THE SUN IS MY ENEMY

Lupus erythematosus is not a disease most people, including doctors, are too familiar with although 5000 women (women are usually its victims) die a year from it. As Mrs. Aladjem illustrates in her well-written and well-researched (she really studied the clinical literature) account. Lupus can be very inconclusive in the laboratory and while she was ill for many years (with drastic reactions to many drugs as well as an extreme photosensitivity to light) and even at one point (after it attacked the kidneys) seemingly hopeless, she now has recovered. Not that she lacked for medical attention -- in fact had the best Massachusetts General and Peter Bent Brigham had to offer and did. But finally, Bulgarian born, she heard of another Bulgarian, a Professor Popoff, who had a special and very simple treatment, niacin (Vitamin B or nicotinic acid) which she persuaded her Dr. Gardner to use and which established her recovery -- at any rate very long-term remission. This book has its inherent interest over and above the dissemination of a possibly helpful method of treatment (she never argues or even plumps for it) for others incapacitated by a disease which, like rheumatoid arthritis, imitates, dissimulates and eludes.