I love the title of this blog post over at the Daily Kos. Sure, it is known for it’s political commentary but it does have other wonderful articles as well. Today, I stumbled upon an article written by Steven Andrew (I’m guessing) who also writes for the L.A. Examiner and goes by the name DarkSyde on Daily Kos. His article talks about autoimmune disorders, specifically Ankylosing spondylitis, which is another autoimmune disease which affects joints in the spine and the sacroilium in the pelvis, causing eventual fusion of the spine.

What I loved about this article is the explanation given for what triggers autoimmunity. It would be funny if it weren’t so serious. Well, okay, it is funny, particularly the first line.

All kinds of white blood cells and antibodies are ready to lay down their tiny lives for you at the first sign or marauding microbes or misbehaving cells. To do that effectively, they have to be able to distinguish between good cells and bad cells. If they’re too easy going, the bad cells might get an upper hand and suddenly you’re sick as a dog. If they’re too overzealous, they attack good cells and you have an autoimmune disease. So naturally, any enterprising bad guy has a powerful advantage if it can disguise itself as one of the good guys. Viruses and bacteria that can get past some portion of the immune system in this way are more likely to succeed and leave descendants. But the real masters of disguise are malignant (Cancer) cells: they completely fake out the bodies defenses with chemical disguises that tell the immune cells “Nothing here but us healthy cells doing our job, move along,” while deep inside they’ve gone into business for themselves replicating like mad, co-opting, invading, and eventually devouring nearby tissue and organs. There are constant evolutionary skirmishes going on between immune components and bad guys looking to fake them out. The immune system forever walks a fine line between ineffective and overactive.

It doesn’t end there folks, this guy has a way with words as he describes our living conditions, past lives — my words — and where we are today. It’s a must read for anyone looking to learn more about autoimmune disorders without all of the noise and disorderly conduct of medical terminology or med-speak.

So, go now. Go read it. This is a good one.

Link:

Daily Kos: Resistance is futile