Nominate the Lupus Foundation of America for “Best Non-Profit Use of Social Media” in Mashable's 2009 Open Web Awards

Mashable, in partnership with MOTOBLUR, is conducting the 3rd Annual Open Web Awards: Social Media Edition. The 2009 Open Web Awards is Mashable’s international online voting competition that covers major innovations in web technology and social media.

The Lupus Foundation of America (LFA) is participating, and would like to take the category of “Best Non-Profit Use of Social Media.” We need you and your friends and family to help us win!

How You Can Help

Once a day, every day between now and November 15, you and your family, friends, and coworkers can nominate the Lupus Foundation of America for “Best Non-Profit Use of Social Media.”

Submitting your nomination requires 4 easy steps:

Step 1: Visit http://openwebawards.com/
Step 2: Log in via Facebook or Twitter (if you have an account in both, please vote via both websites)
Step 3: Go to the first category (Brand / Startup / Company / Agency), and select “Best Non-Profit Use of Social Media” from the drop-down menu.
Step 4: Type in "Lupus Foundation of America" and Submit Your Nomination

Remember, you can vote once a day, every day, using both your Facebook and Twitter accounts.

The nominations period will last until midnight of November 15th.

The top 5 nominees in each category will then move on to the final voting round which will begin on November 18th and end on December 13th. Winners will be announced on December 15th.

Thank you for your support.

Seeking Men with Lupus 65+ Years Old to Participate in a Survey

This is a follow-up to our recent posting where we asked people with lupus to participate in a survey. The response so far has been very good.

Now, BioVid has asked us to help them specifically recruit men with lupus who are 65+ years of age for this same survey. If you, or someone you know, may be a potential candidate, please follow the instructions below.

Through November 9, BioVid Corp. -- a market research firm – is conducting a survey. Specifically, they want to survey people living with lupus about their experiences with, and attitudes toward, the management of some health conditions.

Anyone living in the United States is eligible to participate. BioVid is looking for men with lupus who are 65+ years of age to take part in this survey, which will take about 45 minutes to complete. For those selected to participate in the survey, there’s a $75 stipend.

If you are interested in participating, please contact Dusten Lorenz at dlorenz@biovid.com to begin the initial screening process.

Factors That Influence Pregnancy Outcomes in Women with Lupus

Although women with lupus used to be advised to avoid getting pregnant, out of fear of complications for the mother, the baby, or both, a better understanding of the complications of lupus and improved management of lupus pregnancies have resulted in improved outcomes.

Today at least 85 percent of lupus pregnancies result in live births.

However, doctors still advise women who have active lupus kidney disease (lupus nephritis, or LN) not to get pregnant until their disease has been inactive for at least six months.

Read more.

Help the LFA Win $50,000 via America’s Giving Challenge

The Lupus Foundation of America (LFA) is participating in America’s Giving Challenge ... and we need you and your friends and family to help us win!

Winning $50,000 would mean so much to LFA and the people we support. That amount would fund a national research grant seeking to find the causes and a cure for lupus. As you know, the FDA has not approved a new drug for lupus in more than 50 years!

Or, if LFA won three daily challenges then we could fund an additional Gina M. Finzi Memorial Student Summer Fellowship. The Finzi Fellowship Program has supported the work of approximately 200 young investigators since it was founded in 1984.

So what exactly is this Challenge?

America’s Giving Challenge is a 30-day, national competition through Facebook that encourages people to leverage their personal networks in support of the causes that matter most to them. Awards will be given to the nonprofit causes that garner the highest number of unique daily donations between October 7, 2009, and November 6, 2009.

The Grand Prize for this Challenge is $50,000 for the organization that acquires the most donations over the competition. Additionally, daily prize awards will also be given to the cause with the highest number of unique donations on that day. (Daily awards begin at 3:00 p.m. ET and run through 2:59 p.m. ET the following day.). The maximum daily prize is $1000!

How You Can Help

For a minimum $10 donation, you can help the LFA fund research to develop a robust arsenal of safe, effective, and more tolerable treatments for this difficult to treat and devastating disease.

