LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Sarcoidosis: Lungs
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Sarcoidosis is a debilitating and often fatal disease that causes tissue inflammation throughout the body. Complications can range from minimal to severe, including: lung scarring, nervous system problems, heart and liver dysfunctions and even death. Symptoms include:
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Sarcoidosis can occur in almost any part of your body, although it usually affects some organs more than others. It usually starts in one of two places—in the lungs or the lymph nodes, especially the lymph nodes in your chest cavity. Sarcoidosis ... often affects your skin, eyes, and liver, and can also affect your spleen, brain, nerves, and heart.
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Some people with sarcoidosis do not have any symptoms. Others simply feel tired and weak. Still others have nonspecific symptoms, such as fever, poor appetite, night sweats, joint pain or aching muscles. Symptoms vary widely because the disease affects different parts of the body in different people. Among those who see their doctors for more specific symptoms, more than 90% have problems involving the lungs. The first signs are usually a dry cough and shortness of breath.
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Most people with sarcoidosis do not need treatment. Corticosteroids are given to suppress severe symptoms such as shortness of breath, joint pain, and fever. These drugs ... are given if tests show high levels of calcium in the blood; if the heart, liver, or nervous system is affected; if the sarcoidosis causes disfiguring skin lesions or eye disease that corticosteroid eyedrops fail to cure; or if lung disease continues to worsen. People who have no symptoms should not take corticosteroids. Although corticosteroids control symptoms well, they do not prevent lung scarring over the years. About 10% of those who need treatment fail to respond to corticosteroids and are switched to
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Many people who have sarcoidosis have no symptoms. Often, the condition is discovered by accident only because a person has a chest x ray for another reason, such as a pre-employment x ray.Some people have very few symptoms, but others have many. Symptoms usually depend on which organs the disease affects. Symptoms from sarcoidosis in the lungs and lymph nodes include shortness of breath, a dry cough, wheezing, and enlarged and sometimes tender lymph nodes. Changes in sarcoidosis usually occur slowly (e.g., over months). Sarcoidosis does not usually cause sudden illness.
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About half of all individuals with sarcoidosis recover spontaneously and do not need treatment. For those who do not recover spontaneously, symptom relief and prevention of complications are often provided by medications such as corticosteroids, which reduce swelling, rashes, pain, fever and lung problems. Some lifestyle changes, including a diet low in calcium or avoidance of vitamin D and sunlight, may help control some of the complications of the condition, such as kidney stones or other damage. While complementary therapies for sarcoidosis have not been well studied, anecdotal reports suggest that melatonin and homeopathy may provide symptom relief and improve general well-being.
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