Welcome,
All proceeds from this site goes to the "Lupus Foundation of America". To learn more about this debilitating disease please click on the logo. There is hope on the horizon and with enough funding that hope can become a reality. Thank you for gracing my site with your presence. Please use the navigation links above. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely, Beverly J Raffaele, Administrator
We specialize in customized
blank note cards - 3.5" X 5.5"
If you would like to include
your own printed text,
please use the contact form.
There is no additional charge.
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from the "Art Gallery "
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Lupus is an autoimmune disease that can affect almost any part of the body, most often the joints, skin, kidneys, heart, lungs, blood, or brain.
Normally the immune system produces proteins called antibodiesthat protect the body from viruses and bacteria.
In autoimmune diseases, the immune system instead produces antibodies directed against the healthy cells and tissues it is designed to protect. These autoantibodies (“auto” means “self”) cause inflammation and damage in various parts of the body.
Inflammation is considered the hallmark, or primary feature, of lupus; the word is from the Latin word for “set on fire,” so lupus is characterized by pain, heat, redness, swelling and loss of function, either on the inside or on the outside of the body (or both).
The Lupus Foundation of America (LFA) estimates that 1.5 million Americans have a form of lupus , but the actual number may be higher. More than 90 percent of people with lupus are women. Symptoms and diagnosis occur most often when women are in their child-bearing years,between the ages of 15 and 45.
In the United States, lupus is more common in people of color - African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans - than in the Caucasian population.
