Autoimmune Illness: Symptoms, Causes, and Related Conditions
What are Autoimmune Illnesses?
Autoimmune illnesses are conditions where the body’s immune system attacks its own healthy tissues. Instead of targeting infections, the immune response misfires, leading to chronic inflammation, tissue damage, and systemic symptoms.
There are more than 80 recognised autoimmune illnesses. They are chronic, often lifelong, and may affect almost any organ system. Around 4–5% of the global population lives with at least one autoimmune condition, with women more commonly affected.
Common Autoimmune Illnesses
Some of the most frequently seen autoimmune illnesses include:
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) – affects joints, leading to inflammation, stiffness, and deformity
Axial spondyloarthritis – affects the spine and sacroiliac joints
Psoriatic arthritis – linked to psoriasis, affecting joints and entheses
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) – systemic condition affecting skin, joints, kidneys, and more
Multiple sclerosis (MS) – affects the central nervous system, leading to neurological deficits
Inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis) – chronic inflammation of the digestive tract
Autoimmune thyroid disorders (Hashimoto’s, Graves’)
These conditions differ in their targets, but they share overlapping features that matter for rehabilitation.
Physiological Processes and Shared Mechanisms
Autoimmune illnesses vary widely, but most involve:
Loss of immune tolerance: the immune system no longer recognises self-tissues as safe
Cytokine-driven inflammation: pro-inflammatory molecules like IL-6, TNF-α, and IL-17 play key roles
Organ and systemic involvement: joints, skin, nerves, gut, or multiple organs may be affected
Chronicity: symptoms persist in cycles of flare and remission
Neuroimmune impact: chronic inflammation affects the central nervous system, driving fatigue, cognitive changes, and mood disturbance
Common Symptoms Across Autoimmune Illnesses
Although symptoms vary depending on the organ system, many people living with autoimmune conditions share a core set of challenges:
Pain: from inflammation, joint damage, or sensitisation of the nervous system
Fatigue: often out of proportion to activity, linked to immune activation and energy dysregulation
Brain fog: difficulty concentrating, slowed thinking, and memory lapses, often tied to inflammation and fatigue
Stiffness and reduced mobility
Mood disturbance, such as anxiety or depression, which often accompany chronic disease
Flare-and-remission cycles, making symptoms unpredictable
Less Common or System-Specific Symptoms
Skin rashes (e.g. lupus, psoriasis)
Digestive problems (Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis, celiac disease)
Neurological deficits (MS)
Endocrine symptoms (thyroid disorders, diabetes)
Organ involvement (kidneys in lupus, eyes in RA or IBD)
Comorbidities and Overlap
It is common for one autoimmune illness to coexist with another. For example, people with thyroid disease may also develop celiac disease or type 1 diabetes. Shared comorbidities include:
Cardiovascular disease (linked to chronic inflammation)
Osteoporosis (due to reduced mobility and steroid use)
Depression and anxiety
Chronic pain syndromes and sleep disturbance
Diagnosis
Diagnosis depends on the specific illness, but general tools include:
Blood tests for autoantibodies (ANA, rheumatoid factor, anti-CCP, anti-dsDNA, etc.)
Imaging to detect inflammation or organ damage
Specialist referral — rheumatologists, neurologists, gastroenterologists, or endocrinologists depending on presentation
Early detection remains critical for limiting damage and improving long-term outcomes.
What Autoimmune Illnesses Have in Common for Rehabilitation
Regardless of the specific diagnosis, most people with autoimmune illness struggle with:
Persistent pain (inflammatory and/or sensitisation-driven)
Fatigue that reduces daily activity
Brain fog and reduced concentration
Loss of mobility, strength, and confidence
This is where physiotherapy has a clear role. Exercise therapy — carefully graded and paced — is one of the few interventions shown to consistently improve fatigue, reduce pain sensitivity, and enhance function across multiple autoimmune illnesses.
Modern rehabilitation focuses not only on muscles and joints, but on:
Teaching pacing strategies to avoid boom-and-bust cycles
Using movement to retrain the nervous system and restore confidence
Supporting interoception, so the body learns to distinguish safe effort from threat signals
Integrating exercise with stress regulation, sleep support, and education
If you are living with an autoimmune illness in Cork and want to learn how exercise therapy and integrative rehabilitation can help you manage pain, fatigue, and brain fog, read more about autoimmune illness treatment and rehabilitation here.
Autoimmune Illness Treatment and Rehabilitation in Cork
Who diagnoses and treats autoimmune illness
Diagnosis and medical treatment are led by specialists. Rheumatologists, neurologists, gastroenterologists, dermatologists, or endocrinologists depending on the organ system. Your GP coordinates care and referrals. Rehabilitation is delivered by physiotherapists with input from psychology and nutrition when needed.
