Slate: Why women get more autoimmune diseases than men do

Mari · 09-03-2011, 12:53 AM

Hi,

Venus Williams dropped out of the US open due to Sjögren's syndrome.

Quote:

Venus Williams dropped out of the U.S. Open tennis tournament Wednesday, citing a recent diagnosis of Sjögren's syndrome, an autoimmune disease known to cause dryness of the mouth and eyes as well as fatigue and joint pain. Like most other autoimmune diseases, Sjögren's affects many more women than men. Why is that?

Slate tried to come up with an answer for why women are more likely than men to get autoimmune diseases than men do:

Quote:

A more recent explanation involves genetics. While men carry an X and Y chromosome, women carry two X chromosomes. And though most of the second X chromosome is "silenced," or deactivated, some of its genes are spared. As a result, women may express more genes from the X chromosome than men do, and a number of these play a major role in immunity. Some researchers believe this difference might explain at least some of the sex-bias in autoimmune disease.

That's a lousy explanation. 'Sounds like bs or double speak. They should have asked a geneticist so we could get an actual explanation and one that we can understand.

M.

EDITED to add the link: http://www.slate.com/id/2302917/

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