What Is Lupus?

Lupus has become the common name used for a group of autoimmune diseases that are chronic. There is more than one type of lupus, and the type most commonly seen today is known as systemic lupus erythematosus. It’s rather easy to see why people prefer to just use the lupus moniker instead of those three long words, though some people just shorten it and call this type of lupus SLE.

There are two other types of lupus that can develop in the human body. They are –

• Discoid lupus erythematosus
• Drug induced lupus

Neither of these two varieties is as common or as severe as SLE.

When you have lupus, your immune system stops working the way it should. Normally, it produces antibodies that help to keep you from catching every cold and sickness that comes along by shielding the body from bacteria and viruses. The immune system also protects your body against antigens, which are foreign objects that enter the body by breathing in air, eating or drink, or getting an injection. These antigens can cause an immune response to take place in the body. 

Lupus causes your body’s immune system to attack the healthy tissues and cells in your body. The immune system gets confused and is not able to differentiate between the antigens which enter your body and the things that make up a body – namely, cells, tissues, and organs. Since it can’t tell the difference, it reacts by making antibodies just as it would when a foreign object/illness invades the body. The only difference is that the antibodies made by the body are directed right back at itself.  They are called “Auto” or Self-Antibodies for this reason.

When this happens, you can expect that inflammation, pain, and damage will occur throughout the body. Inflammation is the hallmark of SLE lupus. And oh, what an inflammation it is, too! It can occur in the skin that covers your body, or in the muscles and/or joints inside the body.  Other organs of the body such as the kidneys, the heart, or the lungs can become inflamed. Even the nervous system and the blood vessels can come under attack from these auto antibodies. The inflammation causes a burning pain and swelling with its normal accompaniment of redness and heat. It also can cause whatever part of the body that is affected to become practically useless.

For some reason, more women than men seem to come down with lupus. It has been estimated that more than ninety percent of the people who have this disease are women. Normally, it hits them when they are young during the years that most women usually are able to have children, from around the age of 15 all the way up to age 45, though there have been cases of women coming down with lupus both earlier and later in life than this.  Studies have shown that more African Americans, Native Americans, Asians and Hispanics have lupus than do Caucasians.

Lupus is not a disease that is always present. You can be in remission and have very little or no inflammation, or experience a flare and have the pain and symptoms for days at a time. Lupus affects each individual that has it in a different way as it does not always pinpoint the same tissues, muscles, and organs in different people. No one knows just what causes lupus. Scientists are working to learn more about this disease.

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