Topic > An overview of lupus: history of the disease, its effects and treatment options

Having the sensation of pain and/or swelling in the joints, unusual hair loss, extreme tiredness (especially if you are a college student), etc. it can be really uncomfortable for some. Well, some people face these symptoms. These symptoms may be a sign of LUPUS; this disease is not harmful as it can affect women and men. A person with an unusual pain might complain for the time being, however, that little pain can be the little cause of another person or a loved one suffering from living with those problems. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original EssayLupus is also known as SLE (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus) is an autoimmune disease, in which the body's immune system starts attacking itself, but not only itself also attacks healthy tissues which can cause several problems like inflammation joints, swelling and more. The history of lupus is interesting as it includes three periods: classical, neoclassical, and modern. First in the classical period (1230-1856), although not much research was done in that period, lupus was marked as a skin disorder but then it was created/renamed Lupus. The word Lupus comes from the Latin word “Wolf” and the reason it comes from the word “wolf” was because at that time it looked like a facial lesion similar/reminiscent of a wolf bite. Since there were many descriptive features of lupus, many dermatologists such as Cazenave, Thomas Bateman, Moriz Kaposia and many others who were part of the Lupus investigations were also involved. As more knowledge and even more patients began to acquire similar recognizable symptoms/scarves/lesions, in 1833 Cazenave described discoid lupus (also known as centrifugal erythema), even more so, information began to appear describing how the butterfly rash noted by Von Hebra in 1846. One of the first published illustrations of Lupus (Lupus erythematosus) was found in Von Hebra's Atlas of Skin Diseases in 1856. Then came the neoclassical era of Lupus where the "true story" of lupus began. in 1872, when a boy named Kaposi described the systemic disorder of Lupus, "...experience has shown that lupus erythematosus... may be accompanied by altogether more severe pathological changes, and even dangerous constitutional symptoms may be intimately associated with the process in question and that death can result from conditions that must be considered as resulting from the local disease. With his explanation/investigation he proposed that there were two types of Lupus erythematosus: the discoid form and the disseminated (systemic) form. Kaposi then talks about the symptoms that characterize this disease (but we will talk about them later in the symptoms part.) As time passed, the systemic form of Lupus was established in 1904 by Osler in Baltimore and Jadassohn in Vienna. And now as Lupus of the. modern era, an investigation in 1948 by Hargraves and colleagues observed that the cell in the bone marrow of a person with bad part of their body with the Lupus cell, "...is the result of...phagocytosis of free nuclear material with a resulting round vacuole containing this partially digested and lysed nuclear material...". Today's discovery of Lupus has made it "easy" to diagnose a person with a much milder form of the disease. In 1950 two other markers were recognized as familial to lupus, the false-positive biological test for syphilis and the immunofluorescent test for antinuclear antibodies. A “curiosity” from that time, if you worked in Baltimore, proved that Lupus wasdeveloped in 7% of 148 people with a false-positive test for syphilis and that 30% had symptoms consistent with collagen disease. An important fact about Lupus, rather the most important is that it is not contagious, not even with sexual contact, nor can it be contracted, nor given to anyone, nor touched, in others you cannot get it with any interaction. That's why in it History makes it difficult to know where it comes from because no one knows. However, there is research that dog can get Lupus too, but the same thing I talked about above about it not being contagious applies here too, you can't catch it from a dog, which makes it difficult to track its tracks. However, this disease is not an epidemic or a pandemic, rather Lupus is prevalent in women between the ages of 15 and 44, scientists believe that female hormones are the reason or one of the causes of getting Lupus, and the reason why they speculate is because there is the year that women can have children. However it is not that common to get Lupus when you are 15 years old, the only exception is if a woman who has Lupus has given birth, which does not mean the baby will have Lupus, it can cause the baby to have liver problems, skin problems , to the heart, but if the mother is healthy or follows a healthy diet, the baby and the pregnancy itself can be healthy. But it is important that this disease is not sexist, attacks men too, is not prevalent among men but is more deadly/fatal/severe in men than in women. Thus, Lupus can occur in all people regardless of gender, race, nationality or ethnicity. According to an article, “A Brief History of Lupus and Its Implications for You” Lupus demographically: In the United States anywhere between 20 and 150 women out of 100,000 develop lupus; Lupus is common among African Americans, but its prevalence among Africans is surprisingly lower than that among African Americans. Also, in the "Lupus Foundation Of Northern California" it goes a little further on how it affects African Americans and other women of color, mentioning that it affects black women three times more likely than white women, plus it is more common in Latina, Asian, and American Indian women. Also, as in African Americans, Latinos develop lupus at a younger age and have more symptoms at the time of diagnosis. Even more, it talks about how African Americans tend to have more seizures and strokes, and in Latino/a a tendency to have more heart problems, as they mention in their website they don't know why some people have more problems with Lupus then other people or groups . Another article titled “Understanding the Epidemiology and Progression of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus” talks/provides little information about the survival rate of Lupus, answering the question (not completely) of why minorities suffer the most from this disease. According to them, the survival rate is less favorable with minorities which, they hypothesize, may be related to socioeconomic status rather than ethnicity and social support shown/given to be a protective factor in patients. As mentioned above, there is no exact model of transmission, nor of contagiousness, and no one knows who got there, so it is quite difficult to understand how it got into a human. But what researchers know or believe/have an idea about is how you can “get it”. As stated in the previous paragraph, scientists believe that lupus is developing due to internal and external factors such as hormones, genetics, and environment. Before we start explaining how Lupus is "got" the information needs to come from the Lupus Foundation of America. So, first, let's leave the hormone-based coverage; hormones are ibody