In most cases, lupus is not fatal. In fact, 80% to 90% of people who have this autoimmune disease will likely live a normal life span. Still, some people do die from the disease, in which your immune system attacks your body's organs and tissues.
With close follow-up and treatment, 80-90% of people with lupus can expect to live a normal life span. It is true that medical science has not yet developed a method for curing lupus, and some people do die from the disease. However, for the majority of people living with the disease today, it will not be fatal.
Lupus can cause serious kidney damage, and kidney failure is one of the leading causes of death among people with lupus. Brain and central nervous system. If your brain is affected by lupus, you may experience headaches, dizziness, behavior changes, vision problems, and even strokes or seizures.
Lupus is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease with a wide range of clinical presentations resulting from its effect on multiple organ systems. There are four main types of lupus: neonatal, discoid, drug-induced, and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), the type that affects the majority of patients.
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is the most common and most serious type of lupus. SLE affects all parts of the body. Cutaneous lupus erythematosus, which affects only the skin. Drug-induced lupus, a short-term type of lupus caused by certain medicines.
Environment. Exposure to certain factors in the environment – such as viral infections, sunlight, certain medications, and smoking – may trigger lupus.
The vast majority of people diagnosed with the condition will have a normal or near-normal life expectancy. However, some people with SLE are still at risk of life-threatening complications as a result of damage to internal organs and tissues, such as heart attack or stroke.
With age, symptom activity with lupus often declines, but symptoms you already have may grow more severe. The accumulation of damage over years may result in the need for joint replacements or other treatments.
Kidneys About one half of people with lupus experience kidney involvement, and the kidney has become the most extensively studied organ affected by lupus. Lungs About 50% of people with SLE will experience lung involvement during the course of their disease.
Class 5, or membranous lupus nephritis
This classification involves thickening and scarring of the important structures within the kidney. A person will have high levels of blood, protein, or both in their urine as well as high blood pressure. They may also require dialysis or a kidney transplant.
Sudden death in lupus patients is uncommon in the literature. A few cases of sudden death not due to myocardial infarction have been reported. One of them was a patient with both myocarditis and thyroiditis who apparently had myocardial failure and arrhythmias leading to death.
In 65% of patients, symptoms appear between the ages of 16-55, and the ratio of women to men is 15:1. By contrast, late-onset lupus affects women about 8 times more frequently than men—and mainly Caucasian women. Symptoms begin to develop more gradually and are milder after age 50.
While you do not have to stop drinking altogether, limiting alcoholic beverages will ensure that your medications work as they should. Alcohol interferes with some medications, including popular non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) like ibuprofen and naproxen.
Weight changes — Lupus can sometimes cause weight loss or weight gain. Weight loss may be unintentional and due to decreased appetite or problems with the digestive system (see 'Digestive system' below).
The effects lupus may have in and around the eyes include: changes in the skin around the eyelids, dry eyes, inflammation of the white outer layer of the eyeball, blood vessel changes in the retina, and damage to nerves controlling eye movement and affecting vision.
Systemic lupus erythematosus (“lupus” or “SLE”) and other autoimmune diseases are linked to an increased risk of certain types of cancer. Specifically, lupus patients may experience an elevated risk of lymphoma and other cancers, such as cancer of the cervix.
In 20% of people who have lupus, a parent or sibling already has lupus or develops it later. About 5% of children born to a parent with lupus will develop the disease. Even in people with no lupus in their family history, other autoimmune diseases are more likely.
Sjogren's syndrome is a relatively common disease, although often under-diagnosed. Sjogren's syndrome can occur alone or in association with other autoimmune diseases, most commonly lupus and rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Gender: Even though anyone can get lupus, it most often affects women. They're nine to ten times more likely than men to develop it. Age: Lupus can occur at any age, but most are diagnosed in their 20s and 30s. Race: Lupus is two to three times more common in African-American women than in Caucasian women.
While stress probably doesn't cause lupus, it certainly is a known trigger. “There are many studies that connect stress with immune reactions,” says Meenakshi Jolly, M.D., M.S., assistant professor of medicine and associate program director of the Rheumatology Section at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.