Tag Archives: fever

Lupus Awareness Month

Leave a reply

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.

Lupus is also a disease of flares (the symptoms worsen and you feel ill) and remissions (the symptoms improve and you feel better).

These are some additional facts about lupus that you should know:

  • Lupus is not contagious, not even through sexual contact. You cannot “catch” lupus from someone or “give” lupus to someone.
  • Lupus is not like or related to cancer. Cancer is a condition of malignant, abnormal tissues that grow rapidly and spread into surrounding tissues. Lupus is an autoimmune disease, as described above.
  • Lupus is not like or related to HIV (Human Immune Deficiency Virus) or AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). In HIV or AIDS the immune system is underactive; in lupus, the immune system is overactive.
  • Lupus can range from mild to life-threatening and should always be treated by a doctor. With good medical care, most people with lupus can lead a full life.
  • Our research estimates that at least 1.5 million Americans have lupus. The actual number may be higher; however, there have been no large-scale studies to show the actual number of people in the U.S. living with lupus.
  • More than 16,000 new cases of lupus are reported annually across the country.
  • It is believed that 5 million people throughout the world have a form of lupus.
  • Lupus strikes mostly women of childbearing age (15-44). However, men, children, and teenagers develop lupus, too.
  • Women of color are two to three times more likely to develop lupus than Caucasians.
  • People of all races and ethnic groups can develop lupus.

What are the common 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

Many of these symptoms occur in other illnesses. In fact, lupus is sometimes called “the great imitator” because its symptoms are often like the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, blood disorders, fibromyalgia, diabetes, thyroid problems, Lyme disease, and a number of heart, lung, muscle, and bone diseases.

April Is National Sarcoidosis Awareness Month

Leave a reply

The following information and more can be found on The Foundation For Sarcoidosis Research’s website: www.stopsarcoidosis.org

April Is National Sarcoidosis Awareness Month

Sarcoidosis is an inflammatory disease that can affect almost any organ in the body. It causes heightened immunity, which means that a person’s immune system, which normally protects the body from infection and disease, overreacts, resulting in damage to the body’s own tissues. The classic feature of sarcoidosis is the formation of granulomas, microscopic clumps of inflammatory cells that group together (and look like granules, hence the name). When too many of these clumps form in an organ they can interfere with how that organ functions.

Sarcoidosis is a multi-system disorder.  Symptoms typically depend on which organ the disease affects.  Most often the disease will affect the lungs.

  • General: About one third of patients will experience non-specific symptoms of fever, fatigue, weight loss, night sweats and an overall feeling of malaise (or ill health).
  • Lungs: The lungs are affected in more than 90% of patients with sarcoidosis.  A cough that does not go away, shortness of breath, particularly with exertion and chest pain occur most frequently with the pulmonary form of the disease.
  • Lymph Nodes: Up to 90% of sarcoidosis patients have enlarged lymph nodes. Most often they are in the neck, but those under the chin, in the armpits and in the groin can be affected.  The spleen, which is part of the lymphatic system, can also be affected.
  • Liver: Although between 50% to 80% of patients with sarcoidosis will have granulomas in their liver, most are without symptoms and do not require treatment.
  • Heart: Researchers estimate that cardiac sarcoidosis, affects more than 10 percent of people with sarcoidosis in the United States, and perhaps as mHeart: any as 25 percent.  Sarcoidosis can cause the heart to beat weakly resulting in shortness of breath and swelling in the legs.  It can also cause palpitations (irregular heartbeat).
  • Brain & Nervous System: From 5% to 13% of patients have neurologic disease.  Symptoms can include headaches, visual problems, weakness or numbness of an arm or leg and facial palsy.
  • Skin:  One in four (25%) of patients will have skin involvement.  Painful or red, raised bumps on the legs or arms (called erythema nodosum), discoloration of the nose, cheeks, lips and ears (called lupus pernio) or small brownish and painless skin patches are symptoms of the cutaneous form of the disease.
  • Bones, Joints & Muscles:  Joint pain occurs in about one-third of patients.  Other symptoms include a mass in the muscle, muscle weakness and arthritis in the joints of the ankles, knees, elbows, wrists, hands and feet.
  • Eyes:  Any part of the eye can be affected by sarcoidosis and about 25% of patients have ocular involvement.  Common symptoms include: burning, itching, tearing, pain, red eye, sensitivity to light (photophobia), dryness, seeing black spots (called floaters) and blurred vision.  Chronic uveitis (inflammation of the membranes or uvea of the eye) can lead to glaucoma, cataracts and blindness.
  • Sinuses, Nasal Muscosa (lining) & Larynx:  About 5% of patients will have involvement in the sinuses with symptoms that can include sinusitis, hoarseness or shortness of breath.
  • Other Organs:  Rarely, the gastrointestinal tract, reproductive organs, salivary glands and the kidneys are affected.