In Good Health: The Complexities Of Autoimmune Disease

1A

NPR

News

4.3 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 18 July 2023

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

About one in ten people have an autoimmune disease, according to a population study of more than 2.2 million people. Autoimmune disease varies widely, and falls into subspecialties across the medical world: dermatology, gastroenterology, neurology , and more — and getting a diagnosis for an autoimmune disease can be long and difficult.

Autoimmune diseases affect women and women of color on a far more frequent basis. Lupus is one of these diseases, affecting African American women three times more than white women.

We discuss why the diagnostic process for an autoimmune disease is so complicated and why rates of disease are higher for women and women of color.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I recently did a little weekend get away with my five closest friends.
0:12.2	It's just a time to enjoy each other's company with a lot of good food and even more laughter.
0:18.2	Over the course of that weekend, it suddenly hit me that of these six black women, four,
0:24.5	have autoimmune diseases, in some cases more than one.
0:28.0	MS, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's, psoriatic arthritis, and one that doctors aren't yet able
0:34.8	to definitively diagnose.
0:37.3	And that realization got me digging.
0:39.3	Autoimmune diseases affect more than 24 million people in the U.S. and more often they
0:44.3	affect women and women of color at higher rates.
0:47.5	Women have autoimmune disease twice as much as men that's according to the National Institutes
0:51.7	of Health.
0:52.7	Getting diagnosed isn't easy.
0:54.7	It took one of my friends 20 years from the onset of symptoms to get her MS diagnosis.
1:00.3	And treatment, that can be tough too.
1:02.7	It's a hard and lengthy journey.
1:05.1	Here's what some of you shared with us about your experiences with autoimmune disease.
1:09.6	Hi, my name is Jennifer from New Jersey.
1:12.1	I have multiple sclerosis, better known as MS.
1:15.6	I was diagnosed when I was 28 and I am now 44.
1:19.5	My diagnostic process was a little lengthy.
1:22.0	I had numerous MRIs.
1:24.1	I think three different MRIs and a spinal tap.
	...

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