We have studied the winning trends and know in order to be a winner we need to have a concentrated effort and ours starts at 3 p.m. TODAY (Wednesday, October 21). Let’s focus first on being the daily winner over the next 5 days between now and 3 p.m. Monday, October 26. After that we’ll analyze the results and see what is still needed to win America’s Giving Challenge!

Support the LFA in America’s Giving Challenge Today

Remember ... the goal is to get as many unique daily donations as possible (minimum of $10) each day.

Please share this link with your family, friends and coworkers, and ask them to support this worthy cause.

Scenes from the LFA, Mid-South Chapter's Walk for Lupus Now Event

On Saturday, September 12, the Lupus Foundation of America, Mid-South Chapter hosted its Walk for Lupus Now in Nashville at the beautiful and historic Centennial Park. The event began at 3 p.m. with live music from 5 of Nashville's best young musicians. Healthy snacks and drinks were donated by many area businesses. The Walk also featured children's activities, door prizes, free massages and more.

The Twilight Walk began at 5 p.m. with a parade of more than 60 teams which followed the park's paved path around the sunken flower garden, past the unique duck pond and the towering Parthenon. The finale of the event was lightning the Parthenon purple to help raise lupus awareness. Many of the walk's 650 participants returned to the Parthenon to view the majestic building lit purple for the first time in Nashville's history. It was a moving and extremely powerful statement (see pictures below).

The event was highlighted on a local TV station and the Chapter Walk Coordinator, Mary Self, shared the important purposes of the Walk for Lupus Now Nashville: to celebrate living well with lupus; to raise awareness for the disease; and to raise funds for research, programs, services and education.

Picture 1 of the Parthenon



Picture 2 of the Parthenon

Seeking People with Lupus to Participate in a Survey

Between October 19 – November 9, BioVid Corp. -- a market research firm – is conducting a survey. Specifically, they want to survey people living with lupus about their experiences with, and attitudes toward, the management of some health conditions.

Anyone living in the United States is eligible to participate. BioVid is looking for up to 100 people to take part in this survey, which will take about 45 minutes to complete. For those selected to participate in the survey, there’s a $75 stipend.

If you are interested in participating, please contact Dusten Lorenz at dlorenz@biovid.com to begin the initial screening process.

Guest Blogger Amanda Davenport Dishes on "Hell's Kitchen" -- Week 9

Hello all once again!

Now this week was a pretty exciting week. Several of us from this season got together and watched the show while having some good food and drinks! We had a great evening and I so look forward to doing it again soon!!

Ok. Back to this week's episode. This week's challenge was a tough one. Cooking a vegetarian dish for 80 in one hour is a lot. And then on top of that finding out that your 80 guests are children who don't like vegetables! Wow -what a way to start the day!

In the end the kids picked Tennille's dish. She got a great reward –new hair, new outfit and getting to go eat some of the best sushi ever at Nobu LA with Chef Ramsay! You can't get much better than that.

As for the others they were left behind to clean up what looked like one of the largest kids parties you have ever seen! There were never ending piles of food, milk and juice to throw away and wipe down. They also had to pick gum off the bottom of the tables. Yummy!!

Tennille may have prevailed during the challenge, but the same didn't hold true during service. Tennille is perfectly capable cooking for children, but when it came to the adults looking for a presentable and flavorful dish, she was just too inconsistent to continue on. Chef Ramsay made his decision to have Tennille leave Hell's Kitchen.

I am very pleased with who the final three are. Those are the ones that deserve to be there! I can't wait to see what happens next week with my fellow Chefs and let the best Chef win!!

So keep on watching and cheering on the final three. We are getting very close to the end!

See you soon!

Amanda

Store Spotlight: "Coping with Lupus" by Dr. Robert H. Phillips

Written in a warm, engaging style, Coping with Lupus is a guide that will help you cope with the challenges of life with lupus.

Dr. Robert H. Phillips, a highly experienced psychologist and founder of The Center for Coping in Long Island, NY, wrote Coping with Lupus. The book offers useful information and practical coping strategies for dealing with the psychological aspects of chronic health problems, with chapters on coping with emotions, coping with others, and living with a spouse or child who has lupus. Dr. Phillips also discusses medical aspects of lupus: what lupus is and how it is diagnosed, medications used in treating and controlling symptoms, non-medication pain control, the importance of exercise and movement, and diet and nutrition.

