MEDICAL MINUTE: LUPUS

So since the blog is about everything I decided to include a " Medical Minute" we as young African Americans and yes some Caucasians tend to disregard our own health when we live in the United States! Imagine living in Hatiti or Africa were there is no healthcare or no health screening for that matter! So below is the first MEDCAL MINUTE: LUPUS, my mother has been plagued with this disease for over 15 years! The information is taken from The Lupus Foundation:

What is Lupus
Lupus is a chronic, autoimmune disease that can damage any part of the body (skin, joints, and/or organs inside the body). Chronic means that the signs and symptoms tend to last longer than six weeks and often for many years. In lupus, something goes wrong with your immune system, which is the part of the body that fights off viruses, bacteria, and germs ("foreign invaders," like the flu). Normally our immune system produces proteins called antibodies that protect the body from these invaders. Autoimmune means your immune system cannot tell the difference between these foreign invaders and your body’s healthy tissues ("auto" means "self") and creates autoantibodies that attack and destroy healthy tissue. These autoantibodies cause inflammation, pain, and damage in various parts of the body.

What are the Symptoms of Lupus
Because lupus can affect so many different organs, a wide range of symptoms can occur. These symptoms may come and go, and different symptoms may appear at different times during the course of the disease.
The most common symptoms of lupus, which are the same for females and males, are:
extreme fatigue (tiredness)
headaches
painful or swollen joints
fever
anemia (low numbers of red blood cells or hemoglobin, or low total blood volume)
swelling (edema) in feet, legs, hands, and/or around eyes
pain in chest on deep breathing (pleurisy)
butterfly-shaped rash across cheeks and nose
sun- or light-sensitivity (photosensitivity)
hair loss
abnormal blood clotting
fingers turning white and/or blue when cold (Raynaud’s phenomenon)
mouth or nose ulcers

Treatments for Lupus
Because the symptoms of lupus vary from one person to another, the treatment of the disease is tailored to the specific problems that arise in each person. In many cases, the best approach to treating your lupus is with a health care team.
Today, doctors are using a wide variety of medicines to treat lupus -- ranging in strength from mild to extremely strong. It is not unusual for the prescribed medications to change during a person’s lifetime with lupus. However, it can take months, and sometimes years, before your health care team finds just the right combination of medicines to keep your lupus symptoms under control.
There are many categories of drugs for the treatment of lupus. Of all these drugs, only a few are approved specifically for lupus by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA): corticosteroids, including prednisone, prednisolone, methylprednisolone, and hydrocortisone; the antimalarial, hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil®); and aspirin. However, many medications are used to treat the symptoms of lupus.
People with lupus are generally treated by a rheumatologist, a doctor who specializes in diseases of the joints and muscles. If lupus has caused damage to a particular organ, other specialists will be consulted as well, such as a dermatologist for cutaneous lupus (skin disease), a cardiologist for heart disease, a nephrologist for kidney disease, a neurologist for brain and nervous system disease, or a gastroenterologist for gastrointestinal tract disease. An obstetrician who specializes in high-risk pregnancies will be needed when a woman with lupus is considering a pregnancy.
Once you have been diagnosed with lupus, your doctor will develop a treatment plan based on your age, symptoms, general health, and lifestyle. The goals of any treatment plan are to:
reduce inflammation caused by lupus
suppress your overactive immune system
prevent flares, and treat them when they occur
control symptoms like joint pain and fatigue
minimize damage to organs
People with lupus often require other drugs for the treatment of conditions commonly seen with the disease. Examples of these types of medications are diuretics for fluid retention, antihypertensive drugs for high blood pressure, anticonvulsants for seizure disorders, antibiotics for infections, and bone-strengthening drugs for osteoporosis.
In addition, many medications, whether listed in this on the lupus.org website or not, are not recommended for a woman who is planning a pregnancy, is currently pregnant, or is breast-feeding. Women with lupus should have every pregnancy closely monitored by their health care team, so that the safest decisions can be made about medication use and any other necessary treatments, both before, during, and after the birth.
All medicines must be taken exactly as prescribed! Forgetting to take the medicine, taking medicine in the wrong amounts or dosage, stopping a medicine, or adding dietary supplements without your doctor’s approval will affect how well the drugs work and whether your symptoms of lupus can be brought under control.
Managing lupus is a team effort. And since there often will be several physicians involved in your care, good communication is necessary among members of your health care team.