  What Causes Lupus?  No one really knows what causes lupus.  We do know that lupus isn't contagious,  which means you can't ever catch any of the three types of lupus from someone.  Scientists think that some people may be more likely to get it from a lot of things they can't control,  like:
 *  being a girl ( girls and women get lupus much more often than boys and men)  *  having estrogen ( a female hormone)
 *  your race ( black,  Asian,  Latin,  and Native-
American people are more likely to get lupus than white people)  *  a gene or genes that may make a person more likely to get lupus run in your family ( about 10%  of people with lupus have a family member with lupus)  *
 a major stress or an infection ( if a person has lupus in her genes,  extreme stress or an infection may cause the disease to start,  but the setup for lupus has to be there:  a really tough test or bad cold doesn't necessarily cause a person to get lupus)
