Recently, Celebrity Selena Gomez came out publicly with the news that she has Lupus. I had heard of this disease, but what exactly is this? What causes Lupus? What have scientists and doctors discovered that can help?
“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.” This is the definition according to Lupus.org. Lupus often causes joint pain and fatigue. The website goes on to clarify that Lupus is not contagious in any way, and it can range from severity. It can be anywhere from a mild case to being life-threatening. An article from Chicago Tribune explains further what exactly Lupus does “The problem lies in the immune system, whose job is to protect against infection. When working properly, it recognizes the difference between healthy and unhealthy cells. When it malfunctions, however, and attacks healthy cells even when there is no threat, the results are inflammation and autoimmune disease.”
photo comes from Mollysfund.org
This news article is interesting because it goes on to talk about how hard Lupus is to test for, because of how many similar symptoms it shares with other diseases.
So now that it’s clearer what Lupus is, how does a person get Lupus? This site regarding Lupus research says, “Lupus is a mystery. Researchers think genetic, environmental and possibly hormonal factors combine in some way to cause the condition.” Lupus is different from cancer, but seems to be similar in a the fact that the way you get Lupus is still not completely figured out. Research like this can often be difficult because performing experiments is very difficult, because they need to be ethical. You can do anything but observational studies, and that is only helpful to a degree because of all the third variables that could be present.
Who typically gets Lupus? According to Women’s Health “More than 90 percent of people with lupus are women between the ages of 15 and 45. African‑American, Latina, Asian, and Native American women are at greater risk of getting lupus than white women.” Men are susceptible to Lupus, along with women who are not in this age bracket, but young women are who Lupus affects the most.
The Chicago tribune article that I referred to earlier is interesting because it goes on to talk about how hard Lupus is to test for, because of how many similar symptoms it shares with other diseases. One of my big questions was how do doctors test for Lupus? Here is a website that helped me better understand the answer to that question. According to the site, the first thing is having the symptoms associated with Lupus. The second is lab testing, to test for the auto antibodies that damage the cells in the person’s blood. The site also says that according to Dr. Gizler, “Diseases like psoriasis that may also involve the skin and joints, or rheumatoid arthritis, can be confused with lupus”. This makes it difficult to spot if a person has Lupus.
Lupus may not be thought of as much as cancer, but I think that research should continue to be done for both Lupus and Cancer. Yes, it may take years, but eventually I think we will be able to find a cure. Science often takes many, many attempts to come to a conclusion, and often times, even then, it still is not 100% right. In some cases Lupus can be life threatening, so it is definitely worth continuing to put money and time into the research, in my opinion.