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Question:Can you explain what scleroderma is and what causes this condition?Answer:The body creates this interesting dilemma. When a virus or germs attack your body, your immune system kicks in and defends you from the invader. In the case of scleroderma, the immune cells mistake your own body's cells as a danger and attack the cells. Although it is a fairly rare autoimmune disease, scleroderma attacks the connective tissues in the body. The word scleroderma comes from two Greek words: "sclero" meaning hard, and "derma" meaning skin. Hardening or thickening of the soft tissue over various parts of the body is one of the most visible manifestations of the disease, as it can adversely affect the appearance of the skin. As the disease progresses, the person may have difficulty using their joints and experience joint pain, because the skin overlays all the tissues of the body. One instance would be when a person opens their mouth; the connective tissues would be hard and thick and limit the movement. Again, this is caused by the body's autoimmune process. It is not a fatal disease, and it is not contagious or infectious. However, it can affect the quality of life due to joint pain and because the appearance of the skin can be adversely affected. Moisturizers may be helpful when used on the affected skin. Because sun exposure darkens the lesions further, the use of sunscreens and shielding the body from the sun is also smart. I work a lot with autoimmune diseases in my medical practice. Three things trigger scleroderma. Typically, there is first an underlying genetic predisposition that is triggered by a stressor that happens in the person's life, such as an illness or the death of a loved one. The last piece is when these first two conditions are combined with certain types of food. Once all three pieces are in place, it can set off this autoimmune condition. It's like three points of a triangle. You have to have all three to actually form the shape and set off the disease process. You can just have the stress or the genetic predisposition but if you don't have the food pieces, you won't get the autoimmune condition. Or you can have a genetic predisposition and be eating foods that can trigger the condition, but if you don't have a stressor, you wont' set off the condition. I work a lot with food in my practice, because food is something we can all control. You cannot control genetics and often we can't control stress. Therefore, I really work with people on working with food and supplements to try to eliminate that third point of the triangle and prevent the autoimmune condition from actually developing. At NuVANTE, we often talk about skin being an organ and that we want to treat it as an organ and help it become healthy. I think that at times we take the skin for granted, because it is just something that is on the outside of our body and we are not really focusing on how important it is for daily function. However, we need to keep in mind that it allows us to move, protects us, forms vitamins (like Vitamin D), and is involved with sun and environmental protection . With all these different roles to fill, when it becomes diseased, like with scleroderma, it can become quite a serious thing.
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