To explain lupus to your boyfriend, start by defining it as an autoimmune disease where your immune system attacks your body, causing inflammation, and stress that it's not contagious like a cold or flu. Focus on what it is (an overactive immune system), what it feels like (fatigue, pain, flares), what it isn't (contagious, cancer, HIV), and how he can support you (patience, understanding, helping with plans), sharing key details without overwhelming him.
Tie it all together for them by explaining “lupus is the reason my joints hurt,” or “lupus is the reason my skin has a rash,” says Dr. Petri. Carly helps people understand how the disease affects her by saying, “If you've ever had the flu, you know how your body aches all over, that's how I feel almost every day.
Lupus occurs when the immune system, which normally helps protect the body from infection and disease, attacks its own tissues. This attack causes inflammation, and in some cases permanent tissue damage, which can be widespread – affecting the skin, joints, heart, lung, kidneys, circulating blood cells, and brain.
Joint pain, swelling and stiffness can be the main symptoms for some people with lupus. In most cases, lupus is unlikely to cause permanent damage or change the shape of joints.
It is not necessary to share all of the details about lupus. But you will want to describe the possible symptoms of lupus and your symptoms in particular. Explain your treatments, as well as the fact that lupus can develop in men and women, teens, and children.
Yes, lupus is a big deal because it's a serious autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks the body, potentially damaging organs like kidneys, heart, lungs, and brain, causing inflammation, pain, fatigue, and complications like blood clots, but with proper management, many people live full lives, though it can be life-threatening in severe cases. The severity varies greatly, from mild to life-threatening, depending on which body parts are affected, and requires ongoing medical care.
Rachelle Goins, the ambassador with the Lupus Foundation of America, calls this disease a cruel mystery because it's super challenging to diagnose accurately. No two cases of lupus are the same. This complexity can make diagnosis and treatment challenging.
Subacute Cutaneous Lupus Erythematosus
SCLE can cause circular red patches with a ring-like border that may be scaly. These rashes often show up on sun-exposed skin, including the legs, and usually don't itch or cause pain.
Lupus and Sjogren's syndrome are both autoimmune diseases. Up to 5.5 million people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with lupus or Sjogren's syndrome. However, Sjogren's syndrome occurs up to three times more than lupus, but one-third of lupus patients also have Sjogren's syndrome.
Pain in the muscles (myalgia) is a common symptom in lupus patients. The upper arms and thighs are the most frequently involved areas. In some cases, the pain is accompanied by muscle weakness, which is known as myositis.
You cannot "catch" lupus from someone or "give" lupus to someone. Lupus is not like or related to cancer. Cancer is a condition of malignant, abnormal tissues that grow rapidly and spread into surrounding tissues. Lupus is an autoimmune disease, as described above.
August 29 — The Lupus Research Alliance is excited to share the good news that a potential new medicine for lupus, anifrolumab, reduced disease activity versus placebo in a second Phase III study. Anifrolumab is a therapeutic antibody that blocks type I interferons, a molecule that promotes lupus inflammation.
With lupus, avoid excessive sun, infections, and stress; don't skip medications, smoke, or overexert yourself; and be cautious with certain supplements (like Echinacea), high-sodium foods, and some medications, always consulting your doctor before starting or stopping anything new.
Here are a few ways you can support a loved one with lupus:
There isn't one test to confirm whether someone has lupus. Doctors typically use blood tests, urinalysis, physical exams, a patient's medical history, and sometimes imaging tests and/or a biopsy for diagnosis.
Pregnant women with lupus, especially those having a flare, are at higher risk for complications. These include: Miscarriage. Preterm delivery, especially with a lupus flare.
Systemic lupus erythematosus is a chronic systemic rheumatic disease that can involve joints, kidneys, skin, mucous membranes, and blood vessel walls. Problems in the joints, nervous system, blood, skin, kidneys, gastrointestinal tract, lungs, and other tissues and organs can develop.
We know how serious these diseases are. Giant cell myocarditis, vasculitis, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), multiple sclerosis (MS), and type 1 diabetes are among the deadliest. They can cause organ failure and life-threatening outcomes.
Lupus can also cause other problems in the abdomen, including peritonitis (inflammation of the abdominal lining) and ascites (a build-up of fluids in the abdomen). Symptoms of peritonitis and ascites include: Abdominal pain and swelling. Nausea and vomiting.
The most common symptoms include:
Responses from patients with SLE indicated prevalent diagnoses of depression (40%) and anxiety (42%), as well as neuropsychiatric symptoms thought to be due to SLE—brain fog (42%), headache (36%), anxiety (24%), and depression (21%).
Jackson's dermatologist, Arnold Klein, said he observed in 1983 that Jackson had vitiligo, a condition characterized by patches of the skin losing their pigment. He also identified discoid lupus erythematosus in Jackson.
Because symptoms present similarly to other ailments, your doctor may not test you for lupus. Many go through a process of elimination through testing for other causes of the symptoms first.