LUPUS: SYMPTOMS AND CURE

Lupus is an autoimmune condition wherein the immune system harms the healthy tissue and cells in the body. Individuals with lupus display varied symptoms based on the particulars of each case. These symptoms may be mild in some cases while severe in others. Some common and painful lupus symptoms include swollen and painful joints along with fatigue and unexplained fever.

A red skin rash called malar or butterfly rash is often one of the commonly observed lupus symptoms and it can be seen to appear across a patient’s cheeks and the nose. The rash may also be seen on the upper arms, face and the ears, chest, hands and the shoulders as well. People suffering from lupus are quite sensitive to sunlight and skin rashes tend to get worse on exposure to sunlight. So people with lupus often have to wear sun screen agents and avoid exposure to ultraviolet light.



Some other lupus symptoms include chest pain particularly on deep breathing, loss of hair, unexplained fever, photosensitivity, swollen legs and eyes, mouth and nose ulcers, fatigue and swollen glands. The symptoms of this condition may appear for some time and then disappear. Other symptoms include paleness or purple color in toes and fingers because of stress and cold.

Some people suffering from lupus may experience certain lupus symptoms such as dizziness, headaches, confusion, seizures and depression. Many people experience new and different symptoms and these symptoms may appear after the initial diagnosis and in some cases different symptoms may be observed at different points of time. In some cases only one part or system of body may be affected and this may include the joints or the skin. In some other cases individuals may experience varied symptoms in different parts.

The extent to which a person may be affected with lupus symptoms varies from case to case. Some patients may experience severe symptoms such as kidney inflammation and this can be determined from a swelling in the ankles. Some people may develop inflammation in the chest cavity lining. This can cause chest pain particularly when the patient tries to breathe. In some patients the condition can even affect the central nervous system and this can cause dizziness, headaches, vision problems, stroke, seizures and other changes in the behavior.

Vasculitis or inflammation of blood vessels may also be observed in some cases and some people may experience inflammation of the heart. Women suffering from lupus and who are pregnant are at a great risk of suffering from premature birth or experiencing a miscarriage. Those patients who have a history of possible kidney disease are at a greater risk of preeclampsia.

Some other lupus symptoms may include dry eyes, depression, anxiety, memory loss and easy bruising. Skin rashes, fatigue, aching joints, slight fever and anemia are most commonly seen in lupus patients. Following the treatment plan is important to ensure that the problems associated with lupus are managed properly. A healthy diet plan and moderate exercise along with minimizing of stress can help in reducing the symptoms and problems of this condition.

LUPUS: SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS

Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the body's antibodies attack one's own tissues. Lupus attacks tissues such as the skin, muscles, tendons and ligaments as well as the kidneys, heart, lungs and brain.
Description of Lupus
Lupus frequently strikes women of childbearing years, however, it can affect both sexes from youth to the elderly and range in severity from mild to disabling.
In lupus, the regulation of the immune system goes awry and the body produces autoantibodies (antibodies that attack the patient's own tissues). This reaction results in inflammation that causes redness, pain and swelling in the affected parts of the body.
Lupus usually appears in one of two forms - systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) or discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE).



Systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE) is the most common form of lupus. "Systemic" means it can affect several parts of the body. A subtype of SLE is drug-induced lupus. Some medications uncommonly used for high blood pressure, heart disease and tuberculosis can cause this condition.
Discoid lupus erythematosus(DLE) involves inflammation of the skin only.

