Strides Against Breast Cancer
Charity Walk The Making Strides event is not a race; it is a celebration of survivorship, an occasion to express hope, and a shared goal to end a disease that threatens the lives of so many people we love. When you participate in the Making Strides event, you�re helping create a world with less breast cancer and more birthdays – where breast cancer never steals another year from anyone�s life. Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of Atlanta, GA – 5K Walk will be held at Centennial Olympic Park Saturday, October 29, 2011at 8:00am. For more information please visit http://makingstrides.acsevents.org

What Is Lupus?

The immune system is designed to attack foreign substances in the body. If you have lupus, something goes wrong with your immune system and it attacks healthy cells and tissues. This can damage many parts of the body such as the:

Joints
Skin
Kidneys
Heart
Lungs
Blood vessels
Brain.
There are many kinds of lupus. The most common type, systemic lupus erythematosus, affects many parts of the body. Other types of lupus are:

Discoid lupus erythematosus—causes a skin rash that doesn’t go away
Subacute cutaneous lupus erythematosus—causes skin sores on parts of the body exposed to sun
Drug-induced lupus—can be caused by medications
Neonatal lupus—a rare type of lupus that affects newborns.

Who Gets Lupus?

Anyone can get lupus, but it most often affects women. Lupus is also more common in women of African American, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American descent than in Caucasian women.

What Causes Lupus?

The cause of lupus is not known. Research suggests that genes play an important role, but genes alone do not determine who gets lupus. It is likely that many factors trigger the disease.

What Are the Symptoms of Lupus?

Symptoms of lupus vary, but some of the most common symptoms of lupus are:

Pain or swelling in joints
Muscle pain
Fever with no known cause
Red rashes, most often on the face
Chest pain when taking a deep breath
Hair loss
Pale or purple fingers or toes
Sensitivity to the sun
Swelling in legs or around eyes
Mouth ulcers
Swollen glands
Feeling very tired.
Less common symptoms include:

Anemia (a decrease in red blood cells)
Headaches
Dizzy spells
Feeling sad
Confusion
Seizures.
Symptoms may come and go. The times when a person is having symptoms are called flares, which can range from mild to severe. New symptoms may appear at any time.

How Is Lupus Diagnosed?

There is no single test to diagnose lupus. It may take months or years for a doctor to diagnose lupus. Your doctor may use many tools to make a diagnosis:

Medical history
Complete exam
Blood tests
Skin biopsy (looking at skin samples under a microscope
Kidney biopsy (looking at tissue from your kidney under a microscope).
How Is Lupus Treated?

You may need special kinds of doctors to treat the many symptoms of lupus. Your health care team may include:

A family doctor
Rheumatologists—doctors who treat arthritis and other diseases that cause swelling in the joints
Clinical immunologists—doctors who treat immune system disorders
Nephrologists—doctors who treat kidney disease
Hematologists—doctors who treat blood disorders
Dermatologists—doctors who treat skin diseases
Neurologists—doctors who treat problems with the nervous system
Cardiologists—doctors who treat heart and blood vessel problems
Endocrinologists—doctors who treat problems related to the glands and hormones
Nurses
Psychologists
Social workers.
Your doctor will develop a treatment plan to fit your needs. You and your doctor should review the plan often to be sure it is working. You should report new symptoms to your doctor right away so that treatment can be changed if needed.

The goals of the treatment plan are to:

Prevent flares
Treat flares when they occur
Reduce organ damage and other problems.
Treatments may include drugs to:

Reduce swelling and pain
Prevent or reduce flares
Help the immune system
Reduce or prevent damage to joints
Balance the hormones.
In addition to medications for lupus itself, sometimes other medications are needed for problems related to lupus such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or infection. Alternative treatments are those that are not part of standard treatment. No research shows that this kind of treatment works for people with lupus. You should talk to your doctor about alternative treatments.

What Can I Do?

It is vital that you take an active role in your treatment. One key to living with lupus is to know about the disease and its impact. Being able to spot the warning signs of a flare can help you prevent the flare or make the symptoms less severe. Many people with lupus have certain symptoms just before a flare, such as:

Feeling more tired
Pain
Rash
Fever
Stomach ache
Headache
Dizziness.
You should see your doctor often, even when symptoms are not severe. These visits will help you and your doctor to:

Look for changes in symptoms
Predict and prevent flares
Change the treatment plan as needed
Detect side effects of treatment.
It is also important to find ways to cope with the stress of having lupus. Exercising and finding ways to relax may make it easier for you to cope. A good support system can also help. A support system may include family, friends, community groups, or doctors. Many people with lupus have found support groups to be very useful. Besides providing support, taking part in a support group can make you feel better about yourself and help you to keep a good outlook.

