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Bottom-line Kitchen Tips for Arthritis SufferersFirst of all, let’s make it easier on you in the kitchen. Let’s face it… cooking a meal that’s good for you from a nutrition point of you is difficult when you hurt. Here are a few simple tips to help you: • When you’re preparing your food, pull...
Rheumatoid Arthritis Medication
Rheumatoid arthritis is a disease that has no cure. This inflammatory disease leads to swollen, stiff, and painful joints. It will also reduce movements affecting the person mentally and physically. As such, the only way to cope with the situation...
The Truth About Magnetic Therapy And Arthritis Relief
If you find yourself riddled with pain from stiff, swollen joints, consider looking towards magnetic therapy and arthritis relief . Since this method of pain relief requires no medications, you will not have to worry about drug interactions or...
How You Can Beat Rheumatoid Arthritis Part 4: "I Want to Know How It's Diagnosed..."
When patients present to the rheumatologist they often have not yet received a definitive diagnosis.
Despite all the high tech tools available today, the most important part of evaluating the patient remains a careful history and physical examination (see Part 3). Helpful diagnostic laboratory tests include the rheumatoid factor, erythrocyte sedimentation test (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), and more recently a new test called the anti cyclic citrullinated antibody (anti-CCP). One note of caution: the presence of a positive rheumatoid factor doesn't necessarily indicate the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthrits. Multiple other conditions can cause rheumatoid factor positivity. By the same token, roughly 20 % of patients with rheumatoid arthritis are rheumatoid factror negative.
Imaging procedures such as magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound are helpful. Diagnostic x-rays are of limited use because significant damage can occur long before it shows up on x-ray.
The goals of management include: aggressive and early treatment, reduction of signs and symptoms, prevention of deformities,
maintenance of joint function, control of co-morbidities (other associated disease such as hypertension, diabetes, etc., a patient might have), and possibly... cure. While this last option is still not quite achievable just yet , it is becoming more of a possibility.
In addition to medications, treatment of RA includes diet, exercise, joint protection, and occasionally joint surgery.
The approach to RA treatment has changed dramatically in the last 5 years.
Dr. Wei (pronounced “way”) is a board-certified rheumatologist and Clinical Director of the nationally respected Arthritis and Osteoporosis Center of Maryland. He is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and has served as a consultant to the Arthritis Branch of the National Institutes of Health. He is a Fellow of the American College of Rheumatology and the American College of Physicians. For more information on arthritis and related conditions, go to: http://www.arthritis-treatment-and-relief.com
Written By: Nathan Wei
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