More Than Skin Deep

摘要

Scientists still don't know what causes scleroderma, a complex disease often marked by toughening skin and widespread internal fibrosis, but they're developing potential treatments nonetheless At age 19, Barbara Lowe didn't think much of it when one of her fingers temporarily turned completely white during a lunch break at work. "My friends thought it was a party trick," says Lowe. Twenty years later, however, the party trick had taken a serious turn. Most of her fingers and toes were suffering bouts of poor blood flow, and searing heartburn and lingering colds constantly hampered her. When she was taken to the hospital for pneumonia, doctors finally gave her symptoms a name: scleroderma. "I didn't know anyone who had it other than myself. My GP [general practitioner] couldn't tell me a lot of about it," says Lowe. "You're kind of completely on your own with the disease. People just don't know what it is."