Who here believes that they aquired their AI disorders through genetics or by lifestyle? (Smoking, sugar subs, diet......)
My feeling is this. Everyone has cells in their bodies for certain diseases. It's in their DNA. For some reason it is or isn't triggered during your lifetime. Kinda like roulette. I can't blame my RA on anything I have or have not done. It just happened.
I don't believe my lifestyle or diet has caused any of my illnesses, but may sometimes exacerbate them.
I firmly believe in the theory that we are genetically predisposed and then an infection triggers the disease. Right before the fibromyalgia started, it was 5 occurences of severe strep throat in a row. Right before the RA started, it was a badly infected and ruptured appendix.
i sort of did , i have been an asthmatic since birth but like many teenagers took up smoking . smoked heavily in my teens, twenties , thirtees. had numerous times in hospital with asthma but still kept smoking then at 37 had the flu .started to get better got it again . then again . still smoking . well my lungs finally had enough and i had a severe asthma attack. i passed out and woke up 10 days later from being in an induced coma . i had literally died a few times when they had attepted to revive me . i had to learn to walk etc all again and was in extreme pain. had depression with post traumatic stress dissorder and the pain never went away. the doc finally sent me to a rheumatologist and she diagnosed psoriatic arthritis the same day. so you could say smoking plus the flu started the arthritis.InnerGlow summed it up for me. I know that I am genetically pre-disposed to RA. Goes way way back on the maternal side of my family. All it took was that infection to activate it in me. Mine was pneumonia. Danielle's was a sinus infection.
So far I have 2 girls with RA. 2 down 1 to go. UGH!!!! We are hoping it holds off until adulthood with my 15 year old. But as it looks now...she will most likely develop it. It will be a family affair at my rheumys office. UGH.
oh plus it was genetically also with a history of proriasis and psoratic arthritis in the family .I got mine through in-utero DES exposure for miscarriage by my Mom - and it eventually killed her because she never recovered after being given the DES. i got ra going through a really difficult period of my life that lasted about 5 years, stress, stress and more stress. my immune system went clearly wonky, as for the first and only time in my life i got some really nasty infections, sinus , chest, etc. the like i've never before nor since. i was going to come down with something, it just happened to be RA.I'm with Grammaskittle. I was pre-disposed to RA and an infection triggered it. For me it was a virus which caused me to sleep for a week, literally.
My paternal grandmother has RA and my maternal great grandmother had it. My maternal grandmother has MS and my maternal aunt has MS as well, although, interestingly enough, my consultant said that MS and RA bare no relation to each other and one should not have any influence on the likelyhood of developing the other.
I don't know about a trigger. I was fine. I never get sick. One day RA just hit me. And no one in my family has RA, but my uncle had lupus. Don't know if that has anything to do with me though.I am still coming to terms with PA, and have thought back. I did try to "get off" an antidepressant and had a violent reaction to that, but my family also suffers from severe depression. I guess it was at that time that my whole health condition went down hill very quickly. I went from taking an antihistamine and paxil to taking HBP meds, and then noticed my hands swelling and not being able to hold on to things. The psoriasis I have had since I was about ten. My father just recently passed away with undiagnosed PA, from a heart attack or stroke. I don't know, I guess it is both. I think it's genetic predisposition combined with an infectious trigger (plusBeing newly diagnosed with PA though have had symptoms for 4 years this is a question I have been asking myself a lot lately- did I do anything to trigger this? There's no PA, RA or any type of A in my family and the psoriasis only rocked up a couple of years ago. All I can think is that the first joint went 5 months after having my baby and 3 months before my relationship finally broke down. I have coped 'brilliantly' (an outider's view) with the single parent, full time work thing and never once cried nor so much as missed a beat. I am now wondering if the stress I have obviously been under finally came out in this way.
I do believe I must have a genetic pre disposition to this but also believe that had my experiences been different it may never have come out.