What is this Lupus thing?

Lupus is an autoimmune disease that can damage the skin, joints, or organs inside the body. This disease is Chronic so that means that it often lasts for many years. Being that Lupus is an autoimmune disease the body's antibodies produced by white blood cells which are usually used to fight foreign infections like viruses and bacteria aren't able to recognize the difference between when something in the body is foreign or not. The result is that these antibodies start to attack perfectly healthy tissue. This causes pain, inflammation, and damage to various parts in the body. Lupus is a disease that goes in cycles so there can be periods of flare up ( where the disease is extremely painful) or periods of remission ( where symptoms of the disease are improving and you start to feel better. These antibodies that attack the body are known as autoantibodies and they circulate in the blood, but some of the body’s cell walls are permeable so that they autoantibodies get through to certain places in the body. This is why during flare ups that certain areas of the body are worse at some points than others.

Some people are born with more likely tendencies to have Lupus which later on in life can be initiated by certain drugs, infections, and even sunlight. The origin of this disease is unknown, but it does occur most often in women. Some research has been done to link estrogen and Lupus together, but nothing definite is available yet.  There is no specific group of genes that cause lupus sometimes it can run in families, but no conclusive findings about what type of gene has been established. Unfortunately, there is no cure for Lupus, but there are treatment plans available to help with the symptoms of this disease.