Micha Abeles is a rheumatologist in Connecticut. Micha talks about the historic funding grants to lupus, which is a common disease rheumatologists treat, and how it can change the landscape of insight into the disease.

1. A BOOST
FOR LUPUS
RESEARCH
apresentationoncurrenttrends
Rejoice!

2. ON JUNE 29,
the U.S. House of Representatives
passed the Fiscal Year 2018 Department of Defense (DoD)
Appropriations bill, which funds the country’s military and medical
activities. Within that legislation, $5 million in funding was
allocated to the Lupus Research Program — in addition to the $5
million that Congress provided earlier this year for 2017! With a
total of $10 million in funds, this will certainly provide a boost for
lupus research.

3. FIRST OF ALL,
what is lupus?
According to The National Resource Center on Lupus, it is a
chronic autoimmune disease that affects your immune system.
With lupus, your body can’t tell the difference between foreign
bacteria or viruses and your body’s healthy tissues, therefore, your
body can attack and destroy its own healthy tissue. This can cause
inflammation, pain, and damage to all parts of your body —
meaning skin, organs, and even joints can be affected.

4. HOW DOES THIS
relate to rheumatology?
Because lupus is a disease that affects the joints, rheumatologists
are commonly the doctors lupus patients see. Although people
typically associate rheumatologists with arthritis, they also treat
autoimmune diseases of the muscles and bones — such as
osteoporosis and lupus. Throughout their schooling,
rheumatologists are trained to spot signs and potential causes of
joint inflammation, and can often diagnose a patient with lupus.

5. WHAT WERE THE
driving forces behind getting
this funding?
Conveniently, this funding was passed a few days after the Lupus
Foundation of America’s National Policy Summit and advocacy
day in Washington, D.C. With activists visiting over 200
Congressional offices, and thousands of others virtually
participating, the U.S. government heard the message loud and
clear: more funding needs to go towards lupus research.

6. WHAT WILL THE
money be used for?
For years, research into this disease has been stagnant because
the cause of lupus is so difficult to diagnose, and the true cause of
it still remains unknown. However, this boost in funding will
provide a plethora of new hypotheses to explore in terms of why
and how people get lupus.

7. WHAT WILL THE
money be used for?
For example, new and promising signs of potential breakthroughs
in diagnostics, adult stem cells, environmental triggers,
personalized treatments and more will be explored. In addition,
clinical trials of medications will become more efficient and
effective with new streamlined and modernized technologies that
will developed.

8. With continued support from the community, government, and
fellow rheumatologists, lupus can soon be defeated. This
monetary boost will do wonders into research for the disease, and
hopefully soon we will have a cause and appropriate treatments
for lupus.

9. Visit MichaAbelesMD.net