Autoimmune disease in the family

[everydayupsanddowns]

It does seem that once you have one autoimmune condition you are more likely to pick up another one unfortunately

 

[Leo]

So it seems from the posters on this thread. I’m at the lower and less annoying end of this... rhinitis & general fluffy/feathery animal allergy, low grade long past psoriasis, current dyshydrotic eczema, Granuloma annulare flares (apparently related to diabetes).

 

[nonethewiser]

Nobody in family had any, first one with diabetes, couple since but type 2.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Granuloma annulare

That’s intresting! My oldest intermittently gets ‘Granny Annie’ on her feet. Hadn’t heard there was any link to diabetes before.

 

[mikeyB]

It's only occasionally associated with diabetes (and thyroid disease) but is just as common in normals. It's a pest, but completely harmless. And treatable.

 

[Madeline]

Father - LADA
Me - LADA
Uncle and a daughter with SLE
Lots of thyroid disease in family, I have Hashimotos
Vitiligo (other daughter)
RA (grandmother, cousin)

Plus lots of allergies, don’t know if they count as autoimmune?

 

[PhoebeC]

My great gran, new all of her family history and most of my dads side, and most of my Mums too.
We don’t know of another one so that’s probably going back at least 150 years.
My brother was premature and then had awful childhood asthma but he has none now at all.
And that’s it. None of my cousins and there’s 10 of my generation and another, 3 the next generation have it.
There’s loads on my husbands side, his immediate relatives. Type 2, asthma, epilepsy, croyns, cancer, hay fever and all the males have heart issues.
So I don’t think he was healthy breeding stock really, and I worry about my daughter, so far she’s fit as a bean

 

[daducky88]

Blimey. Red hair is carried on a gene that is autosomal recessive, so you need both parents with that recessive gene to produce a red haired child. It's much commoner in Celtic populations, the irish are the leaders with 10% of the population, Scotland comes second. Edinburgh is the capital of Red Hair in Scotland. So what is your inheritance - Paddy or Jock?

Full fall Paddy. There's county load on my father's side. but mother's brother really looks like an extra from the Kirk Douglas film, The Vikings. Hmmm, I wonder if there were some long boat marauders in Ireland?

 

[daducky88]

Fascinating! I was diagnosed at 42 with no diabetes in the family (but a fairly long list of other annoying illnesses throughout my life such as asthma, vertigo and a propensity to catch any bug/ virus that I come into contact with!).

The women in my family tend to live into their 90s. My Nan was one of 9 and Grandad was one of 11. She lived until she was 93, and most of her sisters lived into their 80s (one is still going strong in her late 90s!) but Grandad was a coal miner from the age of about 15 and suffered from all of the illnesses associated with that noble, yet grim profession and died when he was in his 60s. On the other side Grandmother lived into her late 80s and her Dad lived until he was 97 (fought in WWI when he was 32 - lying about his age - and was alive when I was born!) The only autoimmune disease that we are aware of in the family is an aunt with ulcerative colitis.

In terms of redheads, my wife has beautiful red hair, something her brother who has jet black hair has teased her about since they were little. The rest of her immediate family don't have her hair or pale skin. There is Scottish lineage on her fathers side, with the odd redhead 'popping out' in every other generation. I was hoping our daughter would have the same hair colour, she was born with bright red hair, but at 3 years old it is a dark blonde. Thankfully we have found that she can tolerate the sun (unlike my wife!)

Ah red hair, its lovely.

 

[Leo]

Father - LADA
Me - LADA
Uncle and a daughter with SLE
Lots of thyroid disease in family, I have Hashimotos
Vitiligo (other daughter)
RA (grandmother, cousin)

Plus lots of allergies, don’t know if they count as autoimmune?

Allergies I think come under a sort of autoimmune response because it’s your own body attacking itself causing symptoms but not in the same way as an actual autoimmune disease (usually kicked off by a viral infection where the immune system T cells work to kill the infection but then goes a bit over the top and attacks and kills healthy cells ie Pancreas Beta cells in T1) that attack and kill off certain systems totally. I may be wrong... don’t quote me!

