That's interesting that you mention ankylosing spondilitis, Becky. A friend of my sister's mother has this condition as well as crohn's disease. She was adopted, so she has been trying to track down her birth parents because of concerns that this might be passed down to her kids. It's also odd that she has this because the vast majority of patients are male.

I think that it's the way we deal with infections that might be at fault. I was reading that certain infections, like clamydia in the case of ankylosing and crohns, trigger the illness. For these conditions, I read that traces of clamydia can be found in the intestinal tracts and spinal fluid of many patients.

P.S. Sorry I never cite anything! I got this stuff from, 'what you're doctor may not tell you about autoimmunity.' It's so hot and the book is so far away right now! lol

Thought I'd bump this thread for any newbies interested in sharing!

I am the only one in my family who has an auto immune disease. I also have Hypothyroid and Thrombocytosis (blood disorder). However my Pulmo is checking me for RA and a few other auto immune diseases due to my respiratory problems. I haven't gotten the results of those back yet.
Kendra

I'm the only one in my family with an auto-immune disease.... I'm 51 and I know my grandparents didn't either.... although they are long gone.

Me: MG and minor chemical allergies
Mother: Severe chemical allergies

No one else in my family has autoimmune diseases and are generally healthy.


In my opinion, autoimmune diseases are mostly environmental and only slightly caused by genetics. I used to work with hazardous chemicals and regularly read the health effects from household chemicals and it made me not want to use any of them. We are poisoning ourselves! But of course it is too late to go back to my childhood when both me and my mother started getting chemical allergies.

often autoimmune diseases are clustered together. And the symptoms overlap one another, making it difficult to get an accurate diagnosis. Also, many people go there entire lives with out finding out which one they have. Autoimmune diseases like to hang out with each other in one body....sigh...unfortunately many have the same symptoms.
In my family we have RH, Diabetes, Asthma,thyroid issues, and I can't think what else.
I have many medical issues along with MG, but the rest of my family is pretty healthy, and my Mom's health is solid as a rock. No one with real chronic illness like myself. I've wracked my brains trying to figure out why I have all this, but I don't really know.
This is a good thread.
Love Lizzie

For my docs (and me) family history is absent which has positive and negative aspects.

I was adopted back in the days when birth mother's went to visit a distant relative in a far away state for no reason at all for about 6 months!! And many, many adoptive parents never told their kids that they were adopted.

At least I do know for sure that the medical history of the family I was raised in isn't my medical history. But other than my medical history, my family was/is as real as any genetic family in every way.

Sue

Grandmother Mothers side - Lupus & gout
Aunt on fathers side - Rheumatoid