There are more than 100 autoimmune conditions, and many tend to have generic symptoms. As a result, most patients spend three years and visit four doctors, on average, before getting an accurate diagnosis. Nelson Kraucak, MD, FAAP, at HealthCare Partners Family Medicine have years of experience getting to the source of your symptoms and offering holistic care to provide relief and get you back on the path to a healthy life. To learn more about treatment for autoimmune conditions, call the office in The Villages, Florida, or schedule an appointment online today.
Autoimmune Conditions Q & A
What causes an autoimmune condition?
Your immune system keeps you healthy by identifying and eliminating germs, viruses, and other harmful substances that get into your body. An autoimmune disease develops when your immune system malfunctions and identifies part of your body as a danger to your health.
When that happens, your immune system attacks your own tissues, causing damage, inflammation, and a range of symptoms associated with autoimmune conditions.
Am I at risk for autoimmune conditions?
The most significant risk for developing an autoimmune disease is being a woman. While men develop autoimmune diseases, it’s estimated that women represent 75% of patients diagnosed with an autoimmune illness.
Autoimmune diseases also tend to run in families, yet you may not develop the same condition as another family member. You could have several family members who each have a different autoimmune condition.
Being overweight, smoking, and certain medications are also associated with a higher risk of autoimmune diseases.
What symptoms develop due to autoimmune conditions?
As a group, most autoimmune conditions cause symptoms that include:
- Fatigue
- Inflammation
- Muscle aches
- Joint pain and swelling
- Abdominal pain
- Digestive problems
- Skin rashes
- Insomnia
Some autoimmune conditions have their own set of symptoms. For example, Sjogren’s syndrome attacks glands that produce saliva and tears, causing dry mouth and dry eyes.
How do you treat autoimmune diseases?
The team at HealthCare Partners Family Medicine offers holistic, integrative options for autoimmune diseases, including injections of peptides called sequence amino acid modulators.
Peptides are composed of short chains of several amino acids joined together to form the specific amino acid sequence needed for proper binding of these peptides to the binding sites. Some peptides regulate the activity of your immune system. For example, peptides may generate regulatory cells that help block the immune response causing your condition.
When your provider at HealthCare Partners Family Medicine prescribes peptides, they may keep your autoimmune disease in remission.
Since peptides are natural, non-drug treatments, they can treat autoimmune conditions without causing side effects. The team at HealthCare Partners Family Medicine treats the following autoimmune disorders with peptides:
- Allergies
- Chronic fatigue
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Colitis
- Systemic lupus
- Thyroiditis
- Uveitis
- Pulmonary fibrosis
- Myasthenia gravis
- Pernicious anemia
- Atrophic gastritis
- Addison’s disease
- Goodpasture’s syndrome
- Pemphigus
- Autoimmune hemolytic anemia
- Hepatitis A, B, and C
- Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura
- Idiopathic leukopenia
- Sjogren’s syndrome
- Dermatomyositis
- Scleroderma
- Post myocardial infarction
To learn more about your treatment options for autoimmune conditions, call HealthCare Partners Family Medicine or schedule an appointment online.