Autoimmune thyroid disease .?

im am hypothyroid , and iv'e just been diagnosed with autoimmune thyroid disease ,, what does this mean ?..... is it all combined or a different disease ,,im puzzled ..... hope someon can give me a good explanation ...thanks .....juls?

Autoimmune means that your body's immune system is attacking itself, in your case the thyroid gland.

It does this by recognizing certain protein strands and tagging it with antibodies. Then your body sends out it seek and destroy immune mediators to kill off the tagged protein structures.

Usually this is how your body defends itself from viruses, bacteria, fungi, ect. There is a problem with your tagging system that has caused your body to attack itself. Your body is tagging your thyroid when it should not.

This is usually diagnosed by testing for antibodies in blood work, as well as clinical symptoms.

How does this happen?

There is no one pin pointed cause. The most popular reason is because of some break down in your filtering system. You normally keep bad things out through things like your skin, gut lining etc.

If there is a problem with your gut, things get through that shouldn't, your body recognizes it as foreign, tags it and destroys it.

Sometimes the protein structures of the things that get through look like the protein structures that make up certain cells in your body. That is why you see some of the other post saying that this autoimmune disorder is related to other autoimmune disorders (diabetes, lupus, RA, etc).

It is really a problem with your filter, not your thyroid (or at least primarily the problem). Treating the thyroid might help somewhat, but it will not address the problem (in my example, the gut lining (filter) being disrupted).

I got more information on this and other thyroid problems on my blog.

It means that at some point in your life, your body produced antibodies that attacked your thyroid, causing it to slow down. It's usually called Hashimotos. Anyway, your body will never produce enough hormone again, and you'll be on replacements (synthroid) for the rest of your life.

what tests did the doc do to determine this,...
what is he doing for ya.........hashimoto is often seen along w/diabetes or lupus...did he check for this also....
thyroxine drugs should get ya right

My endocrinologist said that I have an autoimmune disease. First I got hypothyroidism and then premature ovarian disease. By body attacked my thyroid and then my ovaires. A person could have all of the pituitary gland organs affected or just one. Differs from person to person. Next could be the adrenal glands, growth hormone, pancrease, and mammary production. Speaking of the last, I tried to breast feed for 2 weeks and produced nothing and ended up with mastitis. So, that one was probably related somehow. The only treatment is to treat each disease s separately. With thyroiditis, the gland is usually swollen and depression/fatigue is more common.