subject: Lady Gaga May Have Lupus - But What Is It? [print this page] Recently, Lady Gaga disclosed that she may have lupus. Testing "borderline positive" for a disease is a proclamation that few people make, especially for a serious disease like this, but it's actually not as crazy as it sounds.
The truth is that a diagnosis of lupus can be quite difficult to make and sometimes takes multiple tests performed over years to reliably piece together all of the symptoms and arrive at a conclusion. Medical researchers are not even sure what causes lupus or who is most at risk of the disease.
Despite the fact that almost two million Americans have lupus, most people are ignorant of just what it is. Lupus is defined as a malfunction of the immune system where the bodys own organs come under attack as if they were foreign intruders. None of the many systems of the body are exempt from the attack with the lungs, skin, heart, kidneys and even the red blood cells targeted as possible invaders.
One of the factors that makes diagnosis of lupus so difficult is that the symptoms seem to have such a wide variation from one person to the next. Different symptoms and a range of severity from mild to severely debilitating can be found and these symptoms can also recede and flair up at various intervals over time.
Some common symptoms of lupus are muscle pain, swollen joints, a red rash (usually on the face), hair loss and extreme fatigue. Other people suffer from sensitivity to the sun, depression, headaches or seizures. To add to the confusion and uncertainty, these symptoms can come and go with new ones popping up and going away over the course of years. Some people experience symptoms in only one area of the body such as the joints while others may be afflicted only in the skin and mouth.
People who have been diagnosed with lupus face a challenging and difficult life. There is no known cure at this time and the problems tend to stay with you for life. Dealing with the stresses of living with a disease like this can be the hardest part and it's critically important for the patient to find ways to deal with the mental strain. A healthy diet, adequate exercise and positive mental outlook are all keys to help reduce the symptoms and severity of this condition.
