What Is Addisons Disease

Autoimmune diseases such as Addison’s Disease are those in which the powerful immune system of a person’s body turns on itself and attacks. Your immune system is designed to fight off attacks from viruses, bacteria, fungi, germs and parasites.

When your system is breached it sends out antibodies that attack the foreign bodies (illnesses) and send them packing. When the immune system believes that the body itself, or parts of it, are foreign in nature, it launches an assault on itself.

For the most part there is no underlying cause that has been found for just why this happens.  Although some genetic links have been discovered—in that a person who has a family member with some autoimmune diseases has a greater likelihood of contracting that disease than do others—a definitive link has yet to be named.  Some environmental and other high-stress life experiences also seem to be triggers for an autoimmune disease but again no exact cause has been pinpointed.

There is also no cure for these kinds of diseases and syndromes, but there are medications that can slow or alter the course of the illness and alleviate some of the more severe symptoms.  In other words, the medical community can treat a person with palliative measures, but cannot eradicate the illness from a sufferer.

Autoimmune disorders fall into two categories—systemic and localized. A systemic autoimmune disease will attack various organs and systems in the body while a localized one generally damages only one part of the body.  However, the line becomes blurred between the two categories as localized autoimmune disease spreads beyond the first organ or system damaged and begins to spread.

Addisons disease is one such autoimmune disease. It’s labeled as localized and is also called Adrenal Insufficiency.  This affects about 4 people per 100,000, spread equally between women and men and can hit at any age.

The adrenal glands, located on top of each kidney are under active and produce insufficient cortisol and sometimes aldosterone, both hormones that work in concert with other hormones produced by the hypothalamus and the pituitary glands to control many body systems. Once their production is disrupted it can cause major illness within the body.

In about 70% of patients suffering from primary adrenal insufficiency the cause is due to an autoimmune process and in the other 30% of cases it’s brought on by other illnesses such as tuberculosis, infections brought about by bacteria, viruses or fungi, adrenal hemorrhage or cancer that has spread to the adrenal glands.

So when the term Addisons disease is used to refer to primary and secondary adrenal insufficiency it’s being used incorrectly.  So although Addisons disease can be an autoimmune disease, it often time is not.