Occasioned by Michael Jackson’s death, a focus on a lesser-known disability: The Voices of Lupus
The death of superstar Michael Jackson has cast the spotlight on a little known autoimmune disease called lupus. In an interview on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, the wellness guru Dr. Deepak Chopra, a longtime friend of Michael Jackson, disclosed that the singer suffered from lupus.
Lupus affects more women than men, and is more common among blacks and Asians. The inflammation associated with lupus affects everyone differently, attacking skin, joints, kidneys, the heart and lungs. Symptoms, which often flare and subside, can be vague, mysterious and frightening and show up in a variety of forms in different patients. They include, fever, fatigue, joint pain, anxiety and mental confusion. Others symptoms include a butterfly-shaped rash on the face, skin lesions, mouth sores and hair loss.
This week, in our regular Patient Voices series, Web producer Karen Barrow focuses on six people who suffer from lupus….
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/the-voices-of-lupus/