Gypsyt,

I am 34 years old, I was diagnosed with Lupus 12 years ago.  I totally get the expression, "I'm way too young to feel this old"  Lupus affects everyone differently some people have very few problems with the disease, fatigue, aches and pains, some people have severe organ failure, and a lot fall somewhere in the middle.  The best advice I could give is listen to your body, don't overdo anything, as it makes everything worse, and try to avoid stress, great advice, and not always possible I know.  A great place for you to start is the Lupus Foundation od America website.  www.lupus.org  just about everything you ever thought of asking can be found there.  If you'd like to know more about me check out my profile, my email address is there also, I'd be happy to talk with you if your interested.  Good luck,  Michele

Lupus is an auto immune disorder, but our immune system is like an army only all of the soldiers have ADHD, they don't know who to fight, so they attack our body, instead of protecting it.  Most treatments for Lupus involve making the immune system less active.  Boosting you immune system will only cause more soldiers to attack your body causing more pain, more inflamation, more fevers, etc.  Please be sure to talk to your doctor about your condition before trying things suggested by people trying to help.  I'm not sure how severe your Lupus is, as I said it varies greatly from person to person, but if you boost your immune system and it attacks an organ, it could be life threatning.  There's also reactions to consider with herbs, or other supplements that could affect medications your already taking.  I think your very wise to conduct your own research.  Michele

Hi there.  My name is Vanessa.  I was diagnosed with Systemic Lupus Erythamotosis (I hope I spelled the last one right).  As far as I know, there are 3 types of Lupus:  Discoid, Systemic and chemically induced Lupus.  I have been officially diagnosed for about 8 years.  I probably had the illness prior to this but suffered no major symprtoms that got me to concerned.  At first I was diagnosed with RA and took Celebrex for a few months.  The pain went away and I felt great but after that, I began to swell up.  I got alot of water retention.  Well, it turned out my kidneys were failing.  I was given Prednisone I believe to control the inflammation but it was of no use.  I had to start dialysis to filter the toxins in my blood and remove excess fluid.  I'll be getting a transplant soon - I hope.  So, I now how you feel.  Lupus sometimes makes me feel like if I were an old arthritic woman and I'm only 30! 

So your getting joint pain that means you either have SLE or chemically induced Lupus.  One thing I can tell you is that your lupus could become dormant or inactive and your symptoms can subside.  Some people end up going through that and some just don't at all.  Some sources say that stress triggers the "flare ups" and some say food does.  Maybe you should email one of the doctors and have them discuss lupus on their show.  Maybe their is more information we might not know of yet.

Hi,

My name is Paula and I've had Systemic Lupus Erythematosus since I was nine years old and I'm about to turn 42 in March.  I've been thru it all.  Lupus is an autoimmune disease that can attack ANY system of the boday.  You can check out my page here and also find me on mysapace and facebook.  My myspace address is www.myspace.com/pkayesplace and if you have trouble getting on, send me an e-mail to pkaye1967@yahoo.com  That's also how you can find me on Facebook... but myspace is really my lupie spot (so to speak). 

33 years of living with this illness has taught me a lot, so please don't hesitate to get in touch.

smiles and soft hugs,

Paula