Health Blurbs

Your connective tissue is a fibrous material that provides supportive structure to your body tissue and organs. It’s what gives you shape, holding the framework of your body and cells together.

Your connective tissue is mainly composed of two structural proteins, collagen and elastin. For many connective tissue disorders, an immune system response, directed against your own connective tissue, causes inflammation that damages your collagen and elastin.

Thus, falling under the category of an autoimmune disease.  Some of the better known autoimmune connective tissue disorders include:

• lupus
• scleroderma
• Sjogren’s disease
• rheumatoid arthritis
• Raynaud’s syndrome
• polymyositis, dermatomyositis
• mixed connective tissue disease
• vasculitis, temporal arteritis, Wegener’s granulomatosis

The cause for your immune system to turn on the body its designed to protect is unknown.

Autoimmunity is not the only basis giving rise to a connective tissue issue.  A couple connective tissue diseases have a genetic component cause involved, like:

• homocystinuria
• Marfan syndrome
• osteogenesis imperfecta
• Ehlers-Danlos syndrome

Cellulitis is a connective tissue disorder caused by an infection. Also, human parvovirus may trigger a couple autoimmune connective tissue diseases. And scars are a connective tissue disorder caused by an injury.

Oftentimes, the initial symptoms for an individual connective tissue disorder overlap with those of another, such as fatigue, fever and weight loss. So sometimes, the diagnosis of undifferentiated connective tissue disease may be given until a more defining set of symptoms appear.

A connective tissue disease can manifest itself via a myriad of symptoms that indicate various parts of your body are being affected. For instance, here are a couple areas and just some corresponding symptoms:

• joints ~ arthralgia, arthritis
• vascular ~ thrombosis, vasculitis
• nervous system ~ seizures, neuropathy
• muscles ~ muscle weakness, myalgia, myositis
• eyes ~ dry eyes, conjunctivitis, ocular inflammation
• salivary glands ~ dry mouth, salivary gland enlargement
• lungs ~ dyspnea, orthopnea, cough, wheezing, chest pain
• heart ~ angina, chest pain, dyspnea, orthopnea, edema, pericarditis
• skin ~ purpura, alopecia, skin tightening, hives, angioedema, photosensitivity
• gastrointestinal ~ anorexia, dysphagia, indigestion, abdominal pain, nausea & vomiting, hematemesis, jaundice, diarrhea

Connective tissue disorders do not break out in a repetitive symptom fashion.  So finding a “good” rheumatologist, the health care specialist versed in these diseases, could make a difference for early diagnosis and treatment.

Mixed connective tissue disease is a rare disorder that causes symptoms of lupus, scleroderma and polymyositis. Occurring most often in women, and typically diagnosed as a young adulthood.

Symptoms of the three diseases, combining into mixed connective tissue disease, usually don’t appear at the same time.  Lupus is often the first diagnosis, with correction made as your disease progresses.

As with other connective tissue disorders, mixed connective tissue disease doesn’t have a distinct set of symptoms either.  Usually you’ll experience vague symptoms of lupus, scleroderma and polymyositis, like:

• fatigue
• joint pain
• mild fever
• joint swelling
• swollen fingers
• muscle weakness
• Raynaud’s phenomenon

The most often affected tissue with this, as well as other, autoimmune connective tissue disorders is your blood vessels.

Autoimmune connective tissue disorder development can arise slowly or swiftly.  And you may go through health oscillations between periods of remission and flares.  Feeling healthy today, but perhaps not the next.

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