Causes and Risk Factors of Lupus
Although the causes of lupus are not completely understood, the disease is believed to result from an interplay of genetic, environmental (such as ultraviolet light, stress, infections, certain drugs and chemicals) and hormonal factors.
Symptoms of Lupus
The symptoms of lupus may include:
skin rash
pain and swelling in joints
muscle aches
fatigue
weight loss
hair loss
loss of appetite
lesions over the bridge of the nose and cheeks, and sometimes on the scalp. Lesions dry into scales that fall off the body, leaving scars (DLE only)
Raynaud's syndrome (a condition in which a sudden, severe reduction in blood flow causes fingers to turn waxy, white and blue and painfully cold)
Diagnosis of Lupus
A thorough medical history, a physical exam, laboratory testing and presence of several defining symptoms (listed below) will determine a positive diagnosis of lupus. According to the Lupus Foundation of America, there is no single laboratory test that can definitively determine whether a person has lupus. The following tests will aid in diagnosis of lupus by examining the status of the patient's immune system:
1. The anti-nuclear antibody test determines if the person has autoantibodies that react with components in cell nuclei. Almost all lupus patients will have a positive reaction to this test.
2. The anti-DNA antibody test determines if the patient has antibodies to DNA.
3. The anti-Sm antibody test looks for antibodies to a protein. While many lupus patients do not have anti-Sm antibodies, they are rarely found in people without lupus.
4. Tests for the presence of immune complexes (the combination of antibodies and the substances with which they react) in the blood are valuable, both for diagnosing and monitoring the disease.
5. An analysis of the serum complement level, which tends to fall when the disease is active, is also useful for both diagnosis and monitoring. The serum complement is a group of proteins involved in the inflammation that can occur in immune reactions.
The interpretation of the results of these tests is made even more difficult by the unpredictability of the disease. A test may be positive one time and negative the next, depending on whether the disease is active or in remission. Kidney and skin biopsies can also help with diagnosis. A kidney biopsy may show deposits of antibodies and immune complexes, and a sample of skin tissue may reveal deposits of antibodies and complement proteins.
According to the American College of Rheumatology, the presence of four or more of the following 11 symptoms and signs usually indicates a positive diagnosis of lupus:
Butterfly rash: a reddish eruption across the nose and cheekbones
Discoid lesions: reddish, raised, disk-shaped patches on the body
Photosensitivity of the skin: a red rash that results from sun exposure
Oral ulcers: sores in the mouth or nose that are usually painless but can be blister-like
Arthritis: inflammation characterized by tenderness and swelling in two or more peripheral joints
Chest/heart problems: breathing difficulty or chest pain, caused by inflammation of the lining of the chest cavity or heart, respectively
Neurological disorders: sudden onset of seizures or psychosis
Kidney disorders: kidney failure
Blood cell disturbances: hemolytic anemia (a deficiency in red blood cells, resulting from their abnormal destruction) or leukopenia (an excessively low white blood cell count)
Immunologic disruption: a dysfunctional immune system's attack on healthy cell tissue
Antinuclear antibodies (ANA): antibodies that battle cell nuclei
Treatment of Lupus
Because the symptoms of lupus vary not only in type but also severity, the treatment may also need to vary. It may take time to find the right combination of treatments for each individual. Treatments may include:
rest
exercise
physical therapy for muscle weakness
avoiding sun exposure
using medications such as:
anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin for symptomatic relief
corticosteroid drugs such as prednisolone for inflammation
antimalarial drugs such as chloroquine phosphate or hydroxychloroquine for rashes, arthritis and malaise
immunosuppressive and cytotoxic drugs such as Immuran (azathioprine) and Cytoxan (cycyclophosphamide) are prescribed with vital organs are involved and/or corticosteroids aren't effective

TOP 10 INCURABLE DISEASE

Modern medicine has done much to erradicate and cure disease, but it has failed in some areas. Of those areas, at least one disease that cannot be cured is suffered by many people in the world every year – the common cold. This is a list of the top ten incurable diseases. As always, click the images for a larger view. NOTE: There are no graphic images in this post.

10. Ebola

Ebola is a virus of the family Filoviridae that is responsible for a severe and often fatal viral hemorrhagic fever; outbreaks in primates such as gorillas and chimpanzees as well as humans have been recorded. The disease is characterized by extreme fever, rash, and profuse hemorrhaging. In humans, fatality rates range from 50 to 90 percent.

The virus takes its name from the Ebola River in the northern Congo basin of central Africa, where it first emerged in 1976. Outbreaks that year in Zaire (now Congo [Kinshasa]) and The Sudan resulted in hundreds of deaths, as did another outbreak in Zaire in 1995. Ebola is closely related to the Marburg virus, which was discovered in 1967, and the two are the only members of the Filoviridae that cause epidemic human disease. A third related agent, called Ebola Reston, caused an epidemic in laboratory monkeys in Reston, Virginia, but apparently is not fatal to humans.

