Rheumatoid Arthritis - Facts, Risk And Treatments

Facts About Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a prevailing autoimmune disease that affects more than 20 million Americans each year.  It tends to be bilateral and asymmetrical, which means it appears on both sides of your body. It is a chronic inflammatory polyarthritis condition, which means it upsets multiple (five or more) joints in the body and is often linked to joint deformities, especially in the hand and fingers.

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RA can be very serious, causing premature disability, compromised quality of life, and sometimes even death. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), in 1997, rheumatoid arthritis accounted for 22 percent of all deaths due to arthritis and other rheumatic conditions.

Unlike arthritis that is brought by old age, rheumatoid arthritis can affect you at any age, including young children. In fact, a 2007 CDC study estimates that among 294,000 children with arthritis or other rheumatic condition, there were at least 16,000 classified as rheumatoid arthritis and other polyarthropathies. Fortunately, cases of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis are still relatively rare today.
Early diagnosis can prevent further damage from RA, but this is sometimes challenging because early symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis are very non-specific. These include:

• Malaise
• Fatigue
• Weakness
• Muscle soreness
• Low-grade fever
• Weight loss

Are You At Risk of Rheumatoid Arthritis?

What causes rheumatoid arthritis is still a mystery. However, many experts suggest that it could be a combination of genetics and exposure to specific environmental factors.

• Gender – Typically, women are two to three times more predisposed to developing rheumatoid arthritis than men. Breast feeding, oral contraceptive, hormone replacement therapy (HRT), live birth history, and menstrual history are suspected to be contributing factors as to why women are at higher risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis.

• Age – While it is true that rheumatoid arthritis can hit you at any age, the onset of the disease begins between ages 30 and 50 and is at peak at 60 years of age in both men and women. 

• Smokers – Among a list of possible risk factors, smoking has the strongest and the most consistent link to rheumatoid arthritis. Studies suggest that a history of smoking is connected with a modest to moderate (1.3 to 2.4 times) increased risk of RA onset.

Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment

Conventional Versus Natural Approaches:
Since symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis usually involve joint pain, swelling, and inflammation, conventional anti-inflammatory approaches such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) and analgesics are used by most physicians.

However, while these can relieve pain – and there’s a lot to be said for pain relief – it’s very important to understand that chronic use of these types of medications are associated with significant and very serious side effects such as kidney and/or liver damage. In the U.S., overuse of analgesics is a very common source of kidney failure.

NSAIDs also kill some 30,000 people every year due to bleeding ulcers, and the oral drugs have been linked to a host of problems, including heart failure. Vioxx and Celebrex make prime examples of these very real dangers. This is not to say that they are not useful agents in some cases; however, you need to use them very, very cautiously.

With respect to rheumatoid arthritis treatment – or any other disease – opting for natural approaches is still the best way to go.  The Johns Hopkins Arthritis Center has a wholearticle on this, titled “Complementary and Alternative Medicine for Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis ,”where there are several helpful alternative remedies that may be of significant benefit to patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. Some examples are acupuncture, hydrotherapy, tai chi, and yoga.

Here are crucial lifestyle changes (Prevention) to achieve success against RA:

• Eliminate sugar, especially fructose, and most grains. For most people, it would be best to limit fruit to small quantities.
• Eat unprocessed, high-quality foods, organic and locally grown if possible.
• Eat your food as close to raw as possible.
• Get plenty high-quality animal-based omega-3 fats. Krill oil seems to be particularly helpful, as it appears to be a more effective anti-inflammatory preparation. It is particularly effective if taken concurrently with 4 milligrams of astaxanthin, which is a potent antioxidant bioflavanoid derived from algae.
• Incorporate regular exercise into your daily schedule.

Arriene Hernandez is an avid reader of Mercola.com and Dr. Joseph Mercola’s daily newsletter.

What is Menopause: Facts, Causes And Symptoms

Menopause Facts

Menopause marks the end of the reproductive phase of a woman’s life. When a woman ages, her body experiences many changes and a lot of them are triggered by the hormonal changes brought on by menopause the end of the menstrual cycle. While many may regard as a blessing, it is important to understand how it affects the body.

What triggers menopause?

With the arrival of the mid-forties, the ovaries reduce the production of the sex hormones, namely progesterone and estrogen. Apart from impacting a woman’s health and certain physical aspects, these hormones are collectively responsible for

1. Ovulation - the process by which an egg is released by the ovaries into the fallopian tubes.
2. Normal development and function of the uterus
3. Growth of breasts
4. Preparation of the lining of the uterus to accept the fertilized egg.

The most common age for menopause:

Ages between 40 up to 60 are considered normal for the onset of menopause in the Western World. Women typically get their last period at the age of 51 (average estimated). Changes in the menstrual cycle marking the end of the fertility period occurring earlier than 45 years of age is referred to as “early menopause” whereas later than 55 years is considered “late menopause”.

Premature menopause:

It so happens at times that menopause occurs before the age of 40. Such cases are regarded as falling under “premature menopause” and are often the result of autoimmune disorders, genetics or medical procedures such at chemotherapy or removal of ovaries.

Another reason for early menopause is “premature ovarian failure”. For reasons not yet known, this happens when the ovaries halt the production of eggs thus triggering changes in the hormone profile. This is not necessarily a permanent situation though, unlike premature menopause.

Symptoms of menopause:

As per the experts, one year without your period confirms the arrival of menopause. The initial phase when menopause kicks in, known as “peri-menopause”, may persist for 3 to 5 years when estrogen levels start dipping.

You may start experiencing the symptoms well before that one-year period begins. Mentioned below is a list of a few symptoms of menopause.

• Irregular periods – Not every woman faces the same symptoms but this is generally the first sign. Your   period may become irregular or you might end up skipping over them for months at time.
• Hot flashes
• Insomnia
• Fatigue
• Depression and other mood swings
• Joint or muscle ache
• Altered libido
• Dry or itchy vagina

When the body has to do away with estrogen, it becomes susceptible to a number of health risks including osteoporosis and heart disease. But there is no need to panic- understanding menopause is the key to coping with it.