Lupus

Lupus is a disease which is classified as an autoimmune disorder. It can involve several parts of the body such as the joints, skin, kidneys, lungs, heart, blood, as well as the brain. In a normal person that does not have this autoimmune disorder, their system would produce the proteins which are antibodies. The antibodies of course, provide protection for your body, helping to keep you well. Our antibodies will guard us against bacterias, and virus types.

When you have an autoimmune disorder like Lupus, your immune system has no differentiation between the cells that are its own, and those that are foreign. This is where autoantibodies will come in, which is not healthy. What happens then is that the immune system will direct these types of antibodies that works against a person. This causes inflammation, different types of pain. and will damage parts of the body.

In fact the keyword,is inflammation. As a result there is swelling and pain in different body parts whether it be on your legs, (very frequent), hands, and other parts of the body internally.

Treatment is very helpful for most people with this autoimmune problem. With a good rheumatologist, there are things that are preventive which can be done so the person affected can lead a better life. A few preventive tips are:

Staying out of the sun or if in the sun use a very strong sunscreen to head off rashes. Rashes are frequent with this tissue disease and can happen easily.

Exercising You can help stave off the tiredness and help your muscles, bones, and joints, by doing a little bit of walking every day.

Immunization helps to protect you from some infections.

Medications

There are medications that help such as Ibuprofen, and Motrin. Joint pains and muscle pains are greatly relieved with a regular regime of these medicines which the doctor can prescribe in a larger strength than over-the-counter.



Flare-Ups

You can keep your flare-ups down by not smoking and getting plenty of rest. Also follow your medication regime daily.

Symptoms

These are the most common symptoms found with this disease:

Joints that ache a lot

Having fevers that are above 100

Pain that is of an arthritic nature

Extreme tiredness

Rashes of the skin (very frequent)

Sun or light problems when out too long

Blood that doesn't clot well

Seizure activity possible

Having mouth sores and ulcers

Anemia

Kidney trouble (very likely)

Chest pain when you breathe

Lupus is of 4 types:

Lupus of the skin is called Discoid. You would notice a rash that comes up on different parts of the body. The discoid type does not involve organs.

Systemic This is the more severe form. It is the one type that travels around the body and can affect any organ.

Drug induced type This form is brought on by the taking of prescribed drugs of some types. This type is more common in men than women. The percantage of folks developing this type of illness is very low, like no more than 5%.

Pregnancy or Neonatal types can occur. This happens through passages of autoantibodies that can hurt the developing fetus.

Diagnosing Lupus

There is a standard criteria for diagnosis of this disease. The skin will commonly have a rash on the cheeks, and there will be mouth ulcers.

Joint pain is frequent along with a swelling.

Kidneys will show signs of disease by a urinalysis that has protein and blood.

Pleurisy may be present. This is actually an inflammation of the lining in the lungs.

Showing anemia of a hemolytic nature is present in the blood. The lab may also pick up on a low white blood cell count.

Lungs will have areas of an abnormal presence that are off and on.

The Nervous System as a whole causes you to have unwelcome feelings and muscle weakness.

Based upon this, a doctor will probably go on and do other tests to look at antibodies. A test that is anti-nuclear can give much information on the status with the antibody conditions.

Below, is a video on Lupus giving helpful information.



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