http://www.care2.com/greenliving/lupus-or-rheumatoid-arthritis.html
Lupus or Rheumatoid Arthritis?
Q: About a year ago my RA count was very high. My family doctor thought I had rheumatoid arthritis while an arthritis clinic physician thinks I have lupus. I show very little signs of either disease but am taking Plaquenil for lupus. Is there a way to definitely tell which one I have?
A: Sorry to hear that you are having these problems, but I am very glad that you are doing some investigative work to educate yourself.
It can be very difficult to diagnose these disorders because the blood markers that we have for them are non-specific. For instance, rheumatoid factor can be elevated in both conditions or can be elevated as a result of some other infection in the body that has nothing to do with either.
Both lupus and rheumatoid arthritis are autoimmune disorders which the body starts to attack its own connective tissue. Other closely related disorders are: Polymyositis-dermatomyositis (PM-DM), systemic sclerosis (SSc or scleroderma), Sjogren’s syndrome (SS) and various forms of vasculitis.
These diseases have a number of common features:
1. They affect women much more frequently than men.
2. They are “multisystem” diseases, capable of affecting the function of many organs.
3. They “overlap” with one another, sharing certain clinical symptoms, signs and laboratory abnormalities.
4. Blood vessels are the most common target of injury in all of these diseases.
5. The immune system is abnormal and accounts, at least in part, for the observed tissue damage.
Although lupus most often occurs alone, many people with lupus also have symptoms characteristic of one or more of the other connective tissue diseases. In this circumstance, a physician may use the term “overlap” to describe the illness. There are several well-recognized overlaps that may affect people with lupus.
In lupus, joint pain is common. Joint swelling may be present in some cases, but the majority of those with lupus experience joint pain without swelling or only intermittent swelling. In rheumatoid arthritis (RA), joint swelling is always present and pain is common but less prominent. If a person with lupus develops severe arthritis with joint deformities, he/she should be considered to have rheumatoid-like arthritis. In some instances, the physician might have reason to believe that both diseases–SLE and RA–have occurred in the same person. When arthritis develops in the course of lupus, treatment with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), low doses of cortisone, and the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil) are usually helpful. People with lupus who have typical rheumatoid arthritis are prescribed the standard forms of RA treatment. These include methotrexate, sulfasalazine and in some cases, more potent drugs to suppress joint inflammation.
Although we don’t have the definitive diagnosis in your case, the treatment for your joints would be the same regardless. It is important to continue to follow up with your doctors so that any potential damage to other organ systems can be caught early.
Learn more:
Immunity boosting first-aid kit
Ginger for RA?
Dr. Brent Ridge is the health expert for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. You can call and ask him a question live every Tuesday at 2 p.m. Eastern on Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 112 (1.866.675.6675). You can also follow along as he learns to grow his own food and raise goats on his farm in upstate New York by visiting www.beekman1802.com.
Got a health question for Dr. Brent? E-mail him at drbrent@care2.com.
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add your comment »AS of the last several weeks, they have a definite new medication that just passed its last clinical trial to help stave off the symptoms of Lupus! It is a huge landmark breakthrough, for it is truly the first medication specifically designed to help fight Lupus. There is another one also being developed in Europe that is showing great promise, along with a couple of others that have just began the early stages of clinical trials. After 5 decades this is very welcome news for those like myself that suffer from Lupus, plus several other autoimmune diseases. Lupus is extremely difficult to diagnose. Some of us going for 10 years or more before doctors are able to put it all together and say it is Lupus. It mimics so many other diseases, and each person seems to suffer symptoms that could definitely be completely different from another with Lupus. They also over lap many times. More and more I am hearing people like myself, that have Sjogren's, Raynaud's, and even Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, along with Lupus and/or other autoimmune diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis and hundreds more.
I am hoping the news on the latest medication means that it will go in for FDA approval by next year! Hopefully we will see it in the hands of our doctors before the end of 2010!
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thanks...
Kabin
Konteyner
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I was diagnosed a year ago with Mixed Connective Tissue disorder. After many blood tests, and going to a rheumatologist, I have found out several things. I have degeneration of most of my joints. I just turned 49 last month, and have already had two total knee replacements, elbow and both shoulder surgeries, carpal tunnel surgery and need it on the other hand, and now I have a completely torn rotater cuff, and another bought of tennis elbow. I also have the horrible fatigue, a slight mylar rash across my nose and cheeks, have "lupus headaches" that surpass my migraines in pain by far, plus a host of other symptoms and illnesses that probably come from the autoimmune disorders. They call mine "MIxed Connective Tissue Disorder", due to the fact my blood work and symptoms show an overlapping entity of symptoms. Lupus like symptoms, Raynaud's, hypermobility of my joints, degeneration of my joints much like RA, issues with ulcers in my mouth, and the list goes on. As of now, doctors after 50 years still do not know a great deal about many of these autoimmune illnesses, which include Diabetes 1, MS, RA, Lupus (SLE), and a whole host into the thousands. We at this time are limited in medications and care due to much needed more research and development of things to help many of these diseases. At this time there is no cure, things like Plaquenil can help put symptoms at bay, or make flare ups not as bad. But, I am and will continue to be an advocate for research/hope for a cure.
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I've read recently that Lupus is a result of gluten allergy. vrp.com has a product called Lectin Lock which protects against the body's reaction to the lectin called gluten, and others as well. And, Ambrotose will regulate the immune system and stop the RA from progressing. You can get that from Mannatech. Missing glycogens can be added to the diet with Ambrotose. You see, sugar molecules in various forms, are used by the immune system to build macrophage and other disease fighters. When one glycogen is missing, maybe because there was a genetic predisposition to require some food in the native environment, which the genetic material doesn't get any more because they don't live where its grown, or because it has been processed out of the food, or because the environment has destroyed the source, then the body starts to go awry in ways that are dubbed "genetically inherited disease". It's just wrong thinking.
The good thing, there is Ambrotose, and you can get well when you give your genes their missing source of glycogens (essential sugars). Not he same as glucose, which is important to understand, because this supplement can even help a worn out pancreas.
secretstohealyourbody.com is coming soon
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beneath this is also an article on fingernails
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