What is the root cause of scleroderma?
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What is the root cause of scleroderma?
Scleroderma results from an overproduction and accumulation of collagen in body tissues. Collagen is a fibrous type of protein that makes up your body’s connective tissues, including your skin. Doctors don’t know exactly what causes this process to begin, but the body’s immune system appears to play a role.
Can scleroderma be reversed naturally?
There is no cure for scleroderma. Medications can treat symptoms and prevent complications. Making changes to your lifestyle and diet can make living with the disease easier.
What is the life expectancy of scleroderma?
In general, patients with limited scleroderma have a normal life expectancy. Some have problems with their GI tract, especially heartburn; severe Raynaud’s and musculoskeletal pain; and a small subset can develop pulmonary hypertension that can be life-threatening.
What is the latest treatment for scleroderma?
A clinical trial with a similar drug called iloprost has been recently completed. If the results of the phase III clinical trial demonstrate the medication is safe and effective, we are hoping this drug will gain FDA approval and may become available for all scleroderma patients across the U.S.
Does Vitamin D Help scleroderma?
Around 80 percent of scleroderma patients have a vitamin D deficiency. Taking a supplement could help with many of the symptoms associated with the disease.
How do you slow down scleroderma?
You can take a number of steps to help manage your symptoms of scleroderma:
- Stay active. Exercise keeps your body flexible, improves circulation and relieves stiffness.
- Protect your skin.
- Don’t smoke.
- Manage heartburn.
- Protect yourself from the cold.
Can you stop scleroderma from progressing?
There is no treatment that can cure or stop the overproduction of collagen that is characteristic of scleroderma. But a variety of treatments can help control symptoms and prevent complications.
Does exercise help scleroderma?
Regular exercise is especially important for people with scleroderma because it helps manage common symptoms such as fatigue, joint pain and stiffness, and stress.
Does taking collagen help scleroderma?
Therefore, increased amount of collagen in scleroderma skin may directly affect wrinkles. In conclusion, attempt on collagen induction itself is reasonable and effective strategy in order to keep young appearance, although oral collagen supplementation may not directly reach to the skin.
What is the best diet for scleroderma?
General Diet Recommendations: Choose fresh, whole, minimally processed foods, without preservatives, artificial ingredients, or hydrogenated oils. If there are “chemical” sounding names in the ingredient list, avoid it. In general, the shorter the ingredient list, the better.
Is yogurt good for scleroderma?
include soft, moist protein sources at meals and snacks such as cottage cheese, scrambled eggs, yogurt, fish, chicken with gravy, ground meats, macaroni and cheese, and lasagna.