Cytokine Storms

I read a lot of news articles, especially if they have to do with matters of health, new developments, etc. Sometimes this seems like a waste of time, but many times it seems to spark an interest in me to dig a little deeper. Granted, that doesn't always (or even often) happen, but it does make me think.

This article got me thinking about how little we know about how little we actually know about the function of the immune system. The idea of cytokine storms is an intriguing one to me for many reasons. I have many friends with PIDDs who have gradually started experiencing autoimmune co-morbid illness. What if... and here's a fundamental question no one knows the answer to... but what if the whole autoimmune stuff was something akin to a cytokine storm? Our bodies don't make antibodies and the rest of our immune system works overtime and produces this typhoon of overproduced crap that damages our bodies.

The things that stand out to me that gave me pause were the stuff about what happens in a cytokine storm and how the flu virus is contained in the lungs, but we experience other symptoms due to cytokine response. What if that same cytokine response is the reason people with CVID still experience lung damage while on proper IG replacement? Or what if it is the reason we have joint pain (even outside autoimmune diagnosis) Or what if.... there are many things I am thinking it makes sense for. All the repeated infections just make our bodies go completely haywire. It makes sense to me, anyway.