Women who have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or have experienced trauma are nearly three times more likely to develop lupus than others, new research shows.
A Harvard study of more than 50,000 women over the course of 24 years found that the greater degree of trauma a woman had experienced, the more likely it was that she developed lupus later in life.
There is a greater correlation between PTSD and lupus in women than any other risk factor, including smoking and obesity.
About five million people worldwide suffer from lupus, a chronic, incurable autoimmune disease that causes kidney inflammation and can affect many organ systems.
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