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Lupus
University
of Michigan Health System RNS, Lupus, Feb. 2003
Full press release at the following URL:
http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2003/lupus.htm
Living with lupus:
when the body turns on itself
(Download audio version)
Suggested
Lead: With increased awareness and ability to diagnose lupus,
patients are now able to lead a more normal life. Here is Andi McDonnell
with more.
TRT 2:09
SOQ
Imagine that
your body's defenses turned against you and began attacking your
own tissue causing your joints, muscles and organs to become swollen
- and no one knows why it's happening.
For nearly
1.4 million Americans suffering from lupus, an autoimmune disease,
this scenario is a part of their every day life. And for many of
those people affected, just being diagnosed with lupus was a difficult
endeavor since its symptoms can mimic other illnesses.
Fortunately,
diagnosing lupus and awareness about the disease has greatly improved
in the past 30 years. This has allowed patients learn how to best
manage their disease to lead relatively normal lives.
Dr. Joseph
McCune (M.D.), Director of the Rheumatology Clinic at the University
of Michigan Health System, explains . . .
"The
usual presentation of lupus is a young person. Women outnumber
men 10 to 1, who develops sensitivity to the sun, butterfly rash
in the distribution of where the sun hits the face, arthritis,
fatigue, fevers, chest pains, and goes to the doctor because of
the rash and the discomfort of the chest pain and arthritis. Lupus
can go on and affect the kidneys and the nervous system and cause
very severe problems, particularly kidney disease, which affects
about 50 percent of patients."
Although there
is not a cure for lupus, earlier diagnosis allows many patients
to achieve satisfactory control of most aspects of their illness.
To do that, McCune encourages his lupus patients to eat right and
exercise and keep their weight down, control their blood pressure,
and not to smoke.
One patient,
Cynthia Nichols-Jackson, has learned to successfully live with lupus.
However, it took several blood tests before Jackson's lupus was
identified through an antinuclear antibody test (ANA).
Today, she
says she manages her disease with medication and a healthy lifestyle....
"I'm
learning not to eat so much high-fat foods and looking at more
with exercise and activity. And then, just rest, you know, just
watching, between the rest, the exercise, and the medications
I have to take."
Andi McDonnell,
U-M Health system News
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