This means that the immune system, the white blood cells that normally protect against bacteria, viruses and other foreign invaders, turns renegade and attacks the body's own tissues. In this case, the attack is on connective tissue called collagen. Collagen is found throughout the body, including in the skin, the muscles and the organs. The immune system attack first produces inflammation that can make the joints hurt and cause the hands to become puffy. Ultimately, scar tissue forms and makes the skin thick, hard and shiny.
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.