9. Polio

Polio is known in full as poliomyelitis – also called infantile paralysis. It is an acute viral infectious disease of the nervous system that usually begins with general symptoms such as fever, headache, nausea, fatigue, and muscle pains and spasms and is sometimes followed by a more serious and permanent paralysis of muscles in one or more limbs, the throat, or the chest. More than half of all cases of polio occur in children under the age of five. The paralysis so commonly associated with the disease actually affects fewer than 1 percent of persons infected by the poliovirus.

Between 5 and 10 percent of infected persons display only the general symptoms outlined above, and more than 90 percent show no signs of illness at all. For those infected by the poliovirus, there is no cure, and in the mid-20th century hundreds of thousands of children were struck by the disease every year. Since the 1960s, thanks to widespread use of polio vaccines, polio has been eliminated from most of the world, and it is now endemic only in several countries of Africa and South Asia. Approximately 1,000–2,000 children are still paralyzed by polio each year, most of them in India.

8. Lupus Erythematosus

Also often referred to simply as lupus, this is an autoimmune disorder that causes chronic inflammation in various parts of the body. Three main types of lupus are recognized—discoid, systemic, and drug-induced.

Discoid lupus affects only the skin and does not usually involve internal organs. The term discoid refers to a rash of distinct reddened patches covered with grayish brown scales that may appear on the face, neck, and scalp. In about 10 percent of people with discoid lupus, the disease will evolve into the more severe systemic form of the disorder.

Systemic lupus erythematosus is the most common form of the disease. It may affect virtually any organ or structure of the body, especially the skin, kidneys, joints, heart, gastrointestinal tract, brain, and serous membranes (membranous linings of organs, joints, and cavities of the body.) While systemic lupus can affect any area of the body, most people experience symptoms in only a few organs. The skin rash, if present, resembles that of discoid lupus. In general, no two people will have identical symptoms. The course of the disease is also variable and is marked by periods when the disease is active and by other periods when symptoms are not evident (remission).

7. Influenza

Influenza, also known as the flu, or grippe, is an acute viral infection of the upper or lower respiratory tract that is marked by fever, chills, and a generalized feeling of weakness and pain in the muscles, together with varying degrees of soreness in the head and abdomen.

Influenza is caused by any of several strains of orthomyxoviruses, categorized as types A, B, and C. The three major types generally produce similar symptoms but are completely unrelated antigenically, so that infection with one type confers no immunity against the others. The A viruses cause the great influenza epidemics, and the B viruses cause smaller localized outbreaks; the C viruses are not important causes of disease in humans. Between pandemics, the viruses undergo constant, rapid evolution (a process called antigenic drift) in response to the pressures of human population immunity. Periodically, they undergo major evolutionary change by acquiring a new genome segment from another influenza virus (antigenic shift), effectively becoming a new subtype to which none, or very few, of the population is immune.

6. Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is a rare fatal degenerative disease of the central nervous system. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease occurs throughout the world at an incidence of one person in a million; however, among certain populations, such as Libyan Jews, rates are somewhat higher. The disease commonly occurs in adults between the ages of 40 and 70, although some young adults have been stricken with the disease. Both men and women are affected equally. The onset of the disease is usually characterized by vague psychiatric or behavioral changes, which are followed within weeks or months by a progressive dementia that is often accompanied by abnormal vision and involuntary movements. There is no known cure for the disease, which is usually fatal within a year of the onset of symptoms.

The disease was first described in the 1920s by the German neurologists Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt and Alfons Maria Jakob. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is similar to other neurodegenerative diseases such as kuru, a human disorder, and scrapie, which occurs in sheep and goats. All three diseases are types of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, so called because of the characteristic spongelike pattern of neuronal destruction that leaves brain tissue filled with holes.

5. Diabetes

Diabetes is a disorder of carbohydrate metabolism characterized by impaired ability of the body to produce or respond to insulin and thereby maintain proper levels of sugar (glucose) in the blood.

