My Dad has Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I am looking for a link to any auto immune problems in my family as i seem to be the first. Surely there is some history i don't know about for example, i have found on a web-site that auto-immune problems are apparently 2-fold more likely from the father rather than the mother. So if in fact my father has an auto immune disorder then it would explain alot for me.
Apparantly so, http://www.biblelife.org/bowel.htm
Jennee -
I don't hold with the Autoimmune Theory of TH1 diseases. I'm in the Infectious Disease camp. My mother has had IBS for as long as I can remember and has been going thru tests hoping to start on Minocin for it soon. (Her doc is stalling).
You might run a search on mycoplasma and IBS - myco's have been linked to a lot of these diseases. If there is heart disease in your family this is probably where it started.
Pip
Do you mean that auto-immune disease in general are passed down, or specific diseases? My uncle (dad's side) had lupus, I have RA. I haven't seen one doc that was interested in that.
That diet at Tinker's link looks an awful lot like the Atkins diet. High fat, low carb. My husband does that.
I feel there is a genetic link in auto immune disease. How else do you explain most of my relatives on my maternal side of the family having RA and now 2 out of 3 of my girls have it. Maybe we are just freaks. LOL. You have two girls with it? I thought it was just the one, Danielle. How old were they when they were diagnosed? Were you just a girl when you were diagnosed too?Hi Jennee, I'm more and more confinced we have multiple reasons for our health 'problems' and probably even good health. My family history is, my grandmother died a horrible death , in an old fashioned nursing home, from this disease, so I saw with my own eyes what this does to people. I also have cousins with it!! (fortunately for us we have so many better medications to help us, now!). Stupidly, when my feet started swelling, cramping and I couldn't walk I still wasn't convince it was RA, like she had. I struggled with biggr shoes, 0 orthotics to take the pressure off of the front bottom of my foot, cut HOLES in inserts and kept going to diff. doctors who said the same thing 'YOU have arthritis (RA). Finally I listened ,(5 years!) got treatment and was fine for 10 years.
But who knows that a bout with the flu virus didn't trigger 'it'? I sure can't remember what happened to me previous to the original foot swelling.
Just last year, in December I had Pneumonia, before the Mitral valve heart surgery, so I asked my doctor just Yesterday 'could the P have contributed to my RA mega flare'? He said ,'something' sure sent your immune system into this big flare!! I ws blaming it on the heart valve operation stress, but who knows the Pneumonia (as some one mentioned on this great, wonderful forum!!! thank you) contributed to their disease and maybe it did to mine?. Maybe my doctor will re-think my treatment? I asked if he would treat me differently if it ws from the Pneumonia? He didn't sound real sure. I hope he's thinking aobut it!
thanks for the post, I'm sorry I rambled on about what 'you didn't ask' your father's condition does sound serious and maybe someone hear knows more about it. Lynda
Danielle is 12 and was just diagnosed this April. Our oldest daughter was 21 when she was diagnosed. She is now 22. I was diagnosed when I was 26. I will be 39 on Friday. The pattern in my family is that the RA is developed in adulthood. So Danielle being diagnosed at such a young age came as quite the shock to all of us. But if you really look at things....it is starting to rear it's ugly head at a younger and younger age. I personally feel that has a little to do with environmental issues.
Hi
I don't think IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) is autoimmune but IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease i.e. Crohn's, Colitis) is definately. These disorders all run in my family and they are all different.
My grandfather is in a wheelchair due to severe dermatomyositis and other complications with no definate disgnosis. He spent 16 years in the hospital when first diagnosed. My Aunt has Lupus. My mother has Lupus, Colitis, and is undifferentiated spondylitis. Myself (and so far the only one out of 14 grandchildren) has RA, Crohns, IST, and possibly AS ( I have a spinal MRI in two weeks). I think a compromised immune systen is passed on instead of specific conditions (at least thats how my family history has played out)
Good luck
I think IBS and IBD are more closely linked than we think. Maybe IBS is an early-stage IBD. Crohn's is definitely "autoimmune." I agree that we have a genetic predisposition to these diseases. I also agree with Pip that infection/mycobacteria triggers the disease. I also think that if one rids the body of the mycobacteria, the immune system should settle down.
I agree that a compromised or "allergic" immune system is passed down. I have much allergies, asthma, diabetes, RA, scleroderma, etc, in the family.
Sorry about your father. Take care, Karin
"Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a collective term that refers to chronic, autoimmune, inflammatory diseases of the bowel, mainly ulcerative colitis and Crohn ‘s disease, although IBD may also be referred to as colitis, enteritis, ileitis, and proctitis.
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common functional gastrointestinal disorder causing increased contractions or spasms of the colon or rectum. In people with IBS, the colon is more sensitive and contracts more readily than it does in other people. IBS is a syndrome or collection of symptoms rather than a disease."
http://autoimmunedisease.suite101.com/article.cfm/bowel_diso rders_ibs_and_ibd
Grammaskittles - in my family as well each generation has been hit at a younger age. I wonder why that is.....So, Gramma, are you the first in your family to have it? I wonder how many people on this board are the first. How does Danielle handle it? Does it help alot that her big sis has gone through it, and her mom too? I hope it helps her, I would guess that she looks up to her sister?
Sorry all (and Sarah)
I think Karin hit it on the head when she said maybe IBS is early IBD. Does anybody remember that article I posted about diabetes? I'm reposting it here. IF type 1 and type 2 are more similar than even docs and researchers thought - why wouldn't it be so for IBS etc? I think type 1 is rapid onset and for some reason type 2's can fight off the infection longer before needing to go on insulin injections. And I do know there is a stunning amount of research out there about infection now being linked to IBS.
Also, a bit off topic, but has anybody considered the amount of additives in the food and various products that may lead to earlier and earlier incidences in families of an AI disease. I can give you a bizarre example. There was a report on Mercola's site I think about researchers linking adult shampoos and conditioners with a case of 2 childern (5 and 7, I think) developing hair and starting into puberty. The docs were trying to figure out what caused it and eventually linked it to the shampoos. One made sense - the shampoo contained placenta. But the other was a lot more innocous. It was lavendar. Yep - anybody look at the most common ingredient in children's shampoos lately? I did. Maybe why our daughters are starting mense at 9 and 10 years old these days is as common as that. And, we know how delicate the endrocrine system is, and how it influences our diseases (after pregnancy or heading into peri-menapause).
Pip
P.S. I LOVE the part about 'putting the researchers thru a rigorous review process". Sounds like AP doesn't it? LOL
Oh no I am way not the first in my family to have it. Goes way back. Only way back I don't think they actually had a name for it. I still have memories of a great aunt that had it.
Danielle handles it pretty well. She went thru the normal shock of dx and the issues that surround adjusting her lifestyle that we all go thru. There are still times she gets extremely frustrated with everything but we talk it out. Our biggest issue with her is getting her to be compliant with her meds. That was and sometimes is a big struggle.
I believe that environmental issues and some of the issues that Pip mentioned have something to do with each generation getting this crud earlier if it runs in families.
Sorry all (and Sarah)
I think Karin hit it on the head when she said maybe IBS is early IBD.
[/QUOTE]Ah, Jennee -
Have you looked into www.roadback.org or www.cpnhelp.org.
As one of the posts on the Roadback said - 'where would we be with out the Internet?' And another APer wrote back "we'd be dead".
Got to love the humor!
Pip