Does autoimmune disease affect only one type of cellular tissue in the body?
Once a patient’s immune system has got its wires crossed and mistakenly seen one type of cell as ‘foreign’, it is more likely to make the same mistake again, against different types of tissue cells. In the case of autoimmune Addison’s disease, over 40% of patients also have Hashimoto’s autoimmune hypothyroidism, i.e. the patient also has produced antibodies against thyroid tissue. This is a recognised pairing of autoimmune diseases.
