Women and Autoimmune Disease
The Mysterious Ways Your Body Betrays Itself
Chapter OnePart One: What Is an Autoimmune Disease?
For most of us who go about the everyday tasks of work,
shopping, or life in general, the immune system does not
seem particularly remarkable. Why would it be? Few
movies of the week have been made about it. There are no weekend
telethons on its behalf. It does not have a star such as Britney Spears
anxious to attach her name to it, nor does Katie Couric remind us to
have it checked every year, or two, or five.
No, it is just there, doing its job of protecting us from the, oh, say
5 or 6 billion molecules of viruses, bacteria, parasites, pollutants, and
germs to which we open our doors—not to mention our mouths—
every single day of our lives. When things are going smoothly, we are
all a bit guilty of a laissez-faire attitude about the immune system. Ah,
but let something go awry and watch out! Now it has our attention.
And well it should.
We cannot live, at least not very well, without our immune systems.
The immune system is the body's natur ... read full excerpt from Women and Autoimmune Disease MSR ebook