Lupus: A Widespread Yet Little Understood Disease

Lupus is a chronic and complex autoimmune disease that affects more than 1.5 million people across America. It is difficult to diagnose because the symptoms can come and go or mimic other diseases, and there is no single laboratory test to definitively identify the illness. Each May, the medical community seeks to raise better awareness of this prevalent disease because early detection and treatment is key to a better health outcome for people with lupus.

Despite its prevalence, lupus is one of America’s least recognized major diseases. Here are some quick facts about life with lupus.

• More than 90% of lupus sufferers are women between the ages of 15 and 44.
  
• Women of color are two to three times more at risk for lupus than Caucasian women.
  
• In lupus, the immune system creates antibodies that attack the body’s own tissues and organs: the kidneys, brain, heart, lungs, blood, skin, and joints.
  
• Lupus is a leading cause of early cardiovascular disease, kidney disease and stroke among young women.
  
• The term “lupus” is used as a broad term, but there are different types of the disease: systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), cutaneous (which affects only the skin), and drug-induced lupus triggered by medications.
  
• Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is the form of the disease that most people refer to when they say “lupus.”
  

The signs and symptoms that suggest systemic lupus include:

• Painful or swollen joints
  
• Fingertips and/or toes that become pale or purple from cold or stress
  
• Sores in the mouth or nose
  
• Low blood count
  
• Red rash or color change on the face, across the cheek or bridge of nose
  
• Unexplained fever for several days
  
• Chest pain associated with breathing
  
• Protein in the urine
  
• Extreme fatigue
  
• Sensitivity to the sun
  
• Depression, difficulty thinking, and/or memory problems
  
• Unusual hair loss, mainly on the scalp
  

Though there are no known causes, and there is no cure, new studies are paving the way for treatments to suppress the disease, and researchers are actively searching for a cure.