Lupus
Dr. Gregory House and his fans will always say it’s never lupus; If you use social media like TikTok, you may have come across a post about this disease, and when you opened the comments, you were surprised to find everyone—or at least most of them—saying something like, "It's never lupus." Even though, through the 177 episodes the series House M.D. has, it was, actually, once the diagnose.
But have you ever asked yourself what is this disease is about, what are the signs and symptoms, the causes or the treatments? I have and, because of that, I have decided to share this information in an interesting easy way with all of you.
What is Lupus?
Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease, which means that the body of the patient becomes “crazy” and starts to attack the rest of the body such as tissue and cells, this provokes inflammation and even failure in the joints, kidneys, heart, blood vessels and brain.
There are several types of lupus:
-Systemic lupus erythematosus: This it’s the most common type of lupus.
- Cutaneous lupus: It affects the skin causing rash when the patient is exposed to sunlight.
- Drug-induced lupus: It’s caused because of pills.
-Neonatal lupus: It’s believed that it’s caused because of the transmission of antibodies during the pregnancy.
Signs and Symptoms
There are no two lupus patients alike. It often appears between 15 and 45 years of age. Symptoms can develop slowly or suddenly. Most people who suffer from it do so intermittently through episodes.
The disease is presented with fever, rash, hair loss, Raynaud syndrome –In which your fingers or toes become cold because no blood is given to them-, sensitivity to light, chest pain, swollen legs or around the eyes between others.
Causes
Very little is known about the causes of lupus. Scientists believe it is mainly provoked by genetics, the immune system or environmental factors such as viral infections, smoking or sun light.
Diagnoses
There is not a test to know if the patient has lupus, for this reason, many people go through a long process before being diagnose with lupus. To know if you have it, the doctor will follow some procedures.
Those include making a clinic history, physical exploration, biopsies and blood and urine tests.
Treatments
Sadly, there is no cure for lupus; but some treatments and a change of the lifestyle will help the patient.
Usually, the patients will have to visit different doctors, such as a family doctor, a rheumatologist (who takes care or joints and muscles), etc. It depends on what the disease affects on each patient. For example, if it affects to the patient’s kidneys they would have to visit a nephrologist.
The objectives of treatment usually are to avoid episodes, treat the symptoms, reduce the organ failure and improve the quality of life.
Conclusion
As we have seen, lupus is a complex disease that often hides many symptoms, making it difficult to diagnose. Even though it has no cure, there are several ways to live with it.
What’s essential is raising awareness: the more we talk and learn about lupus the closer we’ll be to finding a cure.
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