Immune system can attack the body it's supposed to protect BY
DR. KOMOROFF Universal Uclick Friday, December 07, 2012 12/07/12
at 4:53 AM Dear Doctor K: I keep hearing the term "autoimmune
disease." What does it mean? Dear Reader: In most people, the
immune system does a good job of protecting them from infection.
But sometimes the immune system mistakenly turns against the
very body it's designed to protect. When this happens, the
resulting conditions are known as autoimmune diseases. When the
immune system recognizes something as foreign, it attacks. The
immune system is like an army: It has many different types of
attackers, and it has a command structure. Certain cells (like
commanders in the field) order the attack to turn on and off. In
an autoimmune disease, the ability of the immune system to
recognize what is "self," or to turn off attacks that injure it,
must be defective. Infection with bacteria and viruses may play
a role. One reasonable theory is that infectious agents we
haven't yet discovered i