Buy the book.

LFA's "Work Disability / SSDI / Health Insurance" Webchat to be Held Wednesday, October 14 at 3 p.m. Eastern

Reminder -- the Lupus Foundation of America's Webchat is next Wednesday afternoon, October 14, at 3 p.m. Eastern Time.

The LFA welcomes Ms. Sheri Abrams, who will serve as the guest expert for the Work Disability / SSDI / Health Insurance webchat.

This is your opportunity to ask questions and learn from an expert. Ms. Abrams is a Fairfax, Virginia, Attorney dedicated to helping people with Social Security Disability Benefits issues, as well as working with people to prepare Special Needs Trusts, Wills, Living Wills, a Health Care Power of Attorney, or a Financial Power of Attorney.

Ms. Abrams has received an AV Superior Rating, the highest ranking possible in the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory.

You can submit a question in advance here.

We hope you can join us Wednesday afternoon, October 14. To do so, you can log in to the live chat here.

As always, copies of all chat transcripts are posted online within a day or 2 of the chat. Follow this link to read the LFA's previous chat transcripts.

National Report Shines Light on Lupus 50-Year Treatment Drought

Today, The Lewin Group, a national health care consulting firm, issued recommendations on ways to overcome the barriers that have obstructed lupus drug development resulting in no new drug approval for this disease in more than 50 years -- since the Eisenhower Administration. The recommendations are included in the report Overcoming Barriers to Drug Development in Lupus, which is the outcome of a 9-month study commissioned by the Lupus Foundation of America, Inc. (LFA). The recommendations highlight the need for a national collaborative and coordinated effort among key stakeholders, including the FDA, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), researchers and scientists from academia, the LFA, and industry, to implement a range of initiatives that would create a path forward to develop a robust arsenal of safe, effective, and more tolerable treatments for this difficult to treat and devastating disease.

The report provides recommendations for each of the key stakeholders, which include expanding federal support for medical research on lupus, assessing the existing standard of care used in clinical trials, examining the interpretation of regulations pertaining to clinical trial design and related standards of evidence used to evaluate investigational drugs for lupus, expediting the discovery and validation of lupus biomarkers, and more.

Read the entire press release here.

Guest Blogger Amanda Davenport Dishes on "Hell's Kitchen" -- Week 8

Hello. I am glad to be blogging with you once again. What an episode we had last night. Down to the final five! It had the best and worst of what can take place in the culinary world. You can see how each person expresses themselves in their food, and how a lack of concentration and no communication can ruin a service.

Let’s start with the challenge. This is one of the things that every chef enjoys doing. Creating a dish that is uniquely them and putting their skills to the test against other chefs. Ingredient by ingredient, layer after layer and the best presentation combined with the best flavors wins the day. In the end I can honestly say that I was not surprised that Ariel and Kevin were the ones that really shined. Chef Ramsay and Barbara Fairchild, of Bon Appétit magazine, had the challenge of deciding based on flavor who would get a photo shoot and their recipe printed in Bon Appétit. I don’t care who you are as a chef, you want to have a recipe in Bon Appétit. When all was said and done the choice was too difficult and both Kevin and Ariel won the challenge. I am so excited for those two. Job well done.

As for the rest of the crew they were treated to orange jumpsuits and a ride on a prison bus to enjoy a little manual labor outside of the kitchen. They enjoyed an afternoon of cleaning a stretch of highway that Hell’s Kitchen adopted.

As you saw, this was one of the worst services of the show, and that is tough to understand because this is the final FIVE. There was nobody that had a good service and Chef Ramsay, not being one to hold tongue, went off. It was a bad night for all. The guys decided to send Ariel and Suzanne up for elimination. You could see how this was going to end. Ariel made her debut on the block, but the fourth time was not a charm as Suzanne was sent packing.

Once again don't forget the "Band Together” campaign.

Till next week ...

Amanda