Lupus Triggers

Ashley,

It is great that you are endeavoring to determine triggers for lupus.  There are many known triggers but in any individual case the trigger is not known.  I suggest that you read a book called " The Autoimmune Epidemic" and you will get a good idea on how AI diseases work...what is the underlying cause and what triggers the autoimmune response.

Most researchers feel that those of us with an AI disease have a set of genes that predisposes our immune system to a disruption and that something triggers a misdirected response on our body.  The problem is that there can be many triggers over a long period of time (in some cases) and then a final trigger causes you to become symptomatic.  In my case, I think the disease was lurking for at least 15 years before I became symptomatic.  At the time I became symptomatic there was nothing that seemed to be a trigger.  Remember that a trigger is different from a cause when talking about an AI disease.

When I flash back to that period of my life I was under a lot of stress over a period of years with no other health problems, illnesses, or anything else.

Here is what the Lupus Foundation has to say about causes of lupus:

http://www.lupus.org/webmodules/webarticlesnet/templates/new_learnunderstanding.aspx?articleid=2233&zoneid=523

Bill

Hey, I will give your questoins a shot. You can get my email by clicking on my name that is in blue on the left side of the page...

Redrose77, I know no one knows the actual cause. The point in it is to hopefully narrow the list down to have a better understanding of the disease. Thank you for your time, I really appreciate it.

Ashley,

I would be glad to answer your survey.  My email address is [email protected].

Bill

Ashlexx, good luck with your survey. I hope you receive a lot of responses. I just took it and it just takes a couple of minutes.

Let us know what your results are!

Well I found research that beleived stress was related to triggering Lupus. We beleive that as a college student you are bound to be stressed. If you are the partying type, you have to worry about keeping up with the other part (homework, passing, attending, etc.) If you are the full on college person your constantly stressed about GPA, essays, impressing your instructers, not looking like a brown noser, etc. Therefore, either way you are stressed in college. So the last question was based on a stress facter. I will definitely let you guys know the outcome. I really appreciate your support!!!

I'm sorry I couldn't do the survey because those questions I could answer had no significance to my case of lupus and the significant questions weren't asked or no provision for a useful answer. A survey is only as good as its questions and the number of people who reply to it. It would be wrong to conclude that neonatal lupus doesn't exist because nobody ticked that box. I guess you just might get somebody replying that a child of theirs had had neonatal lupus.

I realise you are young and trying hard but surely you could have got some guidance about the very complicated area of 'ethnicity'. I am not sure exactly what you mean by 'oriental', maybe Chinese, and does that include people from the Indian subcontinent. What about 'Asian'? My being of Northern European/Scandinavian stock ( of course racially Caucasion ) as opposed to Southern European ( 'Mediterrranean '?), happens to be significant, according to what I have read.
Let people tell you their ethnicity!

My occupation isn't included either but the main point is that stress is stress as it is experienced individually. I have been very stressed all my life but it wouldn't have been revealed by those questions. The problem is that you have decided what is stressful. Financial problems can be a major factor in stress but being well off certainly doesn't mean there's no stress in life.

It would have been much better to make provision for people to tell you what they think might have triggered their lupus which would have included questions about diseases and other medical conditions, medicines in addition to hormonal intake, and considerably more accurate questions about sun exposure which is far too vague. For one thing, who has no sun exposure whatsoever? Some UV comes through glass. I wouldn't find it easy to estimate how much sun exposure I get even nowadays when I avoid it as much as possible. Most people have a very shrewd idea of the possible factors because it's something we all think about.

I decided to make all these points ( no email addy for you) because if I were judging a science fair I would give top marks to people who realised the limitations of their investigations. Method is a very important aspect of science. If you read research papers you will often see comments on the limitations of the studies which throw the validity of the findings into doubt. In your case, you can point out that the number of participants is very limited compared with the numbers that have the three forms of lupus. By the way, drug induced doesn't count as it is a lupus like illness which by definition goes when the offending drug is withdrawn. If it doesn't, it would be clinical lupus apparently drug triggered. Neo natal doesn't count either because it is not clinical lupus. It goes within the first year of life as the auto antibodies leave the baby's system.
The participants will have been limited to a few of those who use online lupus support forums and thus not a cross section of those who have lupus. It's reckoned that African Americans suffer lupus 4-5 more than 'white' Caucasians, but that is certainly not reflected in support forum participation. Those who are living well with their lupus tend not to participate in forums because they haven't the time and have no problems. Other limitations of your survey have already been touched upon.

I hope you will consider these suggestions to turn what is so far rather lemon like into real lemonade.

I truly would like you to do well - good luck !
BB

Ashley,

Your survey was fine. All surveys are limited in scope and none are perfect.

Asians are considered those of mongolian race...those from most of the far east from China, Korea, Japan, SE Asia and some from Central Asia. Most Indians are actually Caucasian so they are Asian in origin but not in racial classification. The ones you used are standard racial classifications. There is discussion over racial classifications but here is what wkipedia says about racial classification:

[edit] 20th century

The 20th century racial classification by American anthropologist Carleton S. Coon, divided humanity into five races:


Before the Pleistocene
After the Pleistocene
Caucasoid race
Congoid race
Capoid race
Mongoloid race
Australoid race


In his landmark book The Races of Europe, Coon defined the Caucasian Race as encompassing the regions of Europe, Central Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and Northeast Africa.[31]

Coon and his work drew some charges of obsolete thinking or outright racism from a few critics, but some of the terminology he employed continues to be used even today, although the "-oid" suffixes now have in part taken on negative connotations.[32]

In the 21st-Century, Coon's role came under further critical scrutiny when Prof. John P Jackon Jr, noted that the American Coon, "actively aided the segregationist cause in violation of his own standards for scientific objectivity."[33]

Here is the latest from the Lupus Foundation on the causes and triggers of Lupus.

http://www.lupus.org/webmodules/webarticlesnet/templates/new_learnunderstanding.aspx?articleid=2233&zoneid=523

Other AI diseases have similar triggers and some specific triggers have been associated (but not always proven) with specific diseases.  An example is statin drugs triggering myositis diseases (polymyositis, dermatomyositis, and inclusion body myositis).  It is strongly suspected and a form, statin induced myositis which is temporary, is well known.  Whether or not it triggers PM or DM is still not really proven. 

Bill