Lupus affects body systems like skin, joints, blood, kidney, heart and lungs. It is an autoimmune condition. The immune system of our body mistakes its own cells and tissues as foreign bodies. The Latin word lupus means ‘a wolf’. The inflammations on the skin resembled a wolf-bite. Doctors thought so.

 

There are three main types of lupus. They are:

 

Systemic lupus Erythematosus (SLE)

Discoid Lupus Erythematosus and

Drug-Induced lupus

 

Causes of Lupus

 

SLE can be the result of several independent factors

 

The different environmental factors that can trigger autoimmune reactions are:

 

The activity of certain viruses

Ultraviolet-B rays from the sun and

Certain chemicals

 

Other factors that contribute to the condition include:
Genetics of the person

The influence of genetics varies from person to person. The same factors and conditions can have different responses in different persons.

 

Use of certain medicines

Certain medicines can trigger autoimmune reaction. This condition is also called drug-induced lupus.

 

Common signs of lupus

 

Symptoms of lupus can appear all of a sudden or over many years

 

Butterfly rash

Also called malar rash, this is the most common skin problem associated with SLE. The rashes will appear in face parts like cheeks and nose bridge. Some people develop lesions in their skin. The rashes and inflammations appear in different shapes.

 

Some symptoms associated with Lupus are:

 

Arthritis

Kidney problems

Photosensitivity – the affected parts get stronger reaction when exposed to sunlight

Problems to central nervous system – dizziness, facing away from the society etc are common symptoms

Heart and lung problems – inflammations occur in the lining of internal organs like heart and lungs

Mucosal ulcers – painless mouth ulcer

Blood vessel disorders

Unexplainable fatigue

Fever

Hair loss

Swellings around the eyes

 

Diagnosis for Lupus

 

There is no simple laboratory test for lupus. Doctors check the medical history of patients. This will give the doctor a clear idea about the conditions of the patient.

 

Doctors once believed that it pregnancy and lupus as a dangerous combination. Women with lupus disorders can bear children and are capable of delivering normal babies. If lupus has affected her organ systems like heart or lungs, close monitoring by her lupus doctor is necessary during pregnancy and for a few weeks after delivery.

 

Some conditions that resemble or accompany SLE are as follows:

 

Subacute Cutaneous Lupus Erythematosus (SCLE)

It is an intermediate condition of discoid lupus erthematosus and systemic lupus erthematosus. This condition is characterized by the presence of disc-shaped plaques around the neck and around the trunk. Subacute cutaneous lupus usually heals without scarring.

 

Lupus Arthritis

Majority of persons with lupus (SLE) develop joint pain, swelling and stiffness at joints of knee, elbow, ankles, toes, fingers, hands and wrists. The conditions worsen during flare. The pain is not permanent. The joints also are not deformed. Lupus arthritis is not the sole reason for joint pain. There can be other medical conditions for joint pain. Lupus arthritis does not affect spine or neck.

 

Scleroderma

It is a skin problem noted for the hardening of skin. Over production of collagen hardens the skin. Multiple sclerosis characterized by fatigue, dizziness or drowsiness also sometimes resembles the symptoms of SLE. Many cases of lupus are mistaken as arthritis. Lupus affects the smaller joints of your body. It can affect fingers, hands, wrists and knees. In some mild cases of lupus, joint pain can be only a symptom. Monitoring of the signs and symptoms, physical examination, and lab tests are necessary to diagnose a case of lupus.

 

The mental trauma is more severe than the physical conditions. Malar rash or butterfly rash that appears in the face is a serious problem for women. This rash is sensitive to sunlight. The condition worsens when exposed to sunlight. Discoid rash associated with discoid lupus affects skin surface only. The rashes are still a problem for them. The rashes prevent them from confidently intermingling with people. Ulcers in the mouth are usually painless.

 

Inflammation in the lining of heart or lungs also causes severe conditions

 

Lupus also cause blood related problems like:

Anemia – low red blood cell count

Leukopenia – low white blood cell count

Thrombocytopenia – low platelet count

This all causes problems to immune system also.

 

Lupus patients suffer from four or more of the above symptoms.

 

 

 

You are confident about your body and always considered fit and healthy. Then suddenly you felt pain and stiffness. Or you experienced your hands or knees getting sore so you find it hard to keep moving. Maybe a friend complained about pain and swelling in joints. Or your child was involved a sport injury to a knee and reports acute pain in the knee a year later.

What we may brush off as a minor ailment or avoid with a pain killer might be symptoms of arthritis. Only a doctor can analyze the symptoms and suggest the appropriate treatment.