 

[Leo]

Full fall Paddy. There's county load on my father's side. but mother's brother really looks like an extra from the Kirk Douglas film, The Vikings. Hmmm, I wonder if there were some long boat marauders in Ireland?

Apparently Norwegian vikings went to Ireland in 793, Danish viks stuck to England and Scotland mostly. I’m rubbish at history so this might not be totally correct. I’m a ginge, so is mum (Irish) and sister and my dad (Scottish) his mum was a ginge. Gingerness although lovely has a f load to answer for!

 

[trophywench]

My big sis was a ginge and so apparently was our paternal grandma - however me the dark haired one got the T1. (OTOH ma, pa and sis all had cancer and so far, I haven't.)

 

[Leo]

My big sis was a ginge and so apparently was our paternal grandma - however me the dark haired one got the T1. (OTOH ma, pa and sis all had cancer and so far, I haven't.)

At least with T1 we can hope to manage it as best we can.... Cancer however is a bstard child all of its own. Thankyou for your reply TrophyWench x Oh and Btw and this may not be true at all but I read somewhere that people with autoimmune disease have less incidence of cancer possibly because of our naturally over reactive immune system. Might there possibly be a major perk to having autoimmune diabetes?! I have very little cancer in my family... 2 cases of prostate cancer, 1 case of breast cancer all on my mums side. Irish on my mums side so a very large family.

 

[trophywench]

@Leo - I continue to live in hope!! I don't actually care why I possibly haven't had the Big C, as long as it continues.

 

[Leo]

@Leo - I continue to live in hope!! I don't actually care why I possibly haven't had the Big C, as long as it continues.

Amen (Even though I’m not religious!)

 

[pm133]

It does seem that once you have one autoimmune condition you are more likely to pick up another one unfortunately

I didn't know that but it's probably worth me keeping an eye out for potential symptoms of other autoimmune diseases just in case.

@Leo - No family history of diabetes or autoimmune diseases for me. Pretty sure I got type 1 diabetes after a virus I picked up in 2016 which I never felt I fully recovered from.

 

[Leo]

@Leo - No family history of diabetes or autoimmune diseases for me. Pretty sure I got type 1 diabetes after a virus I picked up in 2016 which I never felt I fully recovered from.
[/QUOTE]
Me too. Weird stomach bug for a week then 6 weeks later diagnosed with LADA.

 

[helli]

When I was diagnosed with T1, in my 30s, I asked my Mum if there was any history in the family. She thought long and hard and eventually came up with an aunt who I hd never heard of. So, my Mum went through the she was married to your grandmother's brother lark. Then we realised, she wasn't a blood relative. No diabetes history in either side of my family.
There is a history of Reynaud's - my grandmother, mother and me - which could be autoimmune.

As for redheads, my gran used to tell us the reason she married my grandad was so she would have children with his lovely ginger hair. As a young child, I found this strange because he was bald ... and had two dark haired children. I inherited the gene and was plagued with red hair as a child. Plagued, not because of the direct name calling but because all my friends' parents would tell me how lovely it was which, as a teenager, was not cool. I eventually grew to like and identify with it. Now, I dread going grey because I will lose part of my identity.

 

[Annemarie]

Oh isn’t it SO good to start the day with a laugh! Plus, in my case, some curiosity about our family milkman. I can remember he had a strange stale milk smell (not surprisingly) and ginger hair. Both our parents had dark brown hair, but my brother and I were both very blond. His hair was always a strawberry blond and in his 40s his beard was mostly ginger. He died around then so I never saw if he gradually went ginger instead of grey. Mine stayed an ash blond until the ash took over completely.

 

[trophywench]

My big sis went blonde rather than grey - suited her, then with the extra chemo it went curly before dropping out, when she had it more or less shaved off (exceptionally short crew cut) and my BiL told her she looked like their son. Daft Twerp - Andy looks like my sis!!