...Human NutritionProfessor Chitra Wendakoon | Rheumatoid Arthritis | By Daniel Schramm | Schramm 2/24/2013 | What is Rheumatoid Arthritis? Rheumatoid Arthritis is an autoimmune disease that we do not get from a virus or human contact. The disease is our own body’s immune system turned against its self. Your immune system is an assembly of cells and organs intended to safeguard your body from external intruders. Your structure comprises the spleen, lymph nodes, tonsils, bone marrow and white blood cells. All these work collectively to fight off germs and infections that can harm you or make you sick. When your immune system is not working properly, it sees your own body as an enemy which it attacks, therefore generating a potential illness with an auto immune disease such as Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). There are several types of auto immune diseases that can upset the body; more notably, the heart, lungs kidneys, brain as well as the joints. Since the 1930′s researchers have been exploring the link between diet and arthritis. We continue to hear claims that special diets, foods and supplements may help to cure or alleviate symptoms of arthritis, but most claims are unproven. Many experts speculate that claims of nutritional remedies and cures with food or dietary supplements are related to the “placebo affect”. The placebo effect is the patient’s perception of improved symptoms and well-being, resulting from new therapy, regardless of evidence for actual...
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...JUVENILE RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS Kevin Weller Kaplan University College Composition II CM220 Prof: Diana Gerow August 26, 2012 JUVENILE RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS There is currently no known cause and no cure for Juvenile Arthritis, so it is my goal to raise awareness for those in the community that are not aware that children can get arthritis. Many people believe that arthritis only affects older people or those who have worked hard and abused their body over many years. Children still need support to remain active to try and beat the pain and stiffness they are dealing with daily and the community is also important to help support the efforts to find a cure and help those currently impacted with the disease. Juvenile arthritis affects children under the age of 16. JRA can show up overnight and blood tests cannot determine if a child has arthritis. There is currently no cause or cure for this disease that affects 50,000 children in the United States. JRA is often misunderstood or mistaken for other conditions, and thus parents need to learn the signs of Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, how to find appropriate medical intervention, and what best practices they can use at home. Juvenile Arthritis is an inflammatory condition that develops in children ages 16 years and younger. Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis is the most common type and there is no known cause although hereditary seems to play a part. Arthritis affects approximately 1 out of every 100,000 children mildly and...
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...as the “wear and tear” arthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis (Shiel, 2014). Many believe that the treatment of arthritis is limited to splinting, applying cold packs, and anti-inflammatory medications, but there is another type of treatment on the rise that can include multiple additional benefits on top of relieving pain; incorporating exercise into the daily lives of those with arthritis. With unique exercise...
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...Rheumatoid Arthritis or “RA” is an autoimmune disorder where the immune system mistakenly attacks its own body tissues. This disease affects the lining of joints causing pain and swelling. Eventually the swelling can lead to bone erosion and joint deformity. RA can happen to anyone at any age, but the majority of people who have to endure this disease are women over the age of 40. Pathophysiology Rheumatoid Arthritis is a joint attacking disease, but RA can attack any organ in the body. There is no unique test to diagnose RA, doctors look at signs and symptoms of the patient. Infectious agents have long been suspected as potential triggers of RA. Some external triggers, such as smoking, infection, or trauma could even affect the joints. Even though the cause of RA is unknown, these triggers may be a slight cause when diagnosing RA. Ultimately, inflammation and exuberant proliferation of the synovium leads to destruction of various tissues, including cartilage, bone, tendons, ligaments, and blood vessels. Destruction of these lead to very painful joints. Clinical Manifestation Since there is no test to diagnose Rheumatoid Arthritis, doctors look at signs and symptoms. They usually include fatigue, malaise, generalized stiffness, and generalized arthralgias or myalgias. (Rheumatoid Arthritis. Mayo Clinic Staff. (2014, October 14). Patients often complain of morning stiffness when having RA. This stiffness can also be called, gelling. The severity of symptoms can vary from...
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...Arthritis Arthritis is a common illness that is not well understood. To be clear, the term arthritis does not refer to one disease. It is an informal way used to refer to a joint disease or joint pain. There are more than 100 arthritis types and related conditions. Arthritis can affect people of all ages, genders, and races. This disease is one of the leading disability cases in the US. According to statistics, there are over 50 million adults and about 300,000 children living with some type of arthritis. Arthritis affects more women than men and is more frequent in older people. Symptoms Of Arthritis The most common symptoms of arthritis are swelling, stiffness, pain and a significant decrease in range of motion. In most cases, these symptoms come and go. They might be severe, moderate, or mild. Most patients have reported that the symptoms stay the same for years, but there are cases where they progress over time. Severe arthritis is known to cause chronic pain leading to the inability to handle daily...
