Before we can understand the health situation of Akitas, we need to understand basic genetics. Genes make all living organisms, including man, work. I could explain about genes, alleles, and genomes but let's keep this very simple. The health issues of Akitas are mostly autoimmune problems like SA (sebaceous adenitis) and VKH/UDS (Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease/uveodermatologic syndrome) and lesser problems including allergies and hypothyroidism. Dogs have over 25,000 different genes, but there is one area in all our genes that makes the immune system work. In humans this is called the MHC area (major histocompatibility complex) and in dogs this is called the DLA area (dog leukocyte antigen). The best example to describe this system when it's working well is a full symphony orchestra with all the different instruments. A good immune system has it all and can play awesome music!