What is lupus?

Inflammatory disease: Lupus is a chronic inflammatory disease [instead of your body fighting germs or bacteria, it starts to attack healthy cells] with unknown cause.

Autoimmune: One of the aspects of lupus is that it is an autoimmune disease. That means that people with lupus not just to fend off infections - germs, bacteria, etc but also mounts an immune response against their own tissues. There are certain labs tests that confirm these self antibodies a nd the most common, seen in almost everyone are antinuclear antibodies against the nucleus of the cell.

Autoimmune disease: Lupus erythematosus is a chronic inflammatory disease of unknown cause. The immune system attacks the patient's own body (autoimmunity) and can inflame the skin, joints, kidneys, nervous system, lungs, mucous membranes, and other internal organs. A red rash is often but not always present hence the term lupus erythematosus meaning "red wolf.".