Lupus & other diseases

[Guest guest]

I was incorrectly diagnosed with Lupus from a blood test. Another test was

performed and found it was a false positive. One of our subscribers announced

recently that she had been diagnosed with lupus. Since it is an autoimmune

disease, I thought of posting it here to read if you are interested in this

disease.

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" The links between autoimmune diseases, infections, genetics and the environment

are complex and mysterious. Why are people who live near airports more

susceptible to autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus? How do

hormones in meat trigger the onset of a disease?

" Our immediate environment interacts with our genetic programming and can

determine if we will succumb to an autoimmune disease, says rheumatologist Prof.

Ehrenfeld of Tel Aviv University's Sackler School of Medicine, who is

seeking to unravel those mysteries. Prof. Ehrenfeld recently published a report

in Autoimmune Reviews on how " Spondylo-arthropathies, " a group of common

inflammatory rheumatic disorders, appear to be triggered by environmental

factors. He has also done research on how the dry-eye and mouth disease

" Sjögren's syndrome " can be triggered by environmental influences.

" The onset of autoimmune diseases is a mixture of genetics, which you can't

change, and environmental factors, which in some cases you can, " says Prof.

Ehrenfeld. While he cites pollution as a trigger in many autoimmune disorders,

" there are some environmental factors harder to avoid. For example, reactive

arthritis is caused by a severe gastro-intestinal, urinary or sexual infection

in some people, " he says. Afflicting more than 2 million Americans, rheumatoid

arthritis is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease, three times more

prevalent in women than men. The disorder causes the body's own immune system to

attack its joints, leading to pain, deformities and a substantial loss of

mobility.

" It is still impossible to tell which genes encode this disease and make some

people more susceptible to autoimmune diseases, but there are some basic

behaviors that may keep these disorders at bay. One root cause of arthritis is

extreme stress, says Prof. Ehrenfeld, for which there are already therapeutic

strategies. And some medications, such as the birth control pills, might be

linked in some cases to the onset of lupus. " You won't know if taking the pill

or getting a certain virus will trigger arthritis, because we don't yet know the

genes that encode the various autoimmune diseases, " he says. " Obviously those

people whose family members share a history of rheumatoid arthritis, or other

autoimmune diseases including thyroid problems, should be more vigilant, because

their chances are higher. "

Triggers include hairspray and lipstick

" Environmental pollution is also a cause for concern to those genetically

predisposed to an autoimmune disease. Second-hand smoke, food chemicals or

chemicals in the air, jet fuel fumes, UV exposure and other forms of

environmental pollution are amongst the triggers considered to provoke the onset

of autoimmune diseases. Industrial regions, particularly in Northern Europe and

North America, still exhibit the highest rates of most autoimmune diseases. But

on a much more local scale, Prof. Ehrenfeld also singles out hairspray as well

as lipstick as known occasional triggers.

" Most people think arthritis has to do with old age, " says Prof. Ehrenfeld.

" This is false. There is only one major type of arthritis in older people:

osteoarthritis, which is brought on by degenerative changes in the body. What

you see in older adults is usually a non-inflammatory and non-autoimmune type of

arthritis.

" Most of the other kinds of arthritis we see in the clinic, the debilitating and

inflammatory types, usually occur in young women between the ages of 20 and 40, "

Prof. Ehrenfeld says. " We hope that our research will lessen the occurrence and

onset of these painful disorders. "

Source: Hunka

American Friends of Tel Aviv University

FYI,

Lottie Duthu