In our bodies, we have an immune system. This immune system will fight infections, bacteria, viruses, diseases and any other foreign material trying to invade our body. Our immune system produces proteins called antibodies, fights these diseases and infection with are called antigens.
Lupus is an auto-immune disease which can affect various parts of your body. It can affect your skin, your heart, lungs, your joints, your blood, your kidneys and even your brain.
Because Lupus is an autoimmune disease, your body is not able to tell the difference between something foreign trying to attack the body or your own antibodies trying to protect you from these antigens. These antibodies are referred to as 'auto-antibodies', meaning 'self'-antibodies. These antibodies cause a great deal of inflammation and pain as well as damage in different parts of the body.
The primary feature of lupus is the inflammation that it causes. The Latin meaning for inflammation is “set on fire”, which is felt as severe pain and heat, there will also be redness and swelling. You may lose function of either the inside or outside of your body where the lupus is located.
Thankfully, lupus is pretty mild in most people, with it affecting on a few organs instead of many. But for the minority, they are not so lucky. Lupus can actually be very serious and may even threaten the life of the patient. There is very limited epidemiological data that has been found on lupus, but the studies have suggested that there are more than 16,000 of Americans that develop this dreaded disease every year.
According to the Lupus Foundation of America (LFA), there are an estimated 1.5 million to 2 million Americans that are suffering some form of lupus now, this number is taking the low side, it is probably higher than this. The majority of those suffering from Lupus are women, accounting for around 90%. The symptoms usually begin to show during their childbearing years, and this is typically when they are diagnosed. Lupus is most commonly found among African Americans, Asians, Latinos, and the Native American women than in Caucasians, at least here in the United States.
