Page 54 - Prevention - USA (April 2020)
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H E A LTH
and the medical workup isn’t fitting what Even if your doc orders a blood test to
you’re feeling, it’s OK to ask for more.” see if you have high levels of antibodies
(which would signal that your immune
system was attacking healthy cells), it
can take years for those antibodies to
show up in big enough numbers to be
PROTECT YOURSELF
HEART DISEASE detected. “In many cases, autoimmune
Ask yourself if you have any diseases simmer along and it takes a
of these risk factors: certain level of damage to show up on
• A family history of heart issues our current testing,” says Fairweather.
• High blood pressure, diabetes, Women may also get brushed off for
or high cholesterol “exaggerating” their pain, she adds.
• An autoimmune disease like Because so many parts of the body can
lupus or rheumatoid arthritis be affected by an autoimmune condi-
• A history of gestational diabetes, tion, you might see a psychologist and
pre-eclampsia, or eclampsia two or more medical doctors. In an ideal
when you were pregnant world, all your providers will talk to one
All these up your chances of both another about your case. To make this
heart disease and stroke, so easier, try to choose a medical center
you’ll want to get a baseline heart- where physicians who specialize in
health checkup if you have any. complex cases work with one another to
figure out what’s going on with patients,
says Fairweather. “With autoimmune
It takes an average conditions, if you focus on just one
of five doctors and thing, you’ll never get a breakthrough.”
AUTOIMMUNE
nearly four years to
get an accurate auto-
DISEASES
immune diagnosis,
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and women make up
a whopping 75% of autoimmune disease AUTOIMMUNE DISEASES
sufferers, according to the American If you’re experiencing symptoms,
Autoimmune Related Diseases Asso- ask for a blood test that looks for
ciation. The tricky part is that things antibodies for the most common
autoimmune diseases—and make
like fatigue, mood changes, and pain
sure your doctor is open to contin-
are symptoms of countless conditions—
ual testing. Antibodies can indicate
including autoimmune ones—and often
several diseases. “Ideally, your
prompt a wait-and-see approach, says doctor will take blood every year
DeLisa Fairweather, Ph.D., the director to look at trends and narrow down
of translational research at the Mayo the possibilities,” says Fairweather.
Clinic in Jacksonville, FL.
52 PREVENTION.COM • AP R I L 2020
