When Your Body Attacks: Living with an Auto-Immune Disease

Our bodies are complicated and beautiful thing. How cool is it that it can create people!!?! Most of the time, your body is working to fight off diseases and intruders. But for the 50 million Americans who have an auto-immune disease, the body attacks itself. An auto-immune disease occurs when your body decides that your healthy cells are foreign cells, so it attempts to protect you by attacking them. There are at least 80 different known auto immune diseases. If you have one, you are likely to develop another. Auto-immune disease can lead to cancer, and even death. They more common in women--75% of those who have auto-immune diseases are women.

I have an auto-immune disease. In fact, I have three. It started with a thyroid disorder, then led to hives, and Meniere's disease. I have lost my energy, my quality of life, my hearing, and my sense of normalcy. At one point my face would swell up and look like this:

Please be kind about this picture. It takes a lot of guts to post this on the internet.

Not good! I thought I would bring this up because I'm sure there are a lot of people here suffering from auto-immune diseases. I want you to know that you are not alone! There is no known cure for auto-immune diseases, but they can be managed through healthy habits. Through diet and natural supplements, I have been able to have a better quality of life. My face has gone back to its normal size (thank goodness). I would love to have a conversation about this epidemic that is likely affecting us all through ourselves and loved ones. Thanks for reading!