Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome: This Little-Known Autoimmune Disease is a Quiet Killer of Women

This article is a transcript of the video done on this topic, where AC Content Producer Joni Lambert explains about this little-known diseaes that changed her life.

What is Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome?

Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome. I know that's a mouthful. It's an autoimmune disease, like lupus or Multiple Sclerosis. It's in the same family as those. Like other autoimmune diseases, it works like this: Everyone has an immune system and it's supposed to attack foreign invaders in the body that try to make it sick like germs and bacteria and so forth. What happens with a person with an autoimmune disease is that their immune system is very, very confused and instead of attacking just the foreign invaders that can make you sick or cause you illness, it starts attacking healthy tissue. The different autoimmune diseases can do that in different fashions. Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome causes the body to over produce certain antibodies in the blood and it causes the blood to become thick. "Sticky blood" is a nickname for this disease, actually. And that leaves you at risk for a lot of different problems.

What are some common issues for APS patients?

First off, most APS patients are women. It seem to go after women in the vast majority of cases. Issues include:
-Recurrent miscarriages and problems with pregnancy is extremely common.
-Deep Vein Thrombosis, blood clots that can cause loss of limbs, and death
-Strokes are common
-Heart Attacks
-MS-like symptoms, such as tingling and numbness of the fingers
-Hearing loss
-Blindness
-Organ failure
-Neurological symptoms
-Skin issues
-Mental health problems
-Tremmering and shaking
-Heart valve disease

That's just part of the list. You've got to figure if your blood is messed up it can pretty much do whatever it feels like anywhere in your body.

How is APS Diagnosed?