Awareness

Unfortunately, Autoimmune diseases are commn affecting more than 23.5 million Americans. Yet certain people are at greater risk for some autoimmune diseases. For instance, type 1 Diabetes is more common in white people. Lupus [Infographic PDF] is most severe for African-American and Hispanic people.

Celebrities Living With an Autoimmune Disease

Autoimmunity Disease hits mainstream media when a celebrity uses their influence to raise awareness of their diagnosis.

Venus Williams was diagnosed in 2011 with Sjögren’s syndrome and had to drop out of the U.S. Open that year.

Selma Blair made headlines in 2019 when she accessorized her evening gown by carrying a custom monogrammed cane with a pink diamond. The year before, she had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

Christina Applegate also announced her recent Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis after experiencing increasing tingling and numbness of her extremities.

Lady Gaga's 2017 documentary shows the highs and lows of her living with Fibromyalgia.

When Selena Gomez was diagnosed with Lupus in 2013, she found herself in need of a kidney transplant.

Ted Danson has Psoriatic Arthritis. He manages his recurring back and hip pain through meditation, breathing, exercise, and diet.

Ashton Kutcher had Vasculitis that impaired his hearing, vision, and walking ability.

Recording artists Nick Jonas and Bret Michaels as well as Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor manage their Type 1 Diabetes with insulin.

Research and Advocacy

The exact cause of autoimmune disorders is unknown. One theory is that some microorganisms (such as bacteria or viruses) or drugs may trigger changes that confuse the immune system. This may happen more often in people who have genes that make them more prone to autoimmune disorders.

What we do know? More medical research is needed.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is the leading medical research institute studying the immune system. Treatments are available for many autoimmune diseases, but cures have yet to be discovered. Overview of the Immune System

National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP)

National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) is the leading medical research agency studying Arthritis and Rheumatic Diseases

ClinicalTrials.gov is a resource maintained by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It provides easy access to information on publicly and privately supported clinical studies on a wide range of diseases and conditions. Learn more about ClinicalTrials.gov or Find an Autoimmune Clinical Trial.

The Autoimmune Association is the world’s leading nonprofit organization dedicated to autoimmune awareness, advocacy, education, and research.

Global Autoimmune Institute is empowering solutions in the diagnosis and treatment of autoimmune disease (AD) through research, education, and community, while supporting multidisciplinary approaches to wellness. The organization makes available a list of medical institutions across the United States that specialize in diagnosing and treating various autoimmune diseases.

Book

Meghan O'Rourke delivers a revelatory investigation into this elusive category of 'invisible' illness that encompasses autoimmune diseases, post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, and now long COVID. Drawing on her own medical experiences as well as a decade of interviews with doctors, patients, researchers, and public health experts, O'Rourke traces the history of Western definitions of illness, and reveals how inherited ideas of cause, diagnosis, and treatment have led us to ignore a host of hard-to-understand medical conditions, ones that resist easy description or simple cures. And as America faces this health crisis of extraordinary proportions, the populations most likely to be neglected by our institutions include women, the working class, and people of color.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | FINALIST FOR THE 2022 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR NONFICTION

The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness | Meghan O'Rourke | Penguin Random House | 2022 | 356 pages | ISBN: 978-1594633799 | WorldCat |

Author

Meghan O’Rourke is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness and The Long Goodbye, as well as the poetry collections Sun In Days, Once, and Halflife. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, and The New York Times, and more. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Radcliffe Fellowship, and a Whiting Nonfiction Award, she resides in New Haven, where she teaches at Yale University and is the editor of The Yale Review.

Official Website of Meghan O'Rourke

Interview

Book

Pain Woman Takes Your Keys, and Other Essays from a Nervous System is a collection of literary and experimental essays about living with chronic pain. Sonya Huber moves away from a linear narrative to step through the doorway into pain itself, into that strange, unbounded reality. Huber addresses the nature and experience of invisible disability, including the challenges of gender bias in our health care system, the search for effective treatment options, and the difficulty of articulating chronic pain. She makes pain a lens of inquiry and lyricism, finds its humor and complexity, describes its irascible character, and explores its temperature, taste, and even its beauty.

Firecracker Award Finalist 2018 | Council of Literary Magazines and Publishers

Pain Woman Takes Your Keys and Other Essays from a Nervous System | Sonya Huber | University of Nebraska Press | 2017 | 204 pages | ISBN: 978-0803299917 | WorldCat |

Author

Sonya Huber is an associate professor of English at Fairfield University. Her award-winning work has been published in literary journals and magazines including The New York Times, Creative Nonfiction, Brevity, Fourth Genre, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and the Washington Post Magazine. 

Official Website of Sonya Huber

Book

Tessa Miller was an ambitious twenty something writer in New York City when, on a random fall day, her stomach began to seize up. At first, she toughed it out through searing pain, taking sick days from work, unable to leave the bathroom or her bed. But when it became undeniable that something was seriously wrong, Miller gave in to family pressure and went to the hospital—beginning a years-long nightmare of procedures, misdiagnoses, and life-threatening infections. Once she was finally correctly diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, Miller faced another battle: accepting that she will never get better.

Named one of BuzzFeed's "Best Books of 2021"

What Doesn't Kill You: A Life with Chronic Illness - Lessons from a Body in Revolt | Henry Holt and Co | 2021 | 320 pages | ISBN: 978-1250751454 | WorldCat |  

Author

Tessa Miller is a Brooklyn-based health and science journalist. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, New York magazine, Self, Vice, and Medium, among others. She was a senior editor at Lifehacker and the Daily Beast. What Doesn’t Kill You is her first book.

Interview