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...for Arthritis In recent times, Arthritis is an increasingly common problem in our society with more and more patients suffering from this degenerative condition that occurs either due to the ageing factor or by normal wear of the joints over a period of time. Arthritis is a general term used for numerous conditions that affect bone joints. At present, almost 20% of people in the United States over 45-50 years old suffer from knee arthritis, a condition in which joint cartilage breaks down. The condition gets very painful if not treated at an early stage as it leads to the ongoing erosion of the cartilage subsequently leaving the bones exposed in the joint. Who suffers from arthritis? Generally, arthritis...
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...rid of arthritis symptoms and arthritis pain forever and it's not taking drugs. Arthritis sufferers today are continually seeking relief from their arthritis pain. There are more than one hundred different types of medical conditions that can affect your joints and mimic arthritis symptoms; it will be difficult to undergo treatment for your condition effectively unless you know exactly what your diagnosis is; make sure to get diagnosed so you know for sure that you have arthritis and what type you have. A good first step when looking for solutions to an arthritis pain problem is to fully understand how arthritis works. In osteoarthritis, any one or more of the affected joints experience a progressive loss of cartilage,...
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...Rheumatoid Arthritis Gregory Alfonso Biology 115 Dr. Rebecca Coleman Friday, July 19, 2013 Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease that results in a chronic inflammatory of joints within the body. (CDC) RA is characterized by synovial inflammation and hyperplasia autoantibody production swell to the point that they begin to destroy cartilage and bone structures. This is what causes the skeletal deformation in some patients of RA but not all. Other Symptoms include morning stiffness that can last for several hours my mother has complained about this several times and fatigue, fever and weight loss. (Mayo Clinic) RA can happen to anyone at any age this is one of the common misconception of the disease because when it first started showing up the assumption was that it was an old person disease. There are estimates that there are in 1995-2007, 41 per 100,000 people were diagnosed with RA each year. Incidence rose with age (e.g., 8.7 per 100,000 people among those aged 18-34 compared with 54 per 100,000 among those aged ≥ 85 years); incidence peaked among people aged 65-74 years (89 per 100,000) (all estimates age-adjusted to 2000 US population). From 1995 to 2007, rates increased by 2.5% each year among women but there was a small decrease (0.5%) among men. (Myasoedova, Crowson, Kremers, Therneau, and Gabriel 1) While one study from the Rochester Epidemiology Project that there have been declines in...
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...Related Diseases • Arthritis • Lupus • Fibromyalgia • Pain Management • Psoriatic Arthritis • Lyme Disease Overview Rheumatic diseases lead to extremely painful conditions and are a result of factors such as pain, inflammation and swelling of joint muscles. There are hundreds of diseases that are tagged as the rheumatic diseases and these majorly include those related to any kind of arthritis. Some of the symptoms that help in identification of the disease are reddish swollen joints as well as inflammation in connective tissues. The worst impact the disease puts is on the joints and the sad news is that any of the joint can get adversely affected by the disease. Symptoms The most common symptoms of Rheumatology include rheumatoid nodules, RA symptoms, and stiffness in the joints....
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...Definition Arthritis is inflammation of your joints. Various forms of arthritis, such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, can affect most organs and cause extensive symptoms. The term arthritis includes countless rheumatic diseases and conditions. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disorder that targets the lining of joints. It transpires when the protective cartilage on the ends of the bones to diminish and weaken. The most common type of arthritis is osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is the tissue that protects the ends of bones where joints are family. While osteoarthritis can harm many joints in the body, it typically affects joints in the spine, hands, knees and hips. ****Prevalence Health Impact Arthritis can limit mobility and make...
