Arthritis Awareness

1. Affects the physical activities you're able to do

2. Forces you to cut down on your daily activities

3. Causes you day-to-day pain

4. Interferes with your overall health

5. Reduces your energy

6. Limits your ability to make and keep social plans

7. Determines what you're emotionally up to doing

8. Makes you feel down sometimes

To help you on your way towards a better quality of life, here are some tips to help make the day easier on you.

• Keep more than one vacuum in the house, so you can leave one on each floor.  This will eliminate the need to make difficult trips up and down the stairs with a heavy vacuum.
• Prioritize your day and finish the things that are most important first.  That way if you run out of energy or have a flare-up, you can be a little less stressed knowing that you made the best use of your time.
• Take your time with big tasks.  Set a kitchen timer for 10 or 15 minutes.  When it goes off, be sure to take a break and come back to it later once you've given yourself time to recover.
• Watch the weather.  If you believe the weather has an impact on your RA, be sure to check your local weather forecast. 

**Do you use any of these tips?  Please let us know!  Share your story and we will include it on this page to help others!  You can also blog about this, and anything else you want to talk about in our blog!  Help others by sharing your tips and stories!

Nikki adds:

• Check out www.weather.com for an arthritis forecast! 

Although pain may be the symptom that's first and foremost on your mind, there are other common symptoms of RA.

• Pain and stiffness after not moving around for awhile (like after you've been sitting or sleeping)
• Fatigue (tiredness)
• Muscle weakness
• Flu-like symptoms, including a low-grade fever
• Depression
• Periods when the disease is "active" (called flares) and "inactive" (called remissions)
• Rheumatoid nodules - lumps of tissue under the skin - which usually appear on the elbows or hands

Now that you know a bit more about the emotional impact of RA, it's important to go over some of the basics about your disease.  Remember, RA is a disease of the immune system.  Your immune system is a complex network of cells, tissues, and organs that work together to defend the body against attacks.  One type of cell found within the immune system is called a T cell.

T Cells: One factor in RA development

When T cells are activated, they actually start a chain of events that is believed to lead to the inflammation, pain, and damage of RA.  The activated T cells begin to multiply and produce special proteins called cytokines.  Some important cytokines in the RA process are tumor necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin-1 and interleukin-2.  These cytokines are some of the factors that are believed to drive the inflammation process of RA.  Stopping the activation of T cells, and the resulting cytokine production that follows, may help reduce inflammation and damage to your joints.  

The most prevalent form of juvenile arthritis is juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, or JRA. It affects approximately 50,000 children in the United States. JRA also called juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) because it is very different from adult rheumatoid arthritis.

It's not known exactly what causes JRA in kids. Research indicates that it is an autoimmune disease. In autoimmune diseases, white blood cells lose the ability to tell the difference between the body's own healthy cells and harmful invaders like bacteria and viruses. The immune system, which is supposed to protect the body from these harmful invaders, instead releases chemicals that can damage healthy tissues and cause inflammation and pain.

To effectively manage and minimize the effects of arthritis, an early and accurate diagnosis is essential. By understanding the symptoms and characteristics of each type of JRA, you can help your child maintain an active, productive lifestyle.

Types of Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis

Typically, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis appears between the ages of 6 months and 16 years. The first signs often are joint pain or swelling and reddened or warm joints. Many rheumatologists (doctors specializing in joint disorders) find that the greater the number of joints affected, the more severe the disease and the less likely that the symptoms will eventually go into total remission.

The three major types of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis are:

1. Oligoarticular JRA, which affects four or fewer joints. Symptoms include pain, stiffness, or swelling in the joints. The knee and wrist joints are the most commonly affected. An inflammation of the iris (the colored area of the eye) may occur with or without active joint symptoms. This inflammation, called iridocyclitis, iritis, or uveitis, can be detected early by an ophthalmologist.
2. Polyarticular arthritis, which affects more girls than boys. Symptoms include swelling or pain in five or more joints. The small joints of the hands are affected as well as the weight-bearing joints such as the knees, hips, ankles, feet, and neck. In addition, a low-grade fever may appear, as well as bumps or nodules on the body on areas subjected