In celebration of World Lupus Day and Lupus Awareness Month, welcome to The Purple Moth!

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I created The Purple Moth on April 26^th, 2015 in order to raise awareness for SLE, invisible and chronic illness, and autoimmune diseases.

This blog marks the start of May, which is Lupus Awareness Month. According to the Lupus Foundation of America, over one and a half million people in this country have this disease, a meager sum compared to the 5 million people worldwide. Since the majority of people diagnosed with Lupus are women of African and Asian descent, you can imagine how many people overseas have this disease. However, it is possible for Lupus to effect any gender at any place and at any time.

Lupus is autoimmune, chronic and invisible. An autoimmune disease manifests when healthy cells are seen as foreign by the immune system. As a response, the immune system becomes compromised, and the host becomes ill. A chronic illness is one which lasts for a long period of time. Since this is true of Lupus, along with the fact that there is treatment, but no known cure, the condition is chronic. And finally, an invisible illness is one in which symptoms are sometimes not visible by others, like aches and pain inside of the body.

Unfortunately, Lupus is a difficult disease to deal with. It can cause chronic pain and discomfort to those who have it, and is one of the most difficult diseases in the world to diagnose due to erratic and sometimes strange symptoms. There are tests that check the elevation of proteins or anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA,) but no single test exists that can prove for disprove the disease. One survey reports that in over 800 patients, over half were misdiagnosed, and it took many of them several years and 4 or more doctors before getting correctly diagnosed.

But May is here, so it's time to get serious and raise awareness! This month is dedicated to firmly insisting that we be treated with respect and dignity so that we can proceed to find treatment, and hopefully someday, a cure!

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Time to don some purple! The purple butterfly is the worldwide symbol for Lupus. The purple ribbon signifies awareness to various causes, and is also used by groups supporting things like domestic violence or other health issues. The butterfly comes from malar rash AKA “butterfly rash,” a rash that spreads across the nose and cheeks, sometimes the chest; a very common Lupus symptom.

Remember, Lupus Awareness Day is May 10^th! Throw on that purple shirt and those butterfly earrings!

For more articles, health updates, news, stories, testimonies and a brilliant and beautiful community, follow me on Google + or subscribe to this blog!

If you'd like to be more proactive in the Lupus community, check out lupus.org, an amazing site for everything Lupus!

Keep Faith * Be Smart * Live Awesomely

-Nike

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