There are two major forms of the disease. Type I diabetes, formerly referred to as insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) and juvenile-onset diabetes, usually arises in childhood. It is an autoimmune disorder in which the diabetic person’s immune system produces antibodies that destroy the insulin-producing beta cells. Because the body is no longer able to produce insulin, daily injections of the hormone are required.

Type II diabetes, formerly called non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) and adult-onset diabetes, usually occurs after 40 years of age and becomes more common with increasing age. It arises from either sluggish pancreatic secretion of insulin or reduced responsiveness in target cells of the body to secreted insulin. It is linked to genetics and obesity, notably upper-body obesity. People with type II diabetes can control blood glucose levels through diet and exercise and, if necessary, by taking insulin injections or oral medications.

4. HIV/AIDS

AIDS is the byname of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome – a transmissible disease of the immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HIV slowly attacks and destroys the immune system, the body’s defense against infection, leaving an individual vulnerable to a variety of other infections and certain malignancies that eventually cause death. AIDS is the final stage of HIV infection, during which time fatal infections and cancers frequently arise.

HIV/AIDS spread to epidemic proportions in the 1980s, particularly in Africa, where the disease may have originated. Spread was likely facilitated by several factors, including increasing urbanization and long-distance travel in Africa, international travel, changing sexual mores, and intravenous drug use. According to the United Nations 2004 report on AIDS, some 38 million people are living with HIV, approximately 5 million people become infected annually, and about 3 million people die each year from AIDS. Some 20 million people have died of the disease since 1981.

3. Asthma

Asthma is a chronic disorder of the lungs in which inflamed airways are prone to constrict, causing episodes of breathlessness, wheezing, coughing, and chest tightness that range in severity from mild to life-threatening. Inflamed airways become hypersensitive to a variety of stimuli, including dust mites, animal dander, pollen, air pollution, cigarette smoke, medications, weather conditions, and exercise. Stress can exacerbate symptoms.

Asthmatic episodes may begin suddenly or may take days to develop. Although an initial episode can occur at any age, about half of all cases occur in persons younger than 10 years of age, with boys being affected more often than girls. Among adults, however, the incidence of asthma is approximately equal in men and women. When asthma develops in childhood, it is often associated with an inherited susceptibility to allergens, substances such as pollen, dust mites, or animal dander that may induce an allergic reaction. In adults, asthma also may develop in response to allergens, but viral infections, aspirin, and exercise may cause the disease as well. Adults who develop asthma may have nasal polyps or sinusitis.

2. Cancer

Cancer refers to a group of more than 100 distinct diseases characterized by the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body. Cancer affects one in every three persons born in developed countries and is a major cause of sickness and death throughout the world. Though it has been known since antiquity, significant improvements in cancer treatment have been made since the middle of the 20th century, mainly through a combination of timely and accurate diagnosis, selective surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapeutic drugs. Such advances actually have brought about a decrease in cancer deaths (at least in developed countries), and grounds for further optimism are seen in laboratory investigations into elucidating the causes and mechanisms of the disease.

Owing to continuing advances in cell biology, genetics, and biotechnology, researchers now have a fundamental understanding of what goes wrong in a cancer cell and in an individual who develops cancer—and these conceptual gains are steadily being converted into further progress in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of this disease.

1. The Common Cold

The common cold is an acute viral infection that starts in the upper respiratory tract, sometimes spreads to the lower structures, and may cause secondary infections in the eyes or middle ears. More than 100 agents cause the common cold, including parainfluenza, influenza, respiratory syncytial viruses, and reoviruses. Rhinoviruses, however, are the most frequent cause.

The popular term common cold reflects the feeling of chilliness on exposure to a cold environment that is part of the onset of symptoms. The feeling was originally believed to have a cause-and-effect relationship with the disease, but this is now known to be incorrect. The cold is caught from exposure to infected people, not from a cold environment, chilled wet feet, or drafts. People can carry the virus and communicate it without experiencing any of the symptoms themselves. Incubation is short — usually one to four days. The viruses start spreading from an infected person before the symptoms appear, and the spread reaches its peak during the symptomatic phase.

Notable Exclusions: Cystic Fibrosis, Multiple sclerosis