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Originally Posted by FAX
However, a lot of researchers specializing in auto-immune disorders believe that they are caused by the effect certain micro-organisms have on the white blood cells. Basically, the immune system is "tricked" into believing that "good" cells are "bad" and the immune system goes haywire and starts running around killing off the "good" stuff.
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Pretty close. The disease I have, chronic lymphocitic thyroiditis, aka Hashimoto's encephalopathy, is caused by my thyroid malfunctioning and causing my immune system to attack my brain. It damn near did me in about 1 1/2 years ago. It's a rare desease so it took a while for it to be diagnosed, meanwhile I was a babbling idiot in the hospital attacking everything that moved (did I mention it made me a tad aggressive?), once the figured out what the problem was I got steroid therapy which suppressed my immune system and allows me to function pretty much normally. I do have occasional relapses and I'm very succeptable to colds, rashes, and pretty much anything else.
I think MS is treated in pretty much the same manner. When I have a relapse I usually get steroid infusions alongside MS patients getting the same thing (solumedrol).