Those with friends and families suffering from lupus may choose to wear lupus bracelets out of support. Lupus, for the uninitiated, is a chronic disease that greatly affects several areas and parts of the human body. They can be quite mild, but they can also be potentially life threatening in the more extreme cases.
It can be a very mild but constant disease for a lot of people afflicted with it. In those cases, the symptoms are manageable and the pain and the discomforts are kept to a minimum. Sadly, there are more extreme cases where the symptoms cause tremendous amounts of pain and the life of the patient is legitimately in danger.
It is considered an idiopathic illness, and as a result, doctors are clueless as to what may cause it to manifest in the body in the first place. A common link that has been pointed out is family history which may suggest a repetition in future generations. This is no genetic link though and none have been established thus far.
Factors like the side effect of using certain medications for too long and overexposure to sunlight are theorized to be contributors to the development of the diseases. The immune system, which by now will have malfunctioned greatly, will no longer recognize and differentiate threats from normal cells. The direct results are the numerous aches and pains all over.
Like many, this disease has its own sub types and variants. One of these is the discoid, which is famous for its rashes. The rashes caused are red and scaly in appearance and can lead to hair loss on the parts affected. The affected areas may include the face, where the rashes are called butterflies due to the shape, the scalp and the neck.
Systemic lupus is the best known type. It also causes rashes but it affects a lot more organs like the heart, lungs, kidneys and even the nervous system. Those who have this may have just one or two organs that are affected, but others may have multiple issues.
More symptoms of systemic include, but is not limited to fatigue, fever, decreased organ function and joint pain. Once in a while, there will be periods of remission, followed by periods of activity that are referred to as flares. These flares may last for weeks, arriving and leaving at random and without explanation.
The diagnosis can be hard to come by. Few things can be done, with blood tests and biopsies as prime examples. A lot of times, the best thing to produce would be a medical history of the family in order to determine certain things.
Unfortunately, there is no real cure that the medical community knows of. It is entirely possible for the flares to respond to the treatments, but just as often, they do not. Attempting to suppress the production of auto antibodies may be attempted with immune suppressing medication. The supporters of the afflicted often adorn their writs with lupus bracelets, but thus far, that is all they can manage.
It can be a very mild but constant disease for a lot of people afflicted with it. In those cases, the symptoms are manageable and the pain and the discomforts are kept to a minimum. Sadly, there are more extreme cases where the symptoms cause tremendous amounts of pain and the life of the patient is legitimately in danger.
It is considered an idiopathic illness, and as a result, doctors are clueless as to what may cause it to manifest in the body in the first place. A common link that has been pointed out is family history which may suggest a repetition in future generations. This is no genetic link though and none have been established thus far.
Factors like the side effect of using certain medications for too long and overexposure to sunlight are theorized to be contributors to the development of the diseases. The immune system, which by now will have malfunctioned greatly, will no longer recognize and differentiate threats from normal cells. The direct results are the numerous aches and pains all over.
Like many, this disease has its own sub types and variants. One of these is the discoid, which is famous for its rashes. The rashes caused are red and scaly in appearance and can lead to hair loss on the parts affected. The affected areas may include the face, where the rashes are called butterflies due to the shape, the scalp and the neck.
Systemic lupus is the best known type. It also causes rashes but it affects a lot more organs like the heart, lungs, kidneys and even the nervous system. Those who have this may have just one or two organs that are affected, but others may have multiple issues.
More symptoms of systemic include, but is not limited to fatigue, fever, decreased organ function and joint pain. Once in a while, there will be periods of remission, followed by periods of activity that are referred to as flares. These flares may last for weeks, arriving and leaving at random and without explanation.
The diagnosis can be hard to come by. Few things can be done, with blood tests and biopsies as prime examples. A lot of times, the best thing to produce would be a medical history of the family in order to determine certain things.
Unfortunately, there is no real cure that the medical community knows of. It is entirely possible for the flares to respond to the treatments, but just as often, they do not. Attempting to suppress the production of auto antibodies may be attempted with immune suppressing medication. The supporters of the afflicted often adorn their writs with lupus bracelets, but thus far, that is all they can manage.