Table of Contents
Introduction
Brief description of what SLE is
Body paragraph #1 A. Effects and symptoms B. Treatment for effects and symptoms
Body paragraph #2 A. Living with Lupus Interview
Body paragraph #3 A. ITP- Autoimmune disease related with Lupus
Conclusion
Brendan Kelley
11/22/10
Intro to Biology
Lupus
Many people look past these rare diseases as if they are simply a myth but they are but all too real. This disease is called Systemic Lupus erythmatosus, but is called Lupus for short. An autoimmune disease such as Lupus weakens your body’s immune system response. Normally, the immune system helps protect the body from harmful substances. But in patients with an autoimmune disease, the immune system can 't tell the difference between harmful substances and healthy ones. This specific autoimmune disease has a long list of effects on the human body. There currently is no cure for SLE but there are treatments for which specific symptoms you show of the disease. The causes of this disease are not truly well known. Some researchers believe that an infection with an organism that looks like certain proteins causes these autoimmune diseases, although it has not been proved. The proteins are then late mistaken for the infectious organism and then wrongly attacked by the immune system. This has to do with the body’s immune system response. Instead of having your body’s immune system protecting against disease, you have an overactive immune response that cannot discriminate between harmful substances and healthy ones. The immune system response then goes on to attack health cells and tissue. This then leads to chronic inflammation. There are some cases where SLE is mild and is easily treatable or much more severe cases which lead to death. This disease attacks a much larger amount of women then it does to men. Nine times as many women as men are infected with this autoimmune disease. African Americans
Bibliography: Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. Web. <https://health.google.com/health/ref/Systemic+lupus+erythematosus>. "Living with Lupus." Personal interview. "Lupus: Treatments and Drugs - MayoClinic.com." Mayo Clinic Medical Information and Tools for Healthy Living - MayoClinic.com. Web. 07 Dec. 2010. ITP. Google Health. Web. <https://health.google.com/health/ref/Idiopathic+thrombocytopenic+purpura+(ITP)>. Children 's Hospital. "Lupus What Is It?" (2008): 1-5. Print.