Halsey announced in a June 5 Instagram post that she has lupus, an autoimmune disease that was diagnosed in 2021, and a rare white blood cell disorder. On a previous post When announcing the release of her single, “The End,” Halsey said she was “lucky to be alive” and included photos and videos of herself in the hospital, where the 29-year-old said she felt “like an old lady.” Although Halsey’s health conditions are “being controlled or in remission,” after two years of trying to “get it under control,” she will likely have both conditions for the rest of her life, she said.
Here’s what you should know about lupus and white blood cell disorders.
What is lupus?
Affecting about 1.5 million Americans, lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease in which cells meant to fight infections mistakenly attack healthy parts of the body. This off-target immune response causes inflammation that can target virtually any part of the body, including, commonly, the skin, joints and internal organs, including the kidneys and heart, according to the Lupus Foundation of America.
There are four main types of lupus. Halsey was diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (or lupus SLE), which is the most common and most serious form of the disease, according to the LFA. Another form, cutaneous lupus, mainly affects the skin. There are also some types of medications, including certain antibiotics, as well as seizure, anti-inflammatory, and blood pressure treatments, that can trigger drug-induced lupus erythematosus, or DILE. In rare cases, mothers can transmit the disease to their developing babies, causing neonatal lupus.
What causes lupus?
The root cause of lupus remains unknown. People with lupus are believed to have an inherited predisposition to developing the disease, “especially if they come into contact with something that could trigger the disease, such as increased sunlight, an infection or certain medications,” the Mayo Clinic said. Dr.Jesse Bracamonte, told Yahoo Life. No lupus gene has been identified, but it runs in families.
Although it’s unclear why, “nine out of 10 people with lupus are women, and 43% of them are women of color,” it says. Stacie Bell, autoimmune research scientist and executive vice president of Lupus Therapeutics. The disease also tends to be more severe in black women, Bell adds.
What are the symptoms?
Unpredictability is a hallmark of lupus. “Symptoms present so differently in each individual with lupus,” says Bell, adding that this variation makes the disease particularly difficult to diagnose. The closest thing to a telltale sign of the disease is the so-called butterfly rash (or malar rash) – a red rash on the cheeks and bridge of the nose that appears after sun exposure. But only about half of all people with lupus develop a rash, according to Johns Hopkins Lupus Center.
There are many other potential symptoms and they may seem unrelated to someone who doesn’t know they have the disease. The inflammation caused by lupus can affect many different parts of the body with varying degrees of severity, causing a wide range of symptoms, which often occur in flare-ups that can occur monthly or even every few years, Bell says. And the same person may have one set of symptoms during one outbreak and an entirely different set — at a different level of severity — during another outbreak, according to NIAMS.
Inflammation from lupus can also cause arthritis, or painful swelling in the joints. General aches, fatigue, and mental confusion also affect many lupus patients, as does swelling in other locations, such as around the eyes or legs.
While the signs may be less noticeable in everyday life, the most concerning effect of lupus SLE — the form Halsey says she was diagnosed with — is the damage inflammation can cause to organs throughout the body. Bracamonte says the kidneys are most affected, but damage can also affect the heart, blood vessels, the lining of the lungs and the brain.
Some people with lupus may have relatively rare or mild flare-ups. For others, the disease, especially the fatigue it causes, can be so debilitating that patients “cannot get out of bed to take [their] daughter to the bus stop, or do [their] presentation at work,” says Bell.
Can lupus be treated?
There is no cure for lupus, but there are some treatments to help control symptoms and reduce organ damage. Steroids were one of the first treatments used to treat lupus, calming the overactive immune response that triggers inflammation. But when used long-term, the medications themselves can cause other problems, including weight gain and bone weakness, according to Yale Medicine.
Now there are two antibodies treatments approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat lupus SLE, and researchers are working on developing targeted “cell therapies” for lupus, Bell says. But in the meantime, there is a “limited treatment arsenal,” she says.
What is Halsey’s rare blood cell disease?
Halsey has T-cell lymphoproliferative disorder, one of a broad set of conditions resulting from the body’s overproduction of certain white blood cells, called lymphocytes. T cells are a type of white blood cell produced in the bone marrow that is sometimes affected by lupus, increasing the risk of these blood cell disorders (although not everyone who has lupus has a lymphoproliferative disorder or vice versa), says Bracamonte . T-cell proliferative disorders can cause intense night sweats, fatigue, unexplained fevers or weight loss, and swollen lymph nodes.
Bracamonte says people with these types of conditions are typically monitored closely because lymphoproliferative disorders can progress to blood cancer, leukemia or lymphoma.
Are there ways to reduce the risk of lupus and its complications?
Because lupus is likely hereditary, there’s only so much you can do to reduce your chances of getting it, says Bell. However, healthy lifestyle choices – such as getting enough sleep, following a Mediterranean diet or other anti-inflammatory diet, not smoking, not drinking excessively, staying active and avoiding excess weight – can reduce inflammation. You can also try to minimize triggers, which include stress and excessive exposure to sunlight.
