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Freedom From LupusYour Complete Guide To Symptom Relief |
What is Lupus?
This article is an extract from the ebook Freedom From Lupus!
It’s been said that understanding lupus means understanding
medicine. Lupus, also known by its
formal name “lupus erythematosus,” is caused by factors that reflect the core
of immune system functioning. Still,
Lupus is actually difficult to diagnose.
While over one million people suffer from lupus in the US alone, it is a
little publicized disease – despite the fact that it has more sufferers than
leukemia, multiple sclerosis, cystic fibrosis, and muscular dystrophy combined.1
Systemic Lupus
The simplest way to explain lupus is that the body becomes allergic to itself. The immune system overreacts to stimuli, resulting in too many antibodies being produced. This autoimmune disease then causes the high number of antibodies to attack normal tissue. While there are several different types of lupus - including systemic, discoid, neonatal, and drug-induced lupus - systemic lupus is the most common form.
Systemic lupus (SLE) is diagnosed by using specific criteria determined by the American College of Rheumatology. Despite the fact that he criteria are outlined, it can actually take along time to diagnose. While some tests help in the diagnosis, there is no one definitive test for SLE.
SLE symptoms can appear on the skin, as can be seen by the first four criteria. It can also cause major damage to the internal organs, as noted in the systemic criteria. Finally, the diagnosis is usually confirmed via at least one of the laboratory criteria, most often through the antinuclear antibody test, or ANA. While the ANA test tells a physician that there is a potential autoimmune disease, it does not give a definitive lupus diagnosis alone.2 While 4 out of the 11 criteria are usually required for a lupus diagnosis, there are rare occasions when a diagnosis can be made with less.
Read the rest of this article in the ebook Freedom From Lupus!
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