Sunburn can bring on symptoms of lupus.

Lupus is an autoimmune disease without a current cure. Some lifestyle changes moderate the disease – diet and sun protection. A medical diagnosis along with laboratory testing can confirm the condition. Lupus can last a lifetime. Almost two-thirds of Americans do not know what lupus is.

What is Lupus?

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/lupus/symptoms-causes/syc-20365789. An autoimmune disease causes our immune systems to attack our bodies. It might be our tissues, organs, joints, skin, brain, blood cells, and more. It is difficult to nail down because the symptoms mimic many other diseases.

Not all symptoms are present in everyone with lupus. One classic symptom is the butterfly rash on both cheeks, but not everyone has this indicator. Most experience fatigue, fever, joint pain, stiffness, skin lesions that worsen with exposure to the sun, shortness of breath, chest pain, dry eyes, headaches, confusion, memory loss, and a few more.

Genetics, sunlight, other infections, some medications, gender, age, and race can be a factor for the development of lupus. Complications often arise with the kidneys, brain, central nervous system, blood system, lungs, and heart. People with lupus have an increased risk of infection, cancer, bone tissue death, and pregnancy complications.

Treatments for Lupus

https://www.lupus.org/resources/medications-used-to-treat-lupus. Treatments abound for lupus. Your doctor could recommend anti-inflammatories (aspirin, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and other NSAIDs), steroids, antimalarials (hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine), immunosuppressives or immune modulators, anticoagulants, monoclonal antibodies, and repository corticotropin injections.

Each drug treats a different class of symptoms. Not all drugs respond rapidly – some take months to provide adequate relief. Everyone reacts differently to prescription medicines. Doctors are treating the symptoms and not the cause of the disease. When you do not know what causes an autoimmune problem, it is challenging to create a treatment for that cause. Most autoimmune diseases fall in the category of not knowing the cause.

New Drug

https://www.webmd.com/lupus/news/20210527/experimental-treatment-offers-new-hope-against-lupus. Phase 1 of clinical trials for VIB7734 has finished and demonstrated significant improvement for nearly 90% of the participants. The new drug is a lab-created protein (monoclonal antibody) that acts as an immune system antibody.

This experimental drug is designed to treat systemic lupus, the most common of all types of lupus. The synthetic protein inhibits the body from producing specific antibodies (plasmacytoid dendritic cells) that release inflammatory molecules like type 1 interferons. Limiting the levels of interferon controls the level of inflammation in the body.

The clinical results showed that a high dose of the new drug suppressed over 87% of skin rashes. A lower dose used reacted well in nearly 40% of the participants. Those taking a placebo showed just less than a 30% reduction in skin rashes and lesions. https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/13/595/eabf8442

Adjustments are being made to being Phase 2 of clinical trials. Using monoclonal antibodies allows the researchers to target specific aspects of our immune system response. Reducing a symptom or lessening the severity of a symptom can significantly improve the quality of life for those with lupus.

Conclusion

One and a half million Americans (five million worldwide) have lupus. Ninety percent of them are women. Over half of us know the term or what it means. Under twenty percent can see extended periods of remission. It is a complex disease to diagnose and treat correctly.

Live Longer & Enjoy Life! – Red O’Laughlin – RedOLaughlin.com

 

 

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