Be Healthy

Ebony Holmes, 40, attributed those pains in her stomach to something she ate. After all, she was 38 and in relatively good health. But the symptoms persisted and worsened.

It’s pretty safe to assume that one’s colon is not a typical topic of conversation at the dinner table. Nor generally at any other time, for that matter. Perhaps it should be.

For many diseases, the diagnosis is pretty straight forward. An x-ray spots that broken bone. A cardiac catheterization finds the obstruction that portends a heart attack. Not so with systemic lupus erythematosus, commonly referred to as lupus. The disease has a wide variety of symptoms that can be signs of other medical conditions as well. That’s why it’s called the great imitator.

At one time, women with lupus were advised not to have children. The risk to their health and that of their fetus was too high. Fast forward a number of years and the story has changed.

At 24 Chris Burton had his whole life ahead of him. He was recently married, had a couple of degrees under his belt, and already determined that the ministry was his vocation. But his path took a sudden and unexpected turn.

Gail Granville now knows why as a kid she preferred the shaded ponds to the sunny beaches of Cape Cod. Granville, 68, had lupus, but she did not know it until she was 34 years of age. That’s not unusual. It takes several years to diagnose lupus, according to the National Lupus Foundation. The symptoms so closely mirror other diseases.

There’s a common misperception that the major cause of death in people with lupus is the disease itself. Not so. Actually, it’s coronary artery disease, the most common form of heart disease.

If you asked Megan Corbin to describe a typical heart attack victim, she undoubtedly would not include herself. Yet, at the age of 30, that’s exactly what happened to her.

There is actually no particular diet a person with lupus needs to follow. It’s wide open — you can pick and choose from a panoply of sorts. Just follow the oft-repeated regime. Eat fruits and veggies, whole grains and healthy fats. Limit consumption of processed foods, saturated fat and added sugars.

Regular physical activity might not be high on the to-do list of people with lupus. That’s understandable given the side effects of the disease. Muscle pain, muscle weakness and fatigue take a toll.

The link between nutrition and sickle cell disease (SCD) might not be readily apparent at first blush. It’s all about the red blood cells.

Billy Garrett, Jr. is just following in his grandfather’s footsteps. Bill Garrett was the first African American to play regularly on a Big Ten Conference varsity basketball team. Garrett, Jr., 26, shares his grandfather’s passion for basketball. He has played for the NBA G League as well as the New York Knicks. He’s now a shooting guard for the basketball league in Poland. Yet, Garrett has sickle cell disease.