Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease which means your body’s immune system incorrectly attacks your healthy tissues and organs. This disease affects different parts of the body, including the skin, kidneys, joints, lungs, brain, and blood vessels.
But do you know why this disease is called a cruel mystery? Let’s discuss it in this blog and learn more about lupus.
What Happens to Individuals Dealing with Lupus Disease?
In lupus, your immune system becomes overactive and creates antibodies that attack the body’s cells and tissues. This results in inflammation, pain, and damage to your different body organs and systems.
Why Is Lupus Called “The Cruel Mystery”?
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.
It has fluctuating symptoms. Most signs and symptoms develop slowly or suddenly, which may be mild or severe. Individuals with lupus have a mild disease that’s referred to as flares. Here, signs and symptoms worsen for some time and improve or even disappear for a particular period.
There’s no cure for this disease. Lupus treatments focus on managing the symptoms and preventing flare-ups only. The right combination of medications and the required lifestyle adjustments suggested change for every individual. Also, it’s often a trial-and-error process.
For all these reasons, lupus is referred to as a cruel mystery.
Some common signs and symptoms are:
- Fatigue
- Joint pain, stiffness, and swelling
- Fever
- Shortness of breath
- Chest pain
- Dry eyes
- Headaches, confusion, and memory loss
- A butterfly-shaped rash on the face
- Skin gets lesions from sun exposure.
- Fingers and toes turn blue or white when exposed to the cold or during a stressful period.
What Are the Causes?
Lupus results from a combination of an individual’s genetics and environment. In some cases, if a person has genes that give them a chance to get lupus, they might get the disease when they are exposed to certain environmental things that trigger lupus.
Some potential triggers include:
Sunlight: Sun exposure may cause skin lesions or trigger an internal response in susceptible people.
Infections: In some cases, if you have an infection, it can initiate lupus or cause a relapse.
Medications: This disease can also be triggered by anti-seizure medications, certain types of blood pressure medications, and antibiotics.
What are its risk factors?
There’s no dedicated test done to diagnose lupus. However, healthcare professionals use a few tests to determine the cause of your symptoms. These tests include blood tests, urinalysis, an antinuclear antibody (ANA) test, and a biopsy.
In conclusion, this disease is called a cruel mystery, as it still remains a mystery due to the ongoing challenges faced by researchers and healthcare professionals in dealing with its complexities and finding more effective treatments. Though lupus is a chronic condition that requires ongoing management and you can’t prevent it, many people with lupus are still able to lead full and active lives with proper treatment and support from healthcare providers