Looking for a better way to manage life with a chronic illness? Despite Lupus will guide you through the proven steps needed to obtain the emotional and physical wellness you deserve.

Lupus is an autoimmune disorder, meaning the immune system attacks the body's tissue, causing damage and dysfunction, and sometimes affecting major body organs. Lupus may be mild, bu it can also bring on serious and even life-threatening complications. Symptoms include extreme fatigue, joint pain, muscle aches, anemia and the general malaise, plus rash, most often across the face.

Now completely updated! The best-selling, most comprehensive guide to lupus, its complications, and management. Lupus is an autoimmune disease that can attack any body organ. It is three times more common in the United States today than it was in the 1980s, so there is an increased need for accurate, practical information on this potentially devastating disease. Lupus expert and clinician Donald E. Thomas, Jr., MD, provides all the helpful information patients need so they can understand and treat this disease. Highlighting amazing advancements in the diagnosis and treatment of lupus, this edition includes new and expanded information on: • The latest FDA-approved medications • How lupus affects different body parts • Advanced labs that improve lupus diagnosis and treatment • The role of the microbiome and anti-inflammatory diets • Updated recommendations for those who are pregnant or breastfeeding • Childhood-onset lupus • The interaction between COVID-19 and lupus • Non-drug treatments, complementary medicine, and medical cannabis The gold standard since it was first published and carefully reviewed by experts in the field, the latest edition of The Lupus Encyclopedia is essential for patients, health care providers, and families. Bonus content on insurance issues and information about working with lupus and disability is also available online. Endorsed by The Lupus Foundation of America Contributors: Jemima Albayda, MD; Divya Angra, MD; Alan N. Baer, MD; Sasha Bernatsky, MD, PhD; George Bertsias, MD, PhD; Ashira D. Blazer, MD; Ian Bruce, MD; Jill Buyon, MD; Yashaar Chaichian, MD; Maria Chou, MD; Sharon Christie, Esq; Angelique N. Collamer, MD; Ashté Collins, MD; Caitlin O. Cruz, MD; Mark M. Cruz, MD; Dana DiRenzo, MD; Jess D. Edison, MD; Titilola Falasinnu, PhD; Andrea Fava, MD; Cheri Frey, MD; Neda F. Gould, PhD; Nishant Gupta, MD; Sarthak Gupta, MD; Sarfaraz Hasni, MD; David Hunt, MD; Mariana J. Kaplan, MD; Alfred Kim, MD; Deborah Lyu Kim, DO; Rukmini Konatalapalli, MD; Fotios Koumpouras, MD; Vasileios C. Kyttaris, MD; Jerik Leung, MPH; Hector A. Medina, MD; Timothy Niewold, MD; Julie Nusbaum, MD; Ginette Okoye, MD; Sarah L. Patterson, MD; Ziv Paz, MD; Darryn Potosky, MD; Rachel C. Robbins, MD; Neha S. Shah, MD; Matthew A. Sherman, MD; Yevgeniy Sheyn, MD; Julia F. Simard, ScD; Jonathan Solomon, MD; Rodger Stitt, MD; George Stojan, MD; Sangeeta Sule, MD; Barbara Taylor, CPPM, CRHC; George Tsokos, MD; Ian Ward, MD; Emma Weeding, MD; Arthur Weinstein, MD; Sean A. Whelton, MD

"This book from Liz Shaw-Stabler brings passion, guidance, and hope to the struggle of people suffering from chronic illnesses. Liz has spent decades battling systemic lupus, even enduring kidney failure and the challenges of living each day after day when she feels ill and then the near-miracle of kidney transplant and all of the effects on the living of life. Liz is greatly admired by all who know her a fighter, dedicated not only to personally overcoming illness, but also to bringing health care to people of color a group that SLE strikes particularly hard. Shaw-Stabler is a professional educator and a passionate advocate, devoting hundreds of hours to founding LupusCare, which provides education and group meetings for a community in Los Angeles that is rich in African American and Latino families a community that needs much better access to health care and health education. This book is another step in the battle. Read it to understand, to learn, and to discover how one person can influence the battle for personal and public health. Finally, read it to be inspired and to be moved to action. This book and its author are national treasures" Bevra H Hahn, MD Professor of Medicine Chief of Rheumatology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Great Admirer of Liz Stabler-Shaw Los Angeles, California, June 2010. "Lupus is a life-altering experience and wisdom provided our teachers and mentors can be enabling and empowering. Liz Shaw-Stabler has helped hundreds of women with her reassuring advice" Daniel J. Wallace, MD, FACP, FACR Chief of Rheumatology at Cedares-Sinai Medical Center Liz Shaw-Stabler was born in East Texas and received her undergraduate degree from Prairie View A and M University. She moved to Chicago, Illinois, and began her career immediately after graduation. After living in Chicago for a few years, teaching high school, acquiring a Master's Degree and doing freelance modeling, she slowed down long enough to get married. She is the mother of one daughter who resides in Chicago. Liz now lives with her husband, Jay, in Inglewood, California, where she became the Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Lupus Care Incorporated and organization that advocates for under-served lupus patients. Liz is a thirty-year lupus patient and has suffered many life-threatening illnesses but continued to believe that she was created to do something much bigger than her illness.

I had ample motivation for writing this book. The possibility of some new income certainly has to enter a writers mind before undertaking such a venture, though I do not have any illusions of a big payday. I also wanted to see how difficult it is to get published for the first time and if it was even possible for someone like me, whose experience included almost exclusively newspaper work. But there were other, more important considerations. The experience was therapeutic, and I honestly wanted the world to see more clearly how tough living with a terminal illness can be. Maybe those who read the book will have a newfound compassion and understanding for those who suffer daily, and maybe they will find ways, if only small gestures, to make the patients life more fulfilling. For someone with bad lungs, there is ample time to write and watch television. I can only tolerate so many reruns of insulting sitcoms, so I chose to give the book a shot. Regardless of how well it sells, I am glad I did it. I hope the family and friends of those who suffer from lupus and related diseases come to better understand what their loved ones endure and, as a result, show them the love they deserve. The book is meant to allow people to experience, if only through words, what the lupus patient suffers regularly: pain, frustration, hopelessness, and depressionall wrapped in one destructive package.

Lupus is an autoimmune disorder, meaning the immune system attacks the body's tissue, causing damage and dysfunction, and sometimes affecting major body organs. Lupus may be mild, bu it can also bring on serious and even life-threatening complications. Symptoms include extreme fatigue, joint pain, muscle aches, anemia and the general malaise, plus rash, most often across the face.

This is the definitive, up-to-the-minute source of information for lupus sufferers, their families and friends, and their caregivers. It includes the latest research on possible causes and promising treatments-including treatments other than the standard drug approach. The individual voices of patients in these pages provide illuminating insights for readers living with such an unpredictable disease. Practical resources round out this detailed, readable, and reassuring guide.