Italian and Spanish descent and Lupus

Stumbled on this, this morning, checking into something else.... read on....Celiac Disease is very high in Italy also...more reason that Celiac Disease and Lupus go hand in hand?


The frequency of lupus could be increasing because milder forms of the disease are being recognised. For example, Uramoto and co-workers 4 examined the incidence of the disorder in Rochester, MN, USA, and noted that it had more than tripled from 1·51 per 100,000 in the 1950–79 cohort to 5·56 per 100,000 between 1980 and 1992. In this study, although survival in the later cohort was worse than in the general population, there were clear improvements in survival rates over the 1950–79 cohort. 4 Trager and colleagues 5 suggested that patients with lupus nowadays could have a milder form of the disease and a better chance of survival than patients described several decades ago, probably because of an earlier diagnosis of milder disease. However, despite these improvements in survival, fatigue and other quality of life measures might not have improved.

A review of 32 studies has summarised the incidence and prevalence of systemic lupus erythematosus in several countries and documented the increased disease burden, especially in non-white populations. 6 Although there was wide variation in the prevalence of lupus worldwide, the highest prevalences were reported in Italy, Spain, Martinique, and the UK Afro-Caribbean population.

This disease is more common in women with African ancestry but is thought to be rare in west Africa, suggesting that environmental factors can contribute to the development of lupus in women whose ancestors migrated from that region. However, when women who had recently migrated from west Africa were examined, the prevalence of lupus was similar to that seen in Afro-Caribbean women but was much lower in European women. 7 These data suggest that systemic lupus erythematosus is fairly common in west Africa and that there is a genetic basis for the higher risk of lupus in these women.
Healthline.com- Connect to Better Health
 
for the rest of the article http://www.healthline.com/elseviercontent/lancet-systemic-lupus-erythematosus
 
I am of Italian and Portuguese/Spanish Descent !