messengers and help regulate body function. Since Lupus affects 9 out of 10 women, scientists and researchers have examined whether there is a relationship between estrogen and Lupus. Because Lupus affects both sexes, researchers look at the estrogen level in men and women, which is much higher in women than men. But what does estrogen have to do with Lupus, you may wonder, is it because there is a pathway that shows when there are high amounts of estrogen, Lupus becomes more prevalent, which may be a small explanation as to why it is prevalent in women due to pregnancy. or before the menstrual cycle they produce high quantities. However, there are still some problems with this idea because it has not been proven between estrogen, or any other hormone, and Lupus. Additionally, women with Lupus who take estrogen via birth control pills or who are postmenopausal have shown no significant increase in the disease, leading to further research into differences between men and women on a hormonal level that may answer the question or lead to a idea of ​​why women are more common than men. Genetically, an important fact about Lupus and genes is that no gene has been proven to cause Lupus, a researcher and scientist have discovered/identified that 50 genes are associated with Lupus. These genes are more observed in a patient with Lupus than in those without Lupus, although these genes are not one hundred percent accurate, they must believe that they can contribute to it. However, in this case the genes do not have a complete answer as it proves that in twins raised in the same environment and with the same characteristics only one could develop Lupus while the other could not, but it is the case in which there are two identical twins who if you have Lupus, there may be an increasing chance that other twins will develop Lupus “30% chance for identical twins; 5-10% chance for fraternal twins. Additionally, Lupus does not need to be a family history, however it is another autoimmune disease in some family histories and Lupus, as they are not discriminatory ethnic groups, African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders run a higher risk of developing Lupus. Finally environmental, since genetics and hormones are not in full bloom, scientists are moving towards the idea that Lupus may be an environmental agent, something chemical or encountered while walking or any act that will trigger the disease, however it is not yet certain whether it actually is (it's just a hypothesis). But the biggest evidence they have is ultraviolet light” (UVA and UVB); infections (including the effects of the Epstein-Barr virus) and exposure to silica dust in agricultural or industrial settings. The Lupus Foundation of America talks about other triggers for Lupus, “ultraviolet rays from the sun and/or fluorescent light bulbs, sulfa drugs that make a person more sensitive to the sun, tetracycline sun-sensitizing drugs, penicillin or other antibiotic drugs, infections, colds or viral diseases; Exhaustion, emotional stress” In the neoclassical period (1872-1948) Kaposi was the one who described the systemic nature of Lupus, and also described signs/symptoms that characterized Lupus, mentioning them as: “subcutaneous nodules, arthritis with synovial hypertrophy of small joints and large, lymphadenopathy, fever, weight loss, anemia, central nervous system involvement". And in the classical period (1230-1856) it was known as butterfly rash. Now, in the present day, more symptoms have started to appear, but more awareness has also been brought. With the advent of Lupus, Lupus has started to become more difficult to diagnose as it can easily be confused with othersdiseases or be treated as a different disease, which is why Lupus has earned the name “Great Imitator”. An important aspect of Lupus is that it does not have the same effect/symptom for every person, meaning that every person can/will experience something different while contracting Lupus. Some common signs listed in the Lupus Foundation of American are: “Red rash or color change on the face, often butterfly-shaped on the nose and cheeks, Painful or swollen joints, Unexplained fever, Chest pain with deep breathing, Swollen glands, extreme fatigue (continuously feeling tired), unusual hair loss (especially on the scalp), pale or purple fingers or toes due to cold or stress, sensitivity to the sun, low red blood cell count and depression, difficulty thinking and/or memory problems. Other signs are mouth ulcers, unexplained seizures (convulsions), "seeing things" (hallucinations), repeated miscarriages, and unexplained kidney problems. Another way to know the symptom of Lupus or to know if you have it, is if you have part of this algorithm, clinical characteristics and laboratory tests. This algorithm comes from "A Brief History of Lupus and Its Implications for You", "Here are some clinical signs of lupus: skin lesions, alopecia (a type of hair loss), oral ulcers, synovitis (inflammation of the synovial membrane in joints ), neurological symptoms (seizures, psychosis, etc.) Here are some diagnostic and laboratory findings that can be used to diagnose lupus: blood tests (low white blood cell count, low platelet count, and low red blood cell count), kidney function tests, kidney biopsy, urinalysis (looking for red blood cell casts), and immunological tests (think tests for antibodies like ANA, antiphospholipids, Anti-Sm, and anti-dsDNA)” However, that algorithm always follows from different patients that one Lupus sufferer had a different experience from another. Lupus has a “short” history about its treatment and how people struggled to deal with it. But something important to know is the important everyday fact that there is no cure yet found for Lupus that makes it so dangerous, but that means it can be treatable and cannot be reduced/controlled. Most information about treatment comes from the Lupus Foundation of America. In 1894 a researcher Payne was the person who first reported the usefulness of quinine in the treatment of Lupus, time passes (4 years) and the use of salicylates in combination with quinine were also used and noticed to be useful. Later in the 20th century, cortisone/corticosteroids were introduced to treat lupus. Currently, corticosteroids are the primary therapy for nearly all individuals with lupus. Additionally, the American Lupus Foundation talks about the use of antimalarials in the past for lupus skin and joint development, which were also used in the present day as a treatment which was to prevent the occurrence of flare-ups, accumulation of damage, and episodes of early morality . Now, in today's era, Lupus is treated in more different ways that are more appropriate to the patient since, again, Lupus attacks the patient in different ways. The Lupus foundation somehow touches on the treatment of Lupus, one of the ways is cytotoxic/immunosuppressant which is a drug for glomerulonephritis, systemic vasculitis and other life-threatening attacks of Lupus. Additionally the Mayo Clinic talks about the different ways Lupus is treated, but it talks about the different symptoms and signs a person shows and what type of medicine is recommended for them. So let's say you have swelling or fever associated with lupus (the reason I say it's associated is.