in some people it stays limited to the eyes.

Which rare paralyzing disorder, often following a gut or chest infection, begins with weakness in the feet and hands?

Guillain–Barré syndrome is provoked by Campylobacter, a diarrhea bug, in about 30% of cases, and most patients recover well with prompt treatment.

Which illness can follow untreated strep throat when the immune response to the bacteria damages the heart valves?

Rheumatic fever typically appears two to four weeks after the sore throat, and treating strep with penicillin lowers the risk.

In immune thrombocytopenic purpura, the immune system destroys which blood components, leading to easy bruising?

Platelets normally number at least 150,000 per microliter of blood; when the count drops below 20,000, nosebleeds and bleeding gums can follow.

Which drug, used to prevent and treat malaria, is also considered the first-line treatment for lupus?

Hydroxychloroquine was approved in the United States in 1955; in 2020 it was tried against Covid-19, but clinical trials found it ineffective.

Which injectable TNF-blocking drug led the list of the world's top-selling medicines from 2012 to 2016?

Humira, the brand name of adalimumab, was approved in the United States in 2002 and brought in $16 billion in global sales in 2016 alone.

Sjögren's syndrome dries out the body by attacking the glands that produce which two fluids?

Tears and saliva were both scarce in the patient who caught the attention of Swedish eye doctor Henrik Sjögren in 1930.

Which 1989 idea holds that too few childhood infections leave the immune system prone to allergy and autoimmunity?

Hygiene hypothesis began with hay fever and eczema, which David Strachan found were less common in children from larger families.

Which skin-hardening autoimmune disease afflicted the Swiss-born painter Paul Klee in his final years?

Scleroderma has no known cure, and when it proves fatal the cause is usually damage to the lungs, gut or heart.

The ANA blood test, used to help diagnose lupus, detects immune proteins that bind to which part of the cell?

Nucleus is what the N in ANA stands for, and the test helps diagnose several other conditions too, among them Sjögren's syndrome.

What term describes a germ's proteins resembling the body's own so closely that the immune response strikes both?

Molecular mimicry is the long-standing explanation for how a streptococcal throat infection can lead to an immune attack on the heart.

Shimon Sakaguchi shared the 2025 Nobel Prize in Medicine for identifying which peacekeepers of the immune system?

Regulatory T cells suppress other immune cells and so prevent autoimmune disease; Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell shared the prize.

Which common infection raised the risk of multiple sclerosis 32-fold in a study of 10 million US military personnel?

Epstein-Barr virus infects about 90 to 95% of adults and can cause mono, yet multiple sclerosis remains a rare complication.

The genetic marker HLA-B27 is closely tied to which inflammatory condition that can fuse the spine?

Ankylosing spondylitis can ossify the discs between vertebrae, giving the backbone an appearance doctors call bamboo spine.

Which German Nobel laureate coined the term horror autotoxicus for the body's supposed refusal to attack itself?

Paul Ehrlich carried such authority that his rejection of the idea hampered the understanding of later evidence for autoimmunity.

Which French neurologist, a teacher of Sigmund Freud, first recognized multiple sclerosis as a distinct disease?

Jean-Martin Charcot called the illness sclérose en plaques, and his list of three telltale signs is still known as the Charcot triad.

Which Georgia author of A Good Man Is Hard to Find wrote two novels and dozens of stories while living with lupus?

Flannery O'Connor lost her father to the same disease when she was 15, and it took her own life in 1964 at the age of 39.

In which country did pediatrician Willem Dicke see celiac children improve when bread ran short in a wartime famine?

The Netherlands went hungry in the famine of 1944–45, and Dicke set out the evidence against wheat in the thesis he published in 1950.

Which memoir by journalist Susannah Cahalan recounts a lost month of delusions caused by an autoimmune disease?

Brain on Fire describes how her doctor reached the diagnosis with a clock-drawing test normally given to people suspected of having dementia.

Which condition, often seen alongside lupus, turns the fingers and toes white and then blue in the cold?

Raynaud's phenomenon takes its name from the physician Maurice Raynaud, who first described it in his doctoral thesis in 1862.

Which drug, first made in 1947 to treat cancer, is now taken weekly in low doses to calm autoimmune joint disease?

Methotrexate is usually taken once a week, not daily, to limit its toxicity; it caught on in cancer care because it was less toxic than the treatments of the day.