Learning more about lupus is very important. Studies have shown that patients who are informed and involved in their own care:

Have less pain
Make fewer visits to the doctor
Feel better about themselves
Remain more active.

Types of HIV tests

Antibody tests are often used to screen for HIV. Antibodies are things that the body makes to try to fight infections, such as HIV. Antibody tests look for antibodies to HIV, rather than the HIV itself. Antibodies to HIV often can be found between two weeks and three months after infection. Depending on the test and the place where you are tested, results come back within a few minutes to a few weeks. Ask your doctor or testing center how long you must wait.

These are some kinds of antibody tests:

Enzyme immunoassay (EIA) tests. These tests are the most common and give results in a day to one to two weeks.
Rapid tests. These are antibody tests that give you results quickly, usually in about 20 minutes. Rapid tests use blood from a vein or a finger stick or fluid from your mouth to look for antibodies to HIV. If you are HIV-negative, these are just as accurate as the EIA test. If you test HIV-positive with this test, you will need a follow-up blood test to confirm the results.
Home Access Test. With this antibody test, you take your blood sample at home and mail it to a lab for testing. Results are provided over the phone by a counselor. You do not have to give your name. You will receive an ID number to use when you call for the results. There is only one home test approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA): Home Access HIV-1 Test System . It takes about seven days to get test results. Home Access also makes an express test with results available the day the lab receives your shipment. It takes three to seven days to get test results. You can buy this FDA-approved test online or at the drugstore. Beware: Online you can buy several HIV home test kits that are not approved by the FDA. Many of these tests give wrong results.
If you test positive with an antibody screening test, you will need a second type of test to confirm that you are infected. You must wait a few days to a few weeks for the results.

Couples in high-risk groups for sickle cell diseases can make better-informed long-range decisions by learning their genetic makeup before pregnancies occur, says Southwest Georgia Public Health Director Jacqueline Grant.

“More than 70,000 people in the United States have sickle cell disease, and approximately 2.5 million people carry the gene that allows them to pass it on to their children,” she explained.

“Testing can be done prior to conception, which is ideal for those in high-risk groups. It should also be done prenatally for those at risk who do not already know their carrier status,” she said.

There are different types of sickle cell disease, depending on the genetic material a child inherits from parents. People who inherit two sickle cell genes—one from each parent—have a type of sickle cell disease called SS. Often referred to as “sickle cell anemia,” it is generally the most severe form of the disease.

“Persons with sickle cell disease have red blood cells that are shaped like the C-shaped cutting blade called a sickle,” Grant said. “Healthy red blood cells are round.”

The sickle-shaped cells can get stuck inside blood vessels, blocking the flow of oxygen, which can lead to tissue destruction, organ damage and death, said Grant.

In addition, the sickled red blood cells are more likely to be destroyed as they circulate through the body than round ones. With fewer red blood cells to carry oxygen to tissues, anemia results. The anemia can be life threatening.

Patients may experience acute painful episodes accompanied by low-grade fevers, referred to as pain crises, which may occur spontaneously or as the result of infection or dehydration, Grant said.

Complications of the disease vary from patient to patient. Vision loss, leg ulcers and frequent infections (including potentially fatal pneumonia) may occur.

Other complications may include the destruction of bone and the spleen.

Since the loss of a functioning spleen makes sickle cell patients more susceptible to meningococcal and pneumococcal infections, the CDC recommends vaccinations for protection from these organisms.
“Those at highest risk of the disease are of African, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and Indian descent,” Grant said. “One in 12 African-Americans has sickle cell trait. People with sickle cell trait—having inherited one sickle cell gene and one normal gene—usually do not have any of the symptoms of the disease. However, it is possible for a person with sickle cell trait to have complications under extreme conditions. Further, they can pass the disease on to their children.”

If both parents are carriers (have the sickle cell trait), they have a 25 percent chance of having an infant with sickle cell disease, she said.

“Genetics testing can be done during the pregnancy to determine if the fetus has the disease if both parents are carriers,” Grant said.

In Southwest Georgia Public Health District, around 25 adult and 20 pediatric patients receive services during monthly sickle cell clinics, said registered nurse Daneta Kegler, who coordinates the district’s Children’s Medical Services.

“Enrollment in the Children’s Medical Services program is not required for sickle cell patients to be seen at these clinics,” Kegler said. “We want people to know the sickle cell clinics exist and are available to those in need of their specialized services.

The Albany Sickle Cell Foundation partners with Public Health to raise community awareness and provide assistance to sickle cell patients and their families, including obtaining medications for patients if needed.

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