Don’t Let Rheumatoid Arthritis
Keep You Down

This type of arthritis is a chronic disease, and there is no cure. It will progress over time unless you do something to slow or stop the process. As the arthritis advances, issues surrounding the quality of life emerge in addition to managing pain. Arthritis can limit the ability to complete daily or physical activities taking much of the fun out of living.

RA can affect your life in a number of ways:

• Limits many physical activities
• Emotionally draining and can lead to emotional trauma
• Causes day-to-day pain
• Makes even simple daily activities difficult to manage
• Prevents you from making future plans
• Impacts general health due to inflammation

The important fact to understand about RA is that even if the swelling goes down for a while or the pain subsides, the immune system attack is still going on. Another way to say it is, RA could still be causing the joints to deteriorate even though you can't see or feel any tangible evidence of it at the moment.

The joint damage from RA can happen early in the disease stages too. So does that mean it's hopeless? Absolutely not! There are many different steps you can take to manage RA, and it's important to find what works for you and then adhere to the plan.

RA is almost always treated with medication that prevents the inflammation from destroying joints and thus eases the pain associated with this disease. There are medications that actually affect the immune system to slow or stop the formation of bone deformities and the production of bone and cartilage destroying enzymes.

Other medications used are called NSAIDS or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and corticosteroids.

In addition to medications though, there are some home therapies you can use while taking medications. The home treatments will help you minimize reliance on medications by enabling dosages to be kept low.

The non-medication treatments include the following:

• Get plenty of rest which decreases joint inflammation
• Eat a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids to reduce joint inflammation
• Eat foods high in anti-oxidants
• Avoid foods that commonly cause allergies like milk and eggs
• Limit additive filled red meat in the diet
• Exercise regularly to strengthen the joint support system
• Apply hot or cold compresses to ease swelling and pain

The best treatment plan for rheumatoid arthritis is a proactive plan that uses a variety of measures.

Approximately 2.1 million people in the United States alone have RA and about 2 percent of the worlds population are affected by RA.

Women are more affected than men. About 75 percent of RA sufferers are women. Men, women, and even children can develop RA. Typically, disease onset for RA occurs between 30 and 60 years old.

About 20 percent of people who have RA, test negative for the rheumatoid factor. Those patients are classified as "sero-negative rheumatoid arthritis". It is generally thought the seronegative patients have a less severe case of rheumatoid arthritis and less disability, but that is not always the case.

RA has been associated with a higher risk of mortality, higher risk of heart disease, and also a higher risk of lymphoma than the general population.

Another point of interest is that smoking has been identified as a risk factor for developing RA.

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