What is lupus?

Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease were a person’s immune system starts attacking their own body.

I have a sister-in-law with this affliction though hers seems to be well controlled with medication.

my mother had this and died cause of it August 17th 2001. it does pretty much take over your body all her orgens slowly shut down she ended up with congestive heart failure, her lungs went bad she had to have oxygen and was on I dont know who many meds on a daily basis. it was hard to see her go through that pain everyday. but she was always happy and didnt want people to treat her different. I know there are less serious cases, but thats just what happened to my mom. it just broke her down.

I’m not exactly sure but my older sister has it and it affected her joints it made her skin sensitive to the sun and she gained a lot of weight from it and the dr told her that the last thing she needs is to get prego and she did and it almost killed her she’s had it since she was 13 or 14 and she’s 22 now on kemo but its a very serious disese that has to be watched carefully or something bad could happen

Lupus is an autoimmune disease, which means that the body’s natural defense system (immune system) attacks its own tissues instead of attacking foreign substances like bacteria and viruses. This causes inflammation. Inflammation causes swelling, pain, and tissue damage throughout the body. If you develop severe lupus, you may have problems with your kidneys, heart, lungs, nervous system, or blood cells. Lupus is the common name for systemic lupus erythematosus, also called SLE. Although some people with lupus have only mild symptoms, the disease is lifelong and can become severe. But most people can control their symptoms and prevent severe damage to their organs. They do this by seeing their doctors often for checkups, getting enough rest and exercise, and taking medicines: http://lupus.webmd.com/guide/lupus-systemic-lupus-erythematosus-topic-overview