What Happens Next?
Or rather once you have caught GBS or CIDP how does it attack you and cause the issues. This at least is known about.
How the immune systems works - The body creates antibodies to attack the antigens (antibody generators) in an invading cell, these are like a lock and a key see the diagram.
When an infection is found millions are produced (as opposed to the few "sentries" wondering around in normal times), these then attack the invading cells and neutralise it's effects. After a time the immune system stops producing these and things return to normal.
So in order to combat the illnesses listed above, the immune system creates antibodies that match the patterns and they then attack the bacteria and wipe it out, now it appears that sometimes these bacteria can be very similar in pattern to antigens of the nervous system, so the immune systems keeps sending out antibodies to attack these as well, so the sheath and axon etc are damaged/destroyed.
There are different cells in your body for different purposes for the immune system, two main ones seem to be relevant:
Interesting fact: antibodies belong to the family of large molecules called immunoglobulins - hence the IVIG!
Your immune system knows about internal and external cells, but in order to attack your internal ones, it must get very confused? Again there are theories and this does happen in a number of other diseases.
The one thing I do not understand is "Why me?". What I mean is if there are 1 in 10,000 of me getting this condition from a virus/bacteria/vaccine then why was I the one? There must be something different in me that triggered this that the other 9,999 don't have. This is also what the doctors/professionals don't know, unfortunately.
How the immune systems works - The body creates antibodies to attack the antigens (antibody generators) in an invading cell, these are like a lock and a key see the diagram.
When an infection is found millions are produced (as opposed to the few "sentries" wondering around in normal times), these then attack the invading cells and neutralise it's effects. After a time the immune system stops producing these and things return to normal.
So in order to combat the illnesses listed above, the immune system creates antibodies that match the patterns and they then attack the bacteria and wipe it out, now it appears that sometimes these bacteria can be very similar in pattern to antigens of the nervous system, so the immune systems keeps sending out antibodies to attack these as well, so the sheath and axon etc are damaged/destroyed.
There are different cells in your body for different purposes for the immune system, two main ones seem to be relevant:
- B-Cells - they are the military intelligence, that finds issues/invading antigen
- T-Cells - these are the soldiers that actually destroy the target, also known as killer cells
Interesting fact: antibodies belong to the family of large molecules called immunoglobulins - hence the IVIG!
Your immune system knows about internal and external cells, but in order to attack your internal ones, it must get very confused? Again there are theories and this does happen in a number of other diseases.
The one thing I do not understand is "Why me?". What I mean is if there are 1 in 10,000 of me getting this condition from a virus/bacteria/vaccine then why was I the one? There must be something different in me that triggered this that the other 9,999 don't have. This is also what the doctors/professionals don't know, unfortunately.