DEAR DR. DONOHUE: My 28-year-old daughter, who has been healthy all her life, was recently diagnosed with lupus. Will she be able to live a full life, including having children. Is there a cure? How about exercise and diet? — R.K.

ANSWER: In the 1950s, a diagnosis of lupus carried only a 50 percent chance of living for five more years. Sixty years later, the chance of living for at least 20 more years is 90 percent, and the majority of lupus patients have a normal life span.

Pregnancy is definitely possible. Doctors tell their lupus patients to delay pregnancy until the illness has been inactive for six months. That kind of delay in disease activity occurs in almost all lupus patients.

Lupus is in the same class of illness as rheumatoid arthritis. It’s an autoimmune disease, one brought on by the immune system attacking many body organs and tissues. Joints and muscles are targets. The wrists, hands, elbows, knees and ankles are the joints most often involved. Skin rashes are common. One rash is often mentioned. It’s a redness on both cheeks connected by a red bar over the bridge of the nose. This is the “butterfly” rash of lupus, seen less often than it is talked about. The kidneys, heart and nervous system can be affected.

The outlook for an individual lupus patient depends on how many organs are involved and how well the patient responds to treatment. There isn’t a cure. There are many control medicines. Lupus typically has periods of worsening and periods when the illness goes into remission. Medicines make remissions longer and longer.

Lupus has no special diet. Exercise is encouraged when the illness is in remission. You or your daughter can contact the Lupus Foundation of America for more information and for becoming acquainted with other patients in your town. The website is www.lupus.org, and the phone number is 202-349-1155.

Readers interested in learning more about lupus can order the booklet on it and rheumatoid arthritis by writing: Dr. Donohue — No. 301, Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. Enclose a check or money order (no cash) for $4.75 U.S./$6 Can. with the recipient’s printed name and address. Please allow four weeks for delivery.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: What ramifications might happen when people share drinks, table food and ice-cream cones with their dogs? They resume eating, drinking or licking the food after their pets have “sampled” it. How healthy is this? — B.A.

ANSWER: I wouldn’t think of eating food after a family member had sampled it with his or her tongue, teeth or mouth. The thought grosses me out. Every person has a slightly different bacterial population in his mouth, and we cope well only with our own bacteria.

A dog’s mouth, in spite of claims to the contrary, is not cleaner than the mouth of a human. Dog bites often become infected due to the germs in their mouths. People eating food after a dog has sampled it are asking for trouble.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I just received my grandmother’s death certificate. It says: “Cause of death: uterine hemorrhage. Contributing cause: surgical shock.” She died in 1931 at the young age of 33. What does all this mean? — J.F.

ANSWER: Hemorrhage is massive bleeding. She bled from her uterus either during an operation or from a tumor, a twisted fibroid or an infection. Surgical shock isn’t a term used these days. Shock means that the bleeding was so great, her blood pressure dropped. Not enough blood could circulate to her organs, including her brain and heart. In those days, such a catastrophe almost always resulted in death.

I’m guessing at the meaning of surgical shock. I take it to mean that the bleeding occurred during surgery.

Dr. Donohue regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but he will incorporate them in his column whenever possible. Readers may write him or request an order form of available health newsletters at P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. Readers may also order health newsletters from www.rbmamall.com.