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2008 National Project Recipient
Lupus is a chronic, inflammatory disease in which the body's immune system fails to serve its normal protective functions and instead forms antibodies that attack healthy tissues and organs. You can think of it as your body being allergic to itself. The cause of lupus is unknown. While scientists believe there is a genetic predisposition to the disease, it is known that certain factors also play a critical role in triggering lupus. In a patient who is predisposed, the following factors may play a role in setting off the disease: infections, antibiotics (especially those in the sulfa group) or certain other medications, pregnancy, ultraviolet light, extreme stress.
Between 1.4 and 2 million people have been told by a doctor they have lupus, making it more common than AIDS, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, sickle-cell anemia and cystic fibrosis combined. Lupus can occur at any age and in either sex, although it appears at least 10 times more frequently among adult females than among adult males. The symptoms of the disease are the same in men and women. People of Hispanic, African, Native American and Asian origin are thought to develop lupus more frequently than Caucasians.
Lupus Mid-Atlantic is committed to providing educational and psychological support to lupus patients and their families, to increasing awareness and educating the general public and health professionals about lupus, and to funding clinical and basic scientific research on lupus.
Lupus Mid-Atlantic has a long and proud history of supporting research into the cause and cure of lupus. The organization has raised and distributed over $900,000 to scientists in the past twenty years. It has supported both basic and clinical research, trying to help people live with lupus more comfortably while assisting in the search for a cure.
Continuing its role as a leading organization supporting lupus research, Lupus Mid-Atlantic is proud to be a member of the founding Board of the Lupus Research Institute (LRI). Lupus Mid-Atlantic is firmly committed to the goals of the LRI, which is raising millions of dollars to fund scientists "to think differently and bring us their best new ideas about this complex and baffling disease." To date, Lupus Mid-Atlantic has raised and donated $150,000 to the work of the LRI, and plans to do much more.
Charms, Incorporated, salutes the progress of Lupus Mid-Atlantic and wishes the
organization continued success in promoting awareness, research, and funding.
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