lupus

 Lupus is a disease that occurs when your body's immune system attacks your own tissues and organs (autoimmune disease). Inflammation caused by lupus can affect many different body systems — including your joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart and lungs.

Life Expectancy with Lupus?

Many patients can expect to live a normal or near-normal lifespan, especially with early diagnosis and effective treatment (Zen et al., 2023; Lao et al., 2024). Long-Term Survival: Studies have shown that the long-term survival rate for lupus patients has improved over the years.

What are 5 symptoms of lupus?

It impacts various organs and causes symptoms that may come and go. Early indicators of lupus can include unexplained fever, hair loss, skin rashes (particularly a butterfly-shaped rash on the face), kidney inflammation, and fatigue.

Is lupus a serious disease?

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)
SLE is the most common and serious type of lupus. It is a long-term (chronic) disease that can range from mild to life-threatening.

Does lupus get worse with age?

Symptom Severity May Worsen With Age
Many people are relieved to hear that lupus-related symptoms may improve with age, but we've learned that the severity of the symptoms may increase.

What is the root cause of lupus?

Lupus causes
Genetic factors: Having certain genetic variations may make you more likely to have lupus. Hormones: Reactions to certain hormones in your body (especially estrogen) may make you more likely to develop lupus. Environmental factors: These are aspects about where you live, work or spend time.

What is the final stage of lupus?

Class 6, or advanced sclerosing lupus nephritis
This is the final classification. It involves damage to more than 90% of the important blood vessels in the kidney. A person will likely require dialysis or a kidney transplant.

What is the biggest indicator of lupus?

Lupus involves periodic flare-ups, in which symptoms intensify, and remission, in which symptoms lessen or disappear. The most common symptoms include fatigue, painful and swollen joints, skin rashes—most notably, a butterfly-shaped rash across the face—unexplained fever, and mouth or nose ulcers.

What is the cruel mystery of lupus?

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.

What organ does lupus affect first?

Kidneys About one half of people with lupus experience kidney involvement, and the kidney has become the most extensively studied organ affected by lupus. Lungs About 50% of people with SLE will experience lung involvement during the course of their disease.

What is the first stage of lupus?

The first symptoms of lupus usually occur somewhere between the teen years and the 30s and may be mild, severe, sporadic, or continual. Common general symptoms include fatigue, fever, and hair loss. Lupus can also affect individual organs and body parts, such as the skin, kidneys, and joints.

Which virus leads to lupus?

the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)
Now, new research from Stanford University offers one of the clearest explanations yet. The findings show how the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) can hijack the body's immune system in ways that​ may cause lupus in susceptible individuals.

Can stress cause lupus?

Lupus is an autoimmune disease in which skin, joints, and internal organs become inflamed. When contrasted with women who had not experienced trauma, women with post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) were found to have nearly triple the risk of having lupus.

What are the strange symptoms of lupus?

Some uncommon symptoms of lupus include angina, stroke and mini-stroke, pregnancy loss, kidney problems, and blood problems. Lupus can be difficult to diagnose, but reporting less common symptoms may help doctors make an accurate diagnosis.

What happens if you ignore lupus?

Even in cases of mild disease, regular monitoring is critical. Due to the risk of disease flares with more severe organ involvement (kidney or lung/heart inflammation, for example), lupus patients should have regular evaluations to make sure life-threatening involvement is not developing.

Where is the best place to live if you have lupus?

There's no scientific proof that one location is better than another for every lupus symptom. Although many people with lupus prefer moderate climates, some find dry climates are better than humid ones. Others may tolerate cold better than heat. Environmental factors can be a big part of your decision on where to move.

Who mostly gets lupus?

Gender: Even though anyone can get lupus, it most often affects women. They're nine to ten times more likely than men to develop it. Age: Lupus can occur at any age, but most are diagnosed in their 20s and 30s. Race: Lupus is two to three times more common in African-American women than in Caucasian women.

Why did I suddenly get lupus?

It's likely that lupus results from a combination of your genetics and your environment. It appears that people with an inherited predisposition for lupus may develop the disease when they come into contact with something in the environment that can trigger lupus. The cause of lupus in most cases, however, is unknown.

What is the sister disease to lupus?

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.

What is the most common symptom of lupus?

Fatigue or extreme tiredness
The most common symptom of lupus is fatigue, which means feeling extremely tired. Fatigue can affect a person's physical and mental health and quality of life. It can also make it hard for people with lupus to socially connect with others.

What is the death timeline for lupus?

Five-year survival rates were 99.5% and 94.9% and ten-year survival rates were 97.8% and 89.5%, among those diagnosed before and at or after age 50.

Do people with lupus sleep a lot?

If you have fatigue related to lupus, it may feel like you can't possibly get enough rest. Even if you sleep more than you used to, it may feel like it's never enough. You may find that it's harder to do physical and mental work. The effort needed to do everyday tasks may be overwhelming.

How do doctors confirm lupus?

Signs and symptoms of lupus may change over time and overlap with those of many other disorders. No one test can diagnose lupus. The combination of blood and urine tests, signs and symptoms, and physical examination findings leads to the diagnosis.

What does a lupus tongue look like?

People with lupus can develop red ulcers on the lips, the tongue, and the inside of the mouth. A white halo surrounds these ulcers, and they may or may not cause irritation. Those experiencing a “flare-up” can develop ulcers quite quickly.

What virus is linked to lupus?

Lupus may be caused by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), according to researchers from researchers from Standford Medicine. Until now, the cause of lupus was unknown, and these findings represent a crucial step forward in understanding the biological origins of autoimmune disease.

Why is lupus called the invisible disease?

One of the most common and hurtful misconceptions is that someone doesn't appear ill, so they must be exaggerating or imagining their condition. Lupus is often called an “invisible illness” because its symptoms, such as joint pain, fatigue, and internal organ damage, aren't always outwardly visible.