An autoimmune disease that damages tissue throughout your body, lupus can take a toll on your musculoskeletal system, affecting bones, joints, and muscles in different ways. Lupus treatments may also carry side effects that rival symptoms of the disease.
As a specialist in treating musculoskeletal pain, Savitri Gopaul, FNP-BC, of Commonwealth Pain Management and Wellness in Richmond, Virginia, can help you live life to its fullest, even with lupus.
Understanding the link between lupus and musculoskeletal pain gives you an insight into how the condition and its treatments can affect your body. Let’s take a closer look.
Lupus is a disease of the autoimmune system that causes inflammation throughout your body. The symptoms you experience depend on the systems in your body that the immune system mistakenly attacks.
As well as organs like the heart, lungs, and kidneys, lupus frequently affects your body’s bones, joints, and muscles, where the symptoms you experience originate from your musculoskeletal system.
Osteoporosis, a condition in which you lose bone density, is a common effect of the disease. This can lead to brittle bones that are prone to fracture. The only way you might know your bones become weak is when bones begin to break.
Steroid treatments for other lupus symptoms can further affect your risk of developing osteoporosis, since overuse of corticosteroids causes deterioration of bone tissue.
Joint pain, medically known as arthralgia, is common among lupus patients. When swelling and pain affect your joints, lupus falls under the category of arthritis, a group of conditions linked by these effects.
Arthritis due to lupus is an inflammatory form, similar to rheumatoid arthritis, and the joints most commonly affected are those farthest from your body’s core. Arthritis from lupus doesn’t cause long-term damage as often as rheumatoid arthritis does.
Lupus can also cause ligament and tendon conditions, including carpal tunnel syndrome, tendinitis, and tendon laxity leading to joint instability.
Pain and inflammation of muscle tissue, called myalgia and myositis respectively, cause discomfort and weakness. Simple motions like raising your arms or standing from a seated position may become difficult.
Some medications used to treat other lupus symptoms can cause similar symptoms, so we may need to work toward finding the right medications for the unique aspects of your lupus condition.
As well as building a musculoskeletal management plan for lupus, there are changes you can make to minimize the impact on these tissues. Consider the following strategies to discuss with us:
Contact us at Commonwealth Pain Management and Wellness to add a partner to your lupus support team. Call or click to request an appointment with us today.
