Word: lupus
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Most of these new drugs are genetically engineered biological molecules, and the majority are designed to treat rheumatoid arthritis and its close clinical relative, lupus. Like all autoimmune diseases, both disorders strike women disproportionately. In RA, the immune system attacks the joints and eventually weakens the bones, causing excruciating pain, fatigue and daily bouts of fever. With lupus, the attack is far more generalized, affecting blood vessels, joints, skin and several internal organs. In severe cases, it can be lethal...
Consider Carol Sangster of Edmonton, Canada, who seven years ago had to quit her job as an engineering clerk at Canadian National Railways because she was struggling with systemic lupus and diabetes. For several years, she fought for her life. In time she partially recovered. "I became well enough to be bored," she says. Then, 18 months ago, she discovered eBay...
...cannot replicate. It's still not clear why, but the female body's defenses tend to mount more aggressive responses to invading marauders; then, during pregnancy, this response is dampened considerably to accommodate the fetus. Perhaps owing to this on-off intensity, women are more prone to developing lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis, all conditions in which the immune system attacks healthy tissue. Researchers are just beginning to study why estrogen might cause the defense system to rev into overdrive in these cases...
Consider the latest electronic health scare: about the artificial sweetener aspartame, which is found in everything from Equal to Diet Coke. A widely disseminated e-mail by a "Nancy Markle" links aspartame to Alzheimer's, birth defects, brain cancer, diabetes, Gulf War syndrome, lupus, multiple sclerosis and seizures. Right away, the long list warrants skepticism. Just as no single chemical cures everything, none causes everything...
Allen seems to achieve some personal vengeance through this film as well. Robin, at the insistence of her best friend, goes to Dr. Lupus, a corpulent celebrity plastic surgeon. Dr. Lupus has plenty of suggestions for Robin, asking her, "Why should you be anything less than perfect?" Robin looks disarmingly like Mia Farrow, with wavy hair and a disheveled Cantabrigian fashion sense. Things aren't looking too good for Robin; she has just been dumped (not for her daughter, though), and she can't quite seem to figure out how to attend cocktail parties and remain sober for more than...