In different autoimmune illnesses, pores and skin points is usually a secondary symptom. For instance, lupus generally presents with a butterfly-shaped rash on the cheeks after immune cells in your pores and skin react to UV mild. The rash may also flare up for no cause in any respect. Even some gastrointestinal circumstances could cause pores and skin issues, too. “With celiac illness, an intestinal autoimmune dysfunction, you may get a attribute pores and skin rash,” Dr. Rajapaksa explains. That’s as a result of in case you have the dysfunction, your immune system sees the gluten protein in wheat and different meals as an invader. So once you eat it, your immune system goes a bit haywire and assaults wholesome components of your physique—and yep, that may embody your pores and skin. All of this spurs irritation which may result in well-known GI signs, like bloating, diarrhea, and constipation, but additionally itchy, blistery rashes on the elbows, knees, butt, scalp, or again.

4. Your intestine is critically struggling.

No one over the age of 15 goes to really feel *wonderful* after downing a Chili’s sampler plate with spicy margs, however recurring bowel issues can generally imply your immune system goes into assault mode in your digestive tract, Dr. Rajapaksa says. Once more, this might be associated to one thing like celiac illness—she notes {that a} large chunk of individuals don’t even understand they’ve it, mistaking fixed constipation or diarrhea for regular lavatory pains.

Ulcerative colitis (UC), which causes continual irritation and sores (most frequently within the rectum and colon), and Crohn’s illness, which might have an effect on any a part of the intestines, are two different autoimmune-related biggies, per Dr. Rajapaksa. Each UC and Crohn’s are inflammatory bowel illnesses that may trigger debilitating fatigue, diarrhea, belly ache or cramping, bloody poop, and generally weight reduction.

It’s necessary to notice that lots of issues could cause intestine issues (like stated sampler plate and even irritable bowel syndrome, which isn’t autoimmune-related). However should you’re sprinting to the lavatory and it’s critically messing along with your high quality of life, it’s price flagging to a doc.

5. You’re having bother processing info, you might have recurring complications, or your imaginative and prescient appears off.

In line with Dr. McAlpine, when your immune system assaults your nervous system (as is the case with MS), it will probably trigger some fairly unsettling neurological results. You may really feel a little bit foggy generally: Analysis reveals that folks with MS usually tend to have problem processing info and have a more durable time remembering issues. The situation may also make you liable to continual migraine or frequent stress complications, research counsel. Non-neurological autoimmune illnesses, like lupus, psoriasis, and rheumatoid arthritis, may also trigger cognitive points.

One other sizzling spot for autoimmune assaults is the eyes. In case your imaginative and prescient begins to alter all of a sudden or for seemingly no cause—significantly if it’s blurry otherwise you’re seeing double—that’s a symptom to flag to your physician, Dr. McAlpine says. Tremendous dry eyes can sign one thing is unsuitable, too: It’s one thing 66-year-old Eileen Bailey from Pottstown, Pennsylvania, skilled earlier than she was identified with Sjögren’s syndrome. “I had dry eyes and a dry mouth, however I simply drank water and used eye drops. I didn’t join it to a medical drawback,” she tells SELF. However when Bailey would raise her arm, she’d usually wince with ache. When she flagged this concern to a health care provider, the connection to her different signs lastly surfaced.

6. You expertise any of those signs in an on-again, off-again means.

Past the constellation of signs, there’s usually one main defining characteristic amongst lots of autoimmune illnesses, says Dr. McAlpine: flare-ups. It’s frequent to undergo durations once you really feel completely nice, after which have weeks or months with signs. “That relapsing-remitting sample is frequent throughout lots of [these diseases],” she says. For instance, in a Crohn’s illness flare-up, you may all of a sudden get painful gastrointestinal points (pressing bowel actions or cramps) that pop up for seemingly no cause in any respect. In the meantime, in case your autoimmune illness predominantly causes ache (like in RA), your joints may get inexplicably swollen or stiff even should you felt completely nice a number of weeks prior.