Education

What is lupus and who is most likely to get it?

Lupus is a chronic (lifelong) autoimmune disorder that causes your immune system to attack itself, vital organs, and skin. Because of this every lupus patient is different. One person with lupus may have kidney involvement and alopecia while another one has heart and lung involvement.

There are two main types of lupus . SLE is the most common type of lupus. SLE can have mild or severe symptoms affecting different body parts. Common symptoms include fatigue hair loss, sun sensitivity, painful and swollen joints, fevers that can not be explained, skin rashes, and kidney problems. CLE (cutaneous lupus erythematosus) is a skin disease that can affect people who have SLE or can be present on its own. “Cutaneous” means “skin.” Symptoms with this type of lupus can be, rashes, hair loss, swelling of the blood vessels, ulcers, and sun sensitivity. Your favorite new blogger, yes me is lucky enough to have both kinds! Yeah me always an overachiever!

Women are nine times more likely to develop lupus than men. Lupus is two to three times more common in African-American women and other women of color than in Caucasian women. There are approximately 1.5 million Americans who have lupus, with an estimated 16,000 new cases each year.