Lupus: Chronic, Autoimmune Disease

Lupus is one of the most complicated autoimmune diseases; therefore, making it difficult to diagnose, arduous for anyone who has to live with it, and since it’s incurable, it is also

Lupus is a chronic, autoimmune disease that can damage any part of the body (skin, joints, and/or organs inside the body). When you have lupus, the body attacks the healthy tissues that’s supposed to fights off viruses, bacteria, and germs. Normally our immune system produces proteins called antibodies that protects the body from these invaders. Autoimmune means your immune system cannot tell the difference between these foreign invaders and your body’s healthy tissues and creates autoantibodies that attack and destroy healthy tissue. These autoantibodies cause inflammation, pain, and damage in various parts of the body.

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) Lupus is an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks its self. Lupus can affect different parts of the body including the skin, blood, kidneys, and joints. There are four different types of Lupus, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Cutaneous Lupus, Drug-Induced Lupus, and Neonatal Lupus. However, the most common and deadly lupus is Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE).

There are many diseases out in the world; one of the least talked about is lupus. Lupus is an autoimmune disease with about 1.5 million people in America living with it. Though no one truly knows the cause for it, it is chronic. This affects the inside of your body including your organs, heart, lungs, kidneys, blood vessels, brain and joints. Your skin can also be damaged as well.

The sunlight causes my eyes to swell and lips become irritated, “ said Ruffin. Although, Lupus is curable there are still many complications with the disease. “There are pains constantly in your body throughout all your joints. You have to keep fighting because Lupus is the silent killer.

It was Dr Paul Klemperer and his colleagues who found the medical term as “Collagen Disease” which later was changed through the modern classification of Lupus as the autoimmune disorder. In 1949 Dr Philip Hench at the Mayo Clinic demonstrated that a newly demonstrated that a new demonstrated hormone called Cortisone was used to treat Systemic Lupus Erythematous (SLE) patients and it also showed a dramatic result in saving lives.

Celiacs is always with a person, but it something happens to trigger it. For example I was diagnosed with Celiacs at age 9, my father was diagnosed at 37, and my grandmother at 58. The only way to manage this disease is to eat a specific strict diet of no wheat or gluten. That means think of all your favorite foods, and eliminate them from your diet basically. From cookies, to cake, to anything that is made with a certain flour or bread.

Celiac disease is a disease that affects at least 3 million Americans including myself. A gluten free diet is often written off as a fad diet but for those living with Celiac, it is anything but. This disease affects your daily life, physically and mentally. I chose this disease because it affects me personally (and my mom and granddad) and many people don’t understand or simply don’t want to understand what Celiac is. Celiac disease is an immune disorder where people can’t tolerate gluten (gluten is wheat, rye, barley, and is mainly in bread products but is also used as a filler for many other food items) because it damages the inner lining of their small intestine.

Today I want to inform the class of Hashimoto’s disease as an autoimmune disease,

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is a nerve disorder that occurs at the site of an injury. It occurs especially after injuries from high-velocity impacts such as those from bullets or shrapnel. However, it may occur without apparent injury. The arms or legs are usually involved.

The cause of dermatomyositis is unknown, but it is believed to be similar to autoimmune disorders where a person’s immune system accidently attacks its own body tissue. Dermatomyositis partially affects the small blood vessels in the muscle tissue, because inflammatory cells surround the blood vessels, which eventually causes the degeneration of muscle fibers. Some of the complications caused by dermatomyositis include: difficulty to swallowing due to affected muscles in the esophagus, aspiration pneumonia where one breathes foods into their lungs because they have difficulty swallowing, breathing problems due to affected chest muscles, and also calcium deposits that can develop in the muscles, skin, and connective tissues. Dermatomyositis can also lead to the following diseases: Raynaud 's phenomenon, lupus,

“Lymphoid tissue, cells and organs that make up the lymphatic system, such as white blood cells, bone marrow, and the thymus spleen, and lymph nodes” (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica). Lymphoid tissue is a big part of Hodgkin disease, so to fully understand the disease an individual must learn that the lymphoid tissue is very important for the human body. Lymphoid tissue is extremely important as an immune response and it also helps protect the body from infection and invaders. Simply, Hodgkin disease is the expansion of lymphoid tissue and the existence of Reed-Sternberg cells that are found in the lymph nodes. Reed-Sternberg cells “are large, often multinucleated with a peculiar morphology and an unusual immunophenotype, that does

• The seasons of fall, winter, or spring. SYMPTOMS The main symptom of this condition is a rash on the legs and buttocks. The rash is made of red or purple spots and the skin may be red and swollen. Other symptoms may include: • A rash that spreads over

Melanoma may also be accompanied by symptoms such as newly onset itching, tenderness, bleeding, or ulceration (Hodgetts,

The main sign of vitiligo is pigmented or color loss that produces white or light colored patches on the skin. The main parts of the body most at risk for this condition are areas of the skin exposed to the sun. Vitiligo, usually, first appears on the hands, feet, arms, face, or lips because these areas are most exposed to the sun. There are many signs of the condition of vitiligo. The main five signs are skin discoloration, premature whitening or greying of hairs, loss of color in the tissues that line the mouth and nose, loss in color of the inner layer of the eyeball, or discolored patches around the armpit, navel, genitals, and rectum.