L.O.L Club, Support Group for Lupus Patients

This is a group/club I am starting within our local community for lupus (SLE), patients and their support system, to come together fellowship and build an alliance through raising awareness and providing education and discussing about our daily struggle with this chronic disease. Monroe Community Center,(Nicole Dennis) 757-727-6831

Systemic lupus erythematosus, often abbreviated as SLE or lupus, is a systemic autoimmune disease (or autoimmune connective tissue disease) that can affect any part of the body. As occurs in other autoimmune diseases, the immune system attacks the body's cells and tissue, resulting in inflammation and tissue damage. It is both a type II and a type III hypersensitivity reaction in which bound antibody-antigen pairs (immune complexes) precipitate and cause a further immune response. SLE most often harms the heart, joints, skin, lungs, blood vessels, liver, kidneys, and nervous system. The course of the disease is unpredictable, with periods of illness (called flares) alternating with remissions. The disease effects approximately 1,500,000 Americans and more than five million individuals worldwide have a form of lupus, often manifesting in women between the ages of 15-45. Eight of ten new cases of lupus develop among women of childbearing age; however, women of all ages as well as men and children develop the disease.