DESCRIPTION:
Lupus, also known as systemic lupus erythematosus, is an autoimmune disease that affects connective tissues and organs. The severity of the disease can be mild to debilitating depending on the number and variety of antibodies and the part of the body they attack. Lupus is found primarily in young women (90 percent), although children, mostly girls, and older men and women can be affected as well.
How does lupus develop?
Normally, antibodies are a healthy response to bacteria or viruses. With lupus, the immune system creates antibodies that attack the body's organs and connective tissues. Because of the variety and number of antibodies associated with this disease, the affects are wide ranging. In some people, for instance, antibodies that attack the skin will produce mild symptoms on the skin, which can be lessened with limited exposure to sunlight; for others, the results can be extreme and disfiguring.
Lupus tends to flare up at different times. Sunlight can be a factor for these flare-ups but many causes are still unknown. Also, drugs for the heart such as hydralazine, procainamide and beta-blockers can create a lupus-like syndrome but usually disappear when drug usage stops.
What are the symptoms of lupus?
Since the affects of lupus can range from mild to disabling or even fatal, the severity of symptoms varies. Plus, it is hard to distinguish the condition from other diseases because of the wide range of symptoms. For instance, often a joint connective tissue condition occurs that resembles rheumatoid arthritis. Other times, when the brain is affected, lupus may appear as epilepsy or as a psychological disorder.
The first symptom of lupus is usually a fever and feeling of malaise. Most people with lupus experience inflamed joints, however, unlike rheumatoid arthritis, there is no bone erosion. Skin rashes can occur on the face, neck, upper chest and elbows. Particularly common is a butterfly-shaped rash that appears on the nose bridge and cheeks. Other symptoms include circular bumps on the skin, mouth sores, reddish-purple areas on the hands, swelling and redness around the nails, hair loss and extreme sensitivity of the skin to sunlight, resulting in burns or rashes.
Sometimes extra fluid and inflammation builds around the membranes around the lungs, making breathing deeply painful. Around the heart sac, there can also be a build up of fluid that leads to pericarditis, which results in constant chest pain. Swollen lymph nodes throughout the body are likely to develop in children, young adults and blacks, and an enlarged spleen is common in 10 percent of the people with lupus.
Headaches, personality changes, seizures, and dementia-type symptoms, such as difficulty in clear thinking can result if this disease affects the nervous system. Strokes also may occur, although they are not common. And since a common consequence of lupus is inflammation of the kidneys, there may be red blood cells or protein in the urine, which could indicate kidney damage caused by glomerulonephritis.
Conventional medical treatments may help relieve the symptoms of lupus but they do not address the root of the problem. Generally, by undergoing comprehensive natural medicine testing, the reasons the body is producing antibodies against itself can be found. Some of these reasons include sensitivities or allergies to foods, inhalants and chemicals and various infections.
Discover why we believe that natural medicine treatments are the best way to treat lupus.
