Muscles can become weak. And almost everyone with scleroderma also has Raynaud's disease, an extreme sensitivity to cold in the hands and feet. Raynaud's disease causes blood vessels to constrict and fingers and toes to turn white, resulting in stinging pain and discomfort. Battling Toxic Exposure Just what causes most cases of this relatively rare disease is not known, says David Pisetsky, M.D., medical adviser to the Arthritis Foundation and author of The Duke University Medical Center Book of Arthritis . Coal miners may develop scleroderma after years of work, and outbreaks of similar connective tissue diseases have been associated, in Spain, with contaminated cooking oil and, in the United States, with contaminated tryptophan, an amino acid supplement used to treat insomnia.
Doctors treat scleroderma with drugs that suppress the immune system and reduce inflammation.
They may also recommend medications that help the heart and kidneys function better. Antibiotics and drugs that stimulate gut motility, or the movement of food from one end of the digestive tract to the other, can combat the bacterial overgrowth and absorption problems that sometimes accompany scleroderma. Nutrition isn't thought to play much of a role in the development or progression of scleroderma. Most doctors who offer nutritional therapy to their patients with scleroderma are helping them to absorb nutrients more easily by recommending liquid or intravenous feedings and supplements, says Dr. Blau. Some doctors, he says, further suggest dietary changes and add nutrients that are thought to help reduce inflammation and stress on organs such as the heart and kidneys.