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A New Free Report - What Is Lupus?
This fascinating new report from UK-based publishing house Health Research Today answers some of the most-asked questions about this baffling disease :
- What is the medical definition of lupus?
- What are the symptoms of lupus?
- What tests are there for lupus? How do you get a diagnosis?
Fill in this form and we will send you the report immediately, which you are welcome to send on to friends or family!
What is Lupus?
This article is an extract from the ebook Freedom From Lupus!
Drug Induced Lupus
While systemic lupus is the most common form of the disease, 10 percent of lupus patients suffer from drug-induced lupus (DILE). This form of lupus comes as a result of ingesting a prescription drug. Usually it is not as severe as SLE, and it often goes away when the person stops taking the offending drug.
Over 70 drugs have been implicated in causing DILE, yet there are three major offenders - hydralazine, procainamide (Pronestyl), and methyldopa (Aldomet). If isoniazid (INH), chlorpromazine (thorazine), TNF blockers, and D-penicillamine are added to the top three DILE causing medications, it accounts for 99 percent of all medications that can bring upon DILE symptoms.
Most people with DILE do not fit the ACR criteria for lupus. They usually have no systemic symptoms, and they often only have antihistone antibodies. The typical DILE onset age is over 60, which varies from the SLE onset range of 20 to 40 years old.
Genetics play a larger role in DILE than SLE. Some drugs bind to the part of a cell that can alter DNA. This causes the immune system to react, making anti-DNA. T and B lymphocytes can be activated by a drug, which also causes antibodies to be created. Still, in other cases a drug can cause such an oversensitivity to the sun that it causes a lupus reaction. Finally, drugs are chemicals, and those chemicals can break down and cause the creation of autoantibodies.
The positive side of DILE versus SLE is that when the offending drug is withdrawn, the symptoms usually go away. Only 5 percent of DILE cases have complications. In most circumstances the symptoms go away within a few weeks or months.1
Read the rest of this article in Freedom From Lupus!
© Health Research Today