What Is Arthritis?

Arthritis is a common disease affecting the joints, skin and various internal organs irrespective of the age of the person. The first known traces of arthritis date as far back as 4500 BC! However, the disease got its current name, ‘arthritis’, from the Greek word ‘arthron’ meaning ‘joint,’ in 1859.

While more than 100 forms  of arthritis are identified (technically nearly 200), the most common ones are rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. Arthritis can cause problems to bones, eyes, chest or skin.

Common Symptoms of Arthritis

• Inability to move the joint freely
• Joint pain, whether at rest or moving
• Joint stiffness
• Joint swelling
• Pain in areas around joints: hips, knees, spine, hands
• Unable to move limbs as much as you used to
• Joint tenderness
• Joint pains with fever, fatigue, rash, or nodules

Diagnosing Arthritis

There are many differences in types of arthritis, so it may not be easy to conclude the painful condition—even in joints or joint attached muscles—is arthritis. Because there are so many types of arthritis, of course there is no single test to diagnose it. Many doctors use a combination of the following to interpret symptoms:

• Study the patient’s history
• Physically examination
• Laboratory tests (arthrocentesis, synovial fluid analyses, etc.)
• Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR)
• X-Ray of the joint
• And more tests

 

Types of Arthritis and Symptoms

There are many forms of arthritis.  Some are related to wear and tear while some are due to the result of an over-active immune system. Every type of arthritis has its own characteristic symptoms. There is no standard root test to identify and no standard medicine or cure for all kinds of arthritis. Let us review some of the common types.

Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis that usually comes with age. It often affects the fingers, knees, hips and facet joints in the spine. Osteoarthritis may also follow an injury to a joint, often after many years. Cartilage—a type of dense connective tissue composed of cells dispersed in a firm gel-like substance—that cushions the points where two or more bones join together—may become degraded. That results in pain limited movement.

Rheumatoid Arthritis

Our body’s immune system is our defense against disease. When it fails, it attacks the body it is designed to protect. Attacks cause joint linings to swell. Inflammation may spread to the surrounding tissues, damaging both cartilage and bones. This is rheumatoid arthritis.

It can begin in any joint; though, generally it starts in the smaller joints of the fingers, hands and wrists. It is characteristic of rheumatoid arthritis to be reflexive; that is,  if a certain joint hurts on the left hand, the same joint will hurt on the right hand. This symmetry distinguishes rheumatoid athritis from other forms of the disease.

Other common symptoms are muscle pain, stiffness, fatigue, weakness, flu-like signs, rheumatoid nodules, or lumps of tissue under the skin or on the elbows.   The person may also experience loss of appetite, anemia, depression, weight loss, and sweaty hands and feet.

Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis

Artritis does not spare children. Some times what is brushed off as ‘growing pains’ may actually be the indication of juvenile arthritis. The child may complain, but more often you will have to observe signs, of joint pain and redness (inflammation), stiffness, swelling, and loss of function of the joints. This could indicate juvenile arthritis. Juvenile arthritus signs and symptoms vary from child to child. Sometimes the same child may experience different symptoms on different days.

Gouty

Our bodies normally dispose of excess uric acid in urine. Unexcreted uric acid can pool in blood and tissues and cause in needle-like uric acid crystals to accumulate around the small joints. Rub the balls of your feet and the base of your toes really hard. Do you feel graininess? This is uric acid crystal build up.

When pain strikes out of the blue, it might be gouty arthritis. Typically it involves the big toe; but other joints like ankle, knee, wrist, elbow and fingers may be affected. The first symptom is generally acute pain (sharp, short-termed) followed with inflamed joints, resulting in feet (or whatever part) becoming swollen and extremely sensitive to the touch. You may feel the extreme pain even by simply putting on socks!  Men are most susceptible to gout.

Lupus

Have you met young people with lupus or chronic fatigue syndrome whom you would have never thought of as arthritic?

B cells are produced through several stages. They mature in the bone marrow. B cells make proteins called antibodies and react against invading bacteria or viruses. The antibodies react with antigens.   The person with lupus makes auto-antibodies that react with self-antigens to make immune complexes, which then travel through blood stream. These immune complexes are deposited anywhere that bloodstream takes them, resulting in inflammatory skin, hair and scalp or joints. Even the internal organs like the kidney, heart or brain, can become sick with lupus. Unlike gout which mostly affects men, women are ten times more susceptible to lupus. Common symptoms are rash over the cheeks and across the bridge of the nose, and disc-shaped sores on the face, neck or chest. Other problems could be sensitivity to sun and kidney problems.