Management rather than cure
Autoimmune diseases are chronic. The medical goal is disease control and organ protection. Rehabilitation builds function and reduces symptom burden. International guidance across chronic pain and inflammatory disease supports exercise, education, and psychological therapies as core care, not extras.
The pillars of care
Optimised medical therapy from your specialist.
Exercise therapy and physiotherapy.
Education, pacing, and fatigue management.
Mind body work that regulates the stress response.
Sleep and lifestyle support.
Why exercise therapy is central
Regular, graded exercise changes immune signalling and nervous system sensitivity.
Mechanisms
Working muscle releases myokines. Exercise induced IL 6 triggers anti inflammatory cytokines such as IL 10 and IL 1ra and can suppress TNF alpha. This shifts the milieu toward resolution after training.
Training reduces chronic inflammatory markers including CRP, even without weight loss, and supports cardiometabolic health.
Exercise can rebalance immune cell profiles. Emerging trials show increased regulatory T cells and reduced Th17 activity after training, which is relevant across autoimmunity.
Repeated, tolerable loading reduces central sensitisation and improves pain inhibition pathways. Evidence in inflammatory rheumatic disease shows exercise and psychoeducation improve fatigue and function.
Clinical results
A 2024 systematic review across autoimmune diseases reports anti inflammatory effects of regular exercise training. Acute single sessions can be transiently pro inflammatory, which is why programming and pacing matter.
Reviews in musculoskeletal pain and rheumatoid arthritis show exercise reduces pain and fatigue and improves quality of life.
What this means in practice
Start at a level you can recover from.
Progress gradually in strength, aerobic capacity, and mobility.
Plan rest to avoid boom bust cycles.
Adjust around flares without abandoning the plan.
Pacing and fatigue management
Pacing spreads energy across the day and week to prevent crashes. Evidence in post viral and fatigue conditions shows improvements in key outcomes, with heterogeneity in methods. For autoimmune illness, we adapt the same principles to medication timing and flare patterns.
Why mind body and somatic practices help
These practices target the autonomic and interoceptive systems that shape inflammation, pain, and fatigue.
Mechanisms
Slow, diaphragmatic breathing raises vagal tone and heart rate variability. Higher vagal activity engages the cholinergic anti inflammatory pathway, which dampens cytokine release.
Mindfulness based training can reduce inflammatory biomarkers in some trials and improves coping and pain interference. Evidence is mixed but supportive.
Yoga therapy blends breath, attention, and graded movement. RCTs in rheumatoid arthritis report improvements in disease activity, HRV, and inflammatory markers alongside standard drugs.
Somatic methods such as Feldenkrais build movement variability and interoception. This helps the brain read internal signals more accurately and reduces protective over guarding. Early studies show reductions in pain and improved efficiency of movement.
Why this matters in autoimmunity
The stress system and immune system talk to each other. Better vagal tone and lower sympathetic drive support recovery.
Improved interoception teaches the body to distinguish safe effort from threat, which lowers pain amplification and anxiety around activity. Recent work links yoga with healthier Th17 Treg balance, a pathway central to many autoimmune diseases.
Pain neuroscience education
Education reduces fear and improves adherence to exercise. Pain neuroscience education explains why pain can persist without ongoing damage and how graded exposure changes the system. Trials and reviews show added benefit when PNE is combined with exercise, especially for psychosocial drivers like catastrophising and kinesiophobia. Butler, Moseley, and colleagues helped establish this field.
Psychological therapies that support change
CBT and ACT improve function, mood, and adherence in chronic pain. ACT helps people live by their values while symptoms fluctuate. Reviews show meaningful effects across pain outcomes.
Sleep and recovery
Poor sleep heightens inflammatory signalling and pain sensitivity. We coach sleep routines and link training loads to recovery windows, consistent with NICE guidance to prioritise non drug strategies across chronic pain. NICE
Rehabilitation at Neurokinetica
At Neurokinetica in Cork we build a plan that fits your diagnosis and your life. We combine:
Individualised exercise therapy with clear baselines, graded progression, and flare planning.
Breathwork, mindfulness, and yoga based movement to steady the nervous system and support immune recovery.
Pain neuroscience teaching so you understand what to do and why it works.
Pacing strategies that keep you active without crashes.
People tell us they leave sessions stronger and steadier. They also feel clearer and more confident about managing pain, fatigue, and brain fog.
If you are looking for autoimmune illness treatment in Cork and want a programme that complements your medical care with exercise therapy and nervous system regulation, book a session to receive an assessment and learn more about our rehabilitation pathways.