Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Muscle Weakness In Women

I chose the topic of lupus at the beginning of my science journal project. As I did more research I found the more specific autoimmune disease, systemic lupus erythematosus. The most research was on women who have systemic lupus erythematosus and how their loss of muscle function effects their daily lives. I found this topic interesting because I like to learn about women’s health and what types of effects different diseases have on their bodies. According to Andrew et al. (2015), muscle weakness in women with systemic lupus erythematosus leads to a decline in complete physical function over a two year period. The study was conducted by getting one hundred and forty-six women with systemic lupus erythematosus to participate. The data was collected …show more content…
Physical function was assessed using the Short Physical Performance Battery, which showed the results of women’s muscle weakness eventually leading to loss of physical function (Andrews et al., 2015). Another one of my article’s study results showed that muscle strength was associated strongly with physical disability scores but muscle mass was not associated with physical disability scores (Andrews et al., 2015). The study also stated that improving muscle strength may reduce the amount of physical disability among women with systemic lupus erythematosus and this study was conducted by was conducted by getting one hundred and forty-six women with the autoimmune disease and testing their muscle weakness, muscle mass and physical functionality during an in person visit. Two more of my articles focused on how the loss of muscle function in women with systemic lupus erythematosus effects their attendance at work. The study’s results showed that the women without systemic lupus erythematosus took less sick days than those who have the disease (Ekblom-Kullberg et al., …show more content…
(2015), people with systemic lupus erythematosus who attended work more often had less fatigue, pain, and depressive symptoms but people who suffer from this autoimmune disease find jobs that are more physical and cognitively demanding much more challenging which results in them missing a lot of work. The study also found that if there were a treatment for the depressive symptoms administered to people with systemic lupus erythematosus there would be an increase how often they showed up to work (Utset et al., 2015). The next couple of articles have to deal with the complications people face along with systemic lupus erythematosus and how women with systemic lupus erythematosus are advised to not get pregnant. According to Chugh (2013), the types of complications these women usually encounter are cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, early menopause, and cancer. A majority of women with systemic lupus erythematosus are likely to die at an early age because of the complications they must deal with while treating their disease (Chugh,