If you have symptoms
of lupus, especially if you have a history of lupus in
the family, you should see your doctor for a complete
medical history review. If there is a history of lupus
in your family, you are more likely to develop the
disease than the general population. Lupus tends to run
in families and there is definitely a genetic aspect to
the disease.
When you see the doctor, he will ask you questions about
your medical history, lupus signs and symptoms, and a
family history of lupus. If there is a history of lupus
or other immune system diseases in the family such as
MS, rheumatism, and arthritis, you should tell your
doctor. Your doctor will also want to know if you have a
history of lupus symptoms, what health problems you have
been experiencing and how long they have been going on.
The questions that the doctor will ask will also depend
on whether your doctor suspects lupus or other diseases.
This is why a complete medical history and family
history of lupus is a very important aspect in
diagnosis.
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However, just
because you have a history of lupus in the family does
not automatically mean you will get the disease. Many
environmental factors play a role in the development of
the disease. For example, a person who has a family
history of lupus but he eats a healthy diet, takes
vitamins, stays out of the sun, uses sunscreen, avoids
smoking and drinking and stays away from environmental
toxins may never trigger the disease process. Therefore,
if you have a family history of lupus, in addition to
being aware of the symptoms and signs of lupus, you
should strive to have as healthy a lifestyle as possible
to prevent the disease from occurring.
Help Your Body Heal Itself
The history of lupus begins in 1828 when the French
dermatologist described the disease. For the next 45
years, studies of the disease showed nothing more than
descriptions that emphasized skin changes. In the mid
1800s, Pierre Cazenave was the first person to have a
comprehensive description of lupus. The disease was
named because of a wolf-bite shaped rash (the butterfly
rash) that appears across the nose and cheeks of many
lupus patients. Lupus is the Latin word for wolf. In
1873, a dermatologist named Kaposi noted that people
with a history of lupus lesions also experienced
problems in internal organs. Then in the 1890s, a famous
American physician, Sir William Osler, discovered that
some patients had internal organ involvement but no
history of lupus skin problems at all. In 1948, a
finding by Dr. Malcolm Hargraves of the Mayo Clinic that
showed that patients with SLE had a LE cell in their
blood, allowed doctors to develop a simple blood test.
This blood test, along with a medical history and family
history of lupus was used to diagnose many more cases of
lupus. In the 1950�s, scientists discovered antinuclear
antibodies (proteins that cause the immune system to
attack its own tissues) which lead to the development of
more sensitive tests for SLE. Studies using mice (murine
models) in the last 40 years have also increased our
understanding of the disease.
Studies with identical twins (twins that share the same
genetic makeup) show that if one twin gets lupus, the
other twin is much more likely to get lupus than
fraternal twins or siblings. This is compelling evidence
that there is a genetic aspect to the disease because
other siblings, especially fraternal twins (twins that
do not share the same genetic makeup) usually have
similar environments when growing up. The history of
lupus is fairly short and more research needs to be done
to find out as much as we can about this disease.
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