What is Sarcoidosis

 Sarcoidosis is a not so rare autoimmune disease that can affect any soft tissue in your body. It's a disease that can affect multiple organs such as lungs, lymph nodes, heart, eyes, spleen, the brain and even the skin. There is also neurosarcoidosis which affects brain and the central nervous system. Sarcoidosis consists of inflammation that forms of tiny lumps in your organs called granuloma. These bind together to create a region of granulomas that can affect the way the organ works or just render it useless. About 90% of cases have lung involvement. A hospital in NYC states that 80% of Sarcoidosis cases require no treatment and it may go away in 6 months to 2 years. About 40-60% of patients Sarcoidosis goes away without any treatment in fact a lot of people may get it without knowing and not report it so this number may even be higher. About 20-30% of patients are treated and it goes away. The other 20 or 30% are chronic cases. Sarcoidosis is rarely fatal. Some of the symptoms can include, fever, night sweats, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue (that’s a big one) and joint pain.
All in all, sarcoidosis is no fun but a good portion of people affected can lead a normal life. Research and development for this disease has made advancements in recent years and there are clinical trials taking place that offer hope. Corticosteroid, are the most common medicine prescribed for sarcoidosis the most popular being prednisone. Prednisone is designed to suppress your immune system so that is doesn’t overreact hence auto immune, and help with inflammation. There are other drugs as well such as hydroxycloroquine and methotrexate and others.
There is really no way to predict the outcome for each individual I can say is that the best way to deal with it is to find out everything you can about sarcoidosis and your condition so that you can then ask the right questions and advocate your own health. Oh and a really good doctor doesn’t hurt either.