More Types of Arthritis

Fatigue, depression, sore neck and jaw, and soreness when chewing food may be due to temporal arteritis.

Hence one needs to consult a doctor or specialist instead of deciding oneself about an appropriate treatment or medication for a

 

 

Arthritis may be the most misunderstood disease crippling the population, the workforce and the economy today.

For most people, the word arthritis conjures up pictures of swollen stiff joints in old people—someone who can no longer play the piano or tennis. And that is one definition of the disease. But arthritis can strike at any age and reach far beyond joint pain and stiffness to cripple joints, muscles and internal organs. You can be born with it or you can get it later. We’ll explain.

What Is Arthritis?

Arthritis encompasses over 100 diseases or symptom clusters.  The word arthritis, sometimes misspelled “arthritus” or “athritis,” actually means inflammation of the joints. However, few people realize that inflammation, a rheumatic condition, can be caused by metabolism, infection or genetics.

Rheumatism can refer to a number of different conditions with symptoms of pain, inflammation and swelling not only in joints but also in muscles and other tissues. It can affect internal organs, too, which may account for most deaths from arthritis. And this can occur whether or not the “rheumatoid factor” (an autoantibody that reacts against IgG immunoglobulins) is present.

Is arthritis the same as rheumatism? Yes and no. Arthritis is a rheumatic disease, but not all rheumatism is arthritic. There are many kinds of arthritis, but all of them make up only a small part of all the diseases that are rheumatic. However, when people say rheumatoid arthritis, you can be sure they are referring to a type of rheumatism that is arthritic.

All arthritis is rheumatic, but not all rheumatism is arthritic.

Types and Causes of Arthritis

Most kinds of arthritis cause red, swollen painful joints in varying degrees. Like the “hokey pokey” it could be fingers, thumbs, knees, toes, hips, neck or spine. Some kinds affect organs, like eyes, liver or skin.

Here are some of the diseases that fall under the diagnosis of arthritis. Notice that some are familiar and some that may surprise you.

• Osteoarthritis—the most common form of arthritis (OA). Cartilage, the cushiony material in joints that keeps two bones from rubbing together, progressively breaks down. When bone hits bone, there is pain and a loss of flexibility. Osteoarthritis is degenerative, meaning it gets worse.
• Rheumatoid arthritis is one of the most serious and crippling types, and it mostly strikes women (RA). Joint linings are attacked a person’s own immune system, and the joints become swollen, puffy, red and very painful (sinusitis).
• Gout, as though evening the score, affects mostly men, usually between 40-50 years of age. While it may result from a genetic predisposition, it can usually be controlled with diet and medication.
• Ankylosing spondylitis results in spinal fusion caused by inflammation.
• Juvenile arthritis covers any kind of arthritis in children, whether it’s rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, ankylosing spondylitis or another diagnosis.
• Lupus (systemic lupus erythematosus, SLE), can affect joints, connective tissue and organs. Again, it primarily affects women.
• Scleroderma attacks connective tissue, resulting in thick, hard skin. Remember the skin is the largest organ of the body.
• Fibromyalgia shows up as generalized pain throughout the body, mostly where muscles and bone are attached. It affects mostly women.
• Psoriatic arthritis follows an outbreak of psoriasis about 85% of the time. (Psoriasis is a lifelong skin condition characterized by red patches and scaliness.)

 

Remember, we told you there are 100 kinds of arthritis so this is the very short list. In addition to a genetic predisposition to

How Widespread is Arthritis?

Arthritis is the leading cause of disability in the United States in people over 15 years old. Nearly one out of three adults has arthritis. Many more people may have a form of arthritis that has not been diagnosed because they have not sought medical care for joint pain, stiffness or other discomfort.

The Economy of Arthritis

Besides the billions of dollars a year people with arthritis, and their insurance companies, pay to medical care providers such as doctors, physical therapists and hospitals, there is an almost equal amount of money spent to accommodate people with disabilities, besides the loss of productivity and loss of wages.

In all, arthritis costs nearly 100 billion dollars a year just in the United Sates.

Treatment of Arthritis

The most important treatment for arthritis is “whatever’s soonest.” In other words, early diagnosis is extremely important for there to be good success in treating this disease. If someone is noticing stiff joints or unexplained general fatigue, that person will not benefit from “not knowing,” because delayed treatment will never be as effective. Remember, arthritis can be degenerative; it marches forward every second of every day left untreated.

Some remedies are as natural as exercise or a change in diet. Others may require of one the many tested, proven or even new medications that have been developed for treating arthritis.