Knowing Lupus

CEBU, Philippines - The first time I encountered a person with lupus was just a few weeks ago. A friend of mine got confined at Chong Hua Hospital, apparently because her immune system started attacking her organs, particularly her kidneys. She’s just 32 years old, a licensed physical therapist and she recently passed the nursing licensure exam.

My first reaction was to search through my references so that I would at least know how it is supposed to progress. The information that I was able to gather gave me hope, for my friend.

What is lupus?

Lupus is a chronic auto-immune disease that can cause damage to any part of the body like the skin, joints, and body organs.

Auto-immune means that the antibodies created by our immune system to fight off foreign invaders like virus, bacteria, and even transplanted organs, can no longer distinguish between our healthy, functioning organs and that of foreign invaders. Because of this, the antibodies will destroy healthy tissues causing pain and damage to the body.

Cause

This disease is not contagious, and doctors suspect that it is genetic (as with most other diseases of unknown origin), which means it runs in the family. Although scientists and researchers have yet to pinpoint the particular genes that cause this disease.

Other causes includes our environment, which can largely be due to pollution and exposure to the sun; hormonal, particularly with estrogen, which is largely present in women; emotional stress; drugs; an infection or injury; and a score of other possible causes. However, an exact cause is yet to be determined by scientists.

Based on these assumed causes, it can be deduced that the disease usually affects women of child bearing age (15-44).

Types

The Lupus Foundation of America enumerated four types of lupus:

The first is systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), which is the most common and can either be mild to severe, depending on the organs affected. 

Cutaneous lupus erythematosus, on the other hand, limits its manifestation in the skin and is manifested by rashes and lesions. Ten percent of those with cutaneous lupus are more likely to develop systemic lupus.

Drug-induced lupus is not a true lupus but its manifestation is the same as that of lupus. As the name implies, the disease is drug induced. The symptoms usually disappear six months after the medications are stopped. Most common drugs that cause this kind of illness are hydralazine (used to treat high blood pressure or hypertension), procainamide (used to treat irregular heart rhythms), and isoniazid (used to treat tuberculosis).

Lastly, neonatal lupus is a rare condition affecting infants of women with lupus. At birth, the child would have skin rashes, liver problems and low blood cell counts. However, after a few months, the symptoms would disappear. Most children born of mothers with lupus are healthy.

Signs and symptoms

Lupus is really hard to pinpoint, since its symptoms can be credited to mostly any other disease in the medical books. This is the reason why this disease is referred to as “the great imitator.”

The most common signs and symptoms are:

Extreme fatigue (tiredness)

Headaches

Swollen or painful joints

Fever

Anemia

Swelling or edema in the feet, legs, hands, and/or around the eyes

Pain in chest on deep breathing

Rashes (butterfly-shaped across the cheeks)

Sun or light sensitivity

Hairloss

Abnormal blood clotting

Fingers turning white or blue when cold (called Raynaud’s phenomenon), and

Mouth and nose ulcers

Treatment

Treatment of lupus is mostly directed at treating the different symptoms of the disease. Although part of the treatment is to suppress an overactive immune system, as well.

Because of the many organs that could possibly be affected by lupus, team effort in coming up with a treatment is a must. And center to this team is the patient, who makes sure that she/he keeps on taking the medicine in the right amounts or dosage.

As cure for lupus is not yet definite, patients are made to live with the disease. This however, does not mean that they have to be in the hospital all the time. Rather, the moment the organs are healed, a patient must learn to make lifestyle changes, sacrificing a few vices here and there, while ensuring that one would not catch any disease that could possibly flare up.

The biggest challenge for lupus patients, though, is his/her peers, family, and friends. Most likely they are not yet aware of the disease, and thus may sometimes feel awkward around the patient. It is for this reason that education is vital.

With this, one can say that despite this minor glitch in one’s immune system, with proper care, a lupus patient can live a normal life.