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What Are They?

Arthritis is a general term meaning inflammation, which causes pain in one or more joints of the body.

Some forms of arthritis are "autoimmune". This occurs when the body's immune system cannot distinguish between itself and foreign substances, and ends up attacking its own tissues. This attack can take the form of severe, painful and destructive inflammation, such as happens in rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, scleroderma, vasculitis, polymyalgia rheumatica, and many other arthritis-related disorders.

There are also several non-arthritic autoimmune disorders, such as juvenile diabetes, multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis and Addison's Disease. Autoimmune disorders can affect any organ or system in the body.