A new study has found that more than 32 million people -- or nearly 14% of the US population -- have autoantibodies in their bloodstream. Autoantibodies are proteins produced in the immune system that can attack the body's own tissues, glands, organs and cells. Autoantibodies are at the root of autoimmune diseases, attacking the body's own orogans, such as the joints (rheumatoid arthritis), the skin (psoriasis), the pancreas (type 1 diabetes), and the thyroid (Hashimoto's disease, Graves' disease), among many others. What the researchers found, in assessing samples from almost 5,000 people from the 1994-2004 U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) was that antinuclear antibodies (ANA), the most common autoantibody, showed up in almost 14% of the people studied.
The prevalence of ANA was slightly higher in African-Americans, compared to Caucasians. ANA levels increased with age, and were higher in women than in men. The peak prevalence for women was between 40 and 49 years of age.
"The peak of autoimmunity in females compared to males during the 40-49 age bracket is suggestive of the effects that the hormones estrogen and progesterone might be playing on the immune system," Linda Birnbaum, director of U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and an author on the paper.
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Take this Quiz: Could You Have an Autoimmune Disease?Source: NIH study shows 32 million Americans have autoantibodies that target their own tissues
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He led the charge for use of T3 as a thyroid treatment. He was a pioneer in understanding the connection between fibromyalgia and hypothyroidism. He fought against thyroid dogma, to advocate for patients. He was 