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...Chronic Arthritis in the Elderly Management 6/1/2013 By: Kendra Chapman Topic: Management of Chronic Arthritis in the Elderly University Of Phoenix HCA/220 Date: June 1, 2013 By: Kendra When reading this article on the Management of Chronic Arthritis in the elderly I found that when you hit the half way mark that arthritis is one of the main diseases that they might have to face and is also one of the number one causes that concerns the elderly. Arthritis is inflammation of one or more joints. A joint is the area where two bones meet. It affects the musculoskeletal system, especially the joints and it is the main cause of disability among people over fifty-five years of age in the industrialized countries. There also can be causes of chronic pain; advanced age increases the risk of certain health disorders that causes chronic pain. For older adults who live independently chronic pain can have devastating and wide-spread effects, threating the quality of life, imposing steep economics and social costs and also leading to personal strain. Compliance with drug therapy can be a challenge. Many elderly mistakenly think they should take analgesics only when pain becomes unbearable, and some fear they will become addicted to them. But the emphasize the importance of taking pain medication to keep ahead of pain rather than waiting until the pain becomes unbearable. When they use Nonpharmacologic pain management they become more open to using this method to manage...
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...Abstract Since joint destruction begins within a few weeks of symptom onset in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), early diagnosis and treatment are crucial to decrease impairment of physical function and halt disease progression. A delay in therapy of as little as 3 months has demonstrated to cause irreversible joint damage. Treatment plans for RA includes pharmacological as well as non-pharmacological modalities. Treatments for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have involved a variety of single agent and combination therapies with a goal, to slow disease progression and bone destruction. The research indicates that not all drug combinations are equally effective in all patients with RA. To more accurately distinguish how to best manage early RA, and because treating RA within 3 months of diagnosis appears crucial for improved outcomes, this paper review studies that compare combination to mono-therapies in RA. Introduction Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is considered to be an inflammatory arthritis (Gardner, 2010). It is a disease that is chronic and characterized by diffuse inflammation and degeneration of the connective tissues, often characterized by joint stiffness in the morning that lasts at least 30 minutes but can range to several hours (Gardner, 2010). Pain improves with activity as fluid accumulated in the joints during inactivity is forced back into the system through the lymphatics. RA has a different cause from Osteoarthritis (OA). It is considered to be...
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...Rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune condition, is a chronic inflammatory poly-arthritis (involves 5 or more joints). It causes premature mortality, disability, and compromised quality of life in the industrialized and developing world. Although the causes are unknown, RA is believed to be the result of a faulty immune response. RA can begin at any age and is associated with fatigue and prolonged stiffness after rest. There is no cure for RA, but new effective drugs are increasingly available to treat the disease and prevent deformed joints. In addition to medications and surgery, good self-management, including exercise, are known to reduce pain and disability. The natural history of RA varies considerably with at least 3 possible disease courses: 1. Monocyclic- One episode which ends within 2.5 years of initial diagnosis and did not re-occur. This may result form early diagnosis and/or aggressive treatment. 2. Polycyclic- The levels of disease activity fluctuate over the course of the condition. 3. Progressive- RA continues to increase in severity and is unremitting. EPIDEMIOLOGY The prevalence rate for RA is 1 % with women affected 3x more often than men and it can first develop at any age, although the onset is uncommon under the age of 15. The risk of first developing the disease appears to be greatest for women between 40 and 50 years of age and for men somewhat later. The incidence of RA is in the region of 3 cases per 10,000 people annually....
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...According to the CDC, arthritis affects over 52 million American adults, with an estimated 67 million projected to have activity limitations by the year 2030 (CDC, 2015, para. 2). Arthritis the inflammation of one or more joints, resulting in symptoms that include stiffness and joint pain that often worsen with age. “Arthritis” is the general time for a musculoskeletal ailment, but there exist several types of arthritic conditions. Of these, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common autoimmune form of the disease associated with progressive disability, systemic complications, early death, and socioeconomic costs (McInnes & Schett, 2011, p. 2205). The purpose of this discussion is to provide a disease process and management overview of rheumatoid...
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...Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disorder. This autoimmune disorder causes the immune system in your body to attack the tissues around the lined synovial membrane of your joints. Currently, there is no known cause of rheumatoid arthritis. Researchers are trying to determine if one’s genes, environmental factors, or a specific virus or bacteria causes rheumatoid arthritis. A person can have certain symptoms that can lead to a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. Two of the common symptoms are the one’s joints are swollen and are stiff throughout the day. Bumps under one’s skin, in which the bump is actually tissue, is also another common symptom. Fatigue, fever, and weight loss are three other symptoms that people with rheumatoid arthritis have, but the patients do not always associate those symptoms with having rheumatoid arthritis. Even though there is no cure for rheumatoid arthritis, there are several medications that can be taken to help alleviate the symptoms....
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