15 silent lupus symptoms you should never ignore

“Heart attack!” is everyone’s first (panicked) thought when having chest pain but if your doc clears you for heart disease, lupus symptoms may be the cause. The autoimmune disease can cause swelling throughout the body, including in the sacs surrounding the heart and lungs, causing consistent, dull chest pain, Dr. Lee explains. If it’s your lungs that are primarily affected you may also experience shortness of breath. Chest pain may be one of the signs of lupus, but it can also be the sign of a lot of other very serious illnesses. If you are experiencing chest pains, see a doctor immediately.

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“Lupus can attack any organ in the body and that includes the brain, sometimes causing psychosis,” Lee says. “Many people come in thinking they’ve suddenly got schizophrenia or are going crazy but in reality, it’s the disease.” Neurological symptoms of lupus can include hallucinations (both visual and auditory), paranoia, confusion, moodiness, and seizures. If you are experiencing these things and have no prior history of mental illness, you may actually be experiencing one of the signs of lupus.

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Any change in this part of your body may be one of the signs of lupus. The kidneys are one of the most common organs to be affected by lupus, which means you could feel side or back pain, have problems urinating and retain water. Your doctor may also discover high levels of protein in your urine.

Gastrointestinal problems like heartburn, stomach cramps and diarrhoea are also common symptoms of lupus as the disease can cause your gut to become inflamed. Sufferers often try over-the-counter and prescription medications but find little relief from them.

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Lupus can cause problems with blood clotting, Lee says, and one of the saddest manifestations of this are repeated miscarriages in women. Getting pregnant isn’t a problem but staying pregnant can feel impossible. The clotting can also cause your periods to become heavy or irregular. It’s not the most common cause of infertility in women, but if you’re unable to have a baby and have some of these other symptoms, it’s worth getting tested for lupus.

Often called “the great masquerader,” lupus is a tricky disease as the symptoms of lupus mimic so many other illnesses. “Each person is different in how they’re affected because it depends entirely on which organ is being attacked by the immune system,” Dr. Lee explains. Worse, the disease often comes in “flares,” or periods of time where symptoms are particularly bad, interspersed with long periods where you feel fine, making you wonder if you’re just imagining things. This means that lupus is often a disease diagnosed only by the process of eliminating all other possible causes, Dr. Lee says – a process which can be extremely frustrating and disheartening for patients as they struggle to find answers. Thankfully there is a simple blood test that looks for anti-nuclear antibodies which can be a good indicator of lupus. Ultimately, however, you have to trust your body, Dr. Lee says. If you feel sick and you’re just not getting better, it’s important to get to the root cause, no matter what that is.

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Source: RD.com