These Possible Triggers Could Explain Why Lupus Attacks Any Part of the Body

It’s difficult to believe that a disease can affect any part of your body and still be mostly hidden to the naked eye. But that’s the reality for the nearly 1.5 million Americans who live with some form of lupus.

Lupus is an autoimmune disease, meaning a person’s immune system starts to attack healthy cells and tissues. Nearly 70 percent of all causes of lupus are classified as systemic lupus, affecting a major organ or tissue, like the heart, lungs, kidneys, or brain, according to the Lupus Foundation of America.

“The immune system is unable to recognize what is part of the body and what is not,” explains rheumatologist George Stojan, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and co-director of the Hopkins Lupus Center.

Lupus presents a wide variety of symptoms that range from benign to life-threatening, including joint stiffness and swelling, facial rashes (most notably a butterfly-shaped rash across the cheeks and nose), mouth sores, seizures, chest pain due to fluid around the heart or lungs, fevers, swollen glands, and low blood counts, says Dr. Stojan. The buildup of these symptoms can take their toll: 65 percent of lupus patients say chronic pain is the most difficult thing about living with the disease.

But the most mysterious thing about lupus? There are no known concrete causes or cures. “There’s this entire range of things that have been associated with lupus, but association alone doesn’t mean causation,” says Dr. Stojan.

Researchers have linked genetics, hormones, and environmental changes to the development of lupus, but it’s difficult to say which factor plays the biggest role. “It’s probably a perfect storm that occurs and leads to the occurrence of the disease,” says Dr. Stojan.

So, what exactly do we know about the triggers of the autoimmune condition? Here, the possible causes of lupus that researchers are digging into—and what treatment looks like once someone is diagnosed.