Lupus Symptoms, Causes, and Diagnoses

Lupus is an autoimmune disease which triggers body’s immune system to attack both good and bad cells leading to cause too much pain and rashes in some parts of the body. Immune system produces antibodies in order to fight antigens that produce certain diseases. Problem is that lupus couldn’t identify antigens from good cells. Once lupus attacks both of them, it spreads all over the body which is the main reason why joints and other parts of the body swells.

Lupus can be hard to diagnose as it mimic the symptoms of some other known diseases. However the common lupus symptoms are joint pain, stiffness, and swelling and butterfly-shaped rash. But, hold your horses when making conclusions to what you are suffering right now. Let’s find out what lupus symptoms are.

1. Joint pain, swelling, and stiffness
2. Extreme headache and fatigue
3. Dry eyes
4. Butterfly-shaped rashes especially on the face, neck, chest areas, and hands
5. Mouth and nose ulcers
6. Anxiety and depression
7. Over-sensitivity to light
8. Chest pain
9. Inflammation of the sac around the lungs
10.  High fever of more than 38 degrees C
11.  Hair loss and swollen glands
12.  Anemia
13. Inflammation of blood vessels in the skin

There have never been two lupus symptoms that were said to be exactly the same. And the causes differ from one victim to another. In fact, until now, doctors haven’t learned the real cause of lupus, and because of this reason, there haven’t been any treatment that was made. There are known medications to alleviate or cure other lupus symptoms but these medications cannot completely cure the said disease.

For people who are manifesting lupus symptoms, they are diagnosed by undergoing three major tests, and these are laboratory tests, imaging tests, and biopsy. So if you think you are suffering from some of the lupus symptom given, you must prepare an appointment with your doctor for you to finally stop speculating about your illness and start attending to its medication (whatever it may be).

Understanding Lupus and its Symptoms

Before we get to know lupus symptoms and its treatment, it is important to first understand what lupus is and its causes. Lupus is an immune system disorder which oftentimes attacks bodies which can cause inflammation and rashes on the face, neck or scalp. Although lupus can be considered as a hereditary disease, when you find out that there is no one in your family who was diagnosed with the disease, your case might be of different cause which is not due to heredity. Lupus is amongst those diseases that are hard to diagnose as it mimics certain symptoms of other diseases. Lupus can affect your entire body but it oftentimes targets joints, skin, heart, lungs, brain, and blood cells.

Until now, although lupus is not a type of disease which has been discovered lately, doctors still have no known causes of lupus. All they have found out is that lupus couldn’t differentiate healthy tissues from antigens which makes body’s immune system weak, thus they attack both good and bad cells. This leads to swelling of joints and other parts of the body, as well as rashes on the neck and face. Despite the fact that lupus mimics symptoms, it is still important to know all of them in order to take immediate action from what you’re suffering from right now. Here is the list of lupus symptoms.

1. Swelling of joints which inflicts too much pain and stiffness
2. High fever
3. Easily gets tired leading to extreme fatigue
4. Chest pain
5. Consistent headache, nausea, memory loss
6. Anemia
7. Hair loss
8. Anxiety and depression
9. Shortness of breath
10. Rashes especially on face, neck, hands, and chest (usually forming a butterfly-shaped rash)
11. Seizures
12. External ulcers
13. Sensitivity to light
14. Dry eyes

As for recent findings, there are no known lupus cases that are exactly alike. This is one of the reasons why lupus is hard to detect. If you think that you are suffering from the symptoms mentioned above, it is best that you schedule an appointment with your doctor at once.