{"id":9967,"date":"2019-04-26T17:24:08","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T17:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/?p=9967"},"modified":"2019-04-26T17:24:08","modified_gmt":"2019-04-26T17:24:08","slug":"lupus-awareness-gains-momentum-during-the-month-of-april","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/2019\/04\/26\/lupus-awareness-gains-momentum-during-the-month-of-april\/","title":{"rendered":"Lupus awareness gains momentum during the month of April"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kayla Sims<\/strong><\/p>\n

MC301\/ Staff Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n

It has been said that April showers brings May flowers, but May is more than a month of blossoming flowers, graduations and celebrations. May is Lupus Awareness Month.<\/p>\n

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Google image<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lupus is an autoimmune disease that occurs when the body’s immune system begins to attack its own healthy tissues and organs.<\/p>\n

According to Medical News Today, around 1.5 million people in the United States and more than 5 million people worldwide are affected by lupus and research shows that the life expectancy for the fatal disease is up to 40 years.<\/p>\n

Algedia Drummonds is a mother from Clarksdale, Miss., whose daughter suffers from Lupus.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is really heartbreaking, for her and myself as a parent. My daughter was diagnosed with Lupus only a few months after she was born and it hurts me to know that there is no known cure.\u201d<\/p>\n

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According to Drummonds, the diagnosis of her daughter changed her life drastically.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy life isn\u2019t the same at all. My daughter is sometimes hospitalized for several days at a time and that puts my life at a halt. I can\u2019t heal her, but I can bring awareness to the disease and support parents who are going through the difficulties of having a child with lupus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson State University Army ROTC has also brought awareness to the fatal disease with the\u00a0\u00a0Cierra Brookins Lupus Color Run.<\/p>\n

The Lupus Color Run was hosted Thursday April 18, in front of the student center and ended on the Gibbs-Green plaza with hotspot.<\/p>\n

Micheal Nealy, a junior English major from Detroit, Mich., explained the purpose and the positive effects of the walk.<\/p>\n

According to Nealy, the color run made an impact on his feelings toward Lupus and the people who suffering from it.<\/p>\n

\u201c Recently, my mother was diagnosed with Lupus Nephritis and she has been hospitalized. I am really surprised about this walk, before my mother was diagnosed I wouldn\u2019t have paid it any attention but now I understand the purpose and I am glad that JSU supports the cause as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s world lupus day is May 10th and is sponsored by the World Lupus Federation which is\u00a0\u00a0a coalition of lupus patient organizations from around the world, that works to improve the quality of life for people affected by lupus.<\/p>\n

Lupus within the body is regularly invisible. However millions around the globe experience the ill effects of it.<\/p>\n

Its symptoms, such as fatigue, confusion, shortness of breath and joint pain, are so common that many of its victims, predominantly women who mistake the signs of the fatal disease as stress or tiredness.<\/p>\n

Lupus causes any system or organ in the body to be affected including the skin, lungs, blood cells, heart, joints, brain or kidneys which causes it to look different in everyone.<\/p>\n

Because of that, it can be hard to get a diagnosis, as doctors confuse symptoms with other diseases.<\/p>\n

Several famous celebrities suffer from the fatal disease. Many spoke publicly about the challenges they face in their day-to-day lives.<\/p>\n

The multitalented actor, producer, and television host, Nick Cannon was diagnosed with Lupus in 2012. He experienced symptoms such as kidney failure and blot clots in his lungs before a proper diagnosis.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Huffington Post, Cannon described the fear he felt in not knowing what the disease is and how to cope with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew nothing about it until I was diagnosed.\u2026 But to me, I\u2019m healthier now than I\u2019ve ever been before,\u201d said Cannon.<\/p>\n

Singer and songwriter,\u00a0\u00a0Toni Braxton also opened up about diagnosed with lupus in 2010, and how the illness was the reason behind her divorce in 2013.<\/p>\n

In a live interview, Braxton stated that the type of lupus she has affects her heart and is often times wears her body out from all of the touring. Despite her multiple hospital stays and dedicated days to resting, Braxton said she\u2019s still never let her symptoms force her to cancel a show.<\/p>\n

According to lupus.org, around 90% of those diagnosed with lupus are women, with black women around three times more likely to develop the condition than white women.<\/p>\n

Tasandra Humphrey, a senior biology major from Greenville, Miss., talked about hopes the fatal disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust last month I had a childhood friend pass from Lupus, I knew she had the disease but I wasn\u2019t expecting for her to go so soon. It hurts me to know that there is no cure for lupus but I plan in changing that over the course of the next 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Humphrey encourages everyone to become more aware of illness like lupus and speak out about the unknown.<\/p>\n

\u201cMay is the month to walk, run and get involved with supporting Lupus. We must come together and try to find a cure for the unknown.\u201d<\/p>\n

The color for Lupus awareness is purple and next month everyone is encouraged to wear purple in honor of the people who are affected by the disease.<\/p>\n

Through rallying and public support, over 200 groups and 839 million people have brought awareness to lupus.<\/p>\n

The deadly disease did not receive research funding until the late 2005. This May, millions of people are participating in bringing greater attention and resources to the efforts being made to end the suffering caused by Lupus.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kayla Sims MC301\/ Staff Writer It has been said that April showers brings May flowers, but May is more than a month of blossoming flowers, graduations and celebrations. May is Lupus Awareness Month. Lupus is an autoimmune disease that occurs when the body’s immune system begins to attack its own healthy tissues and organs. According […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9967","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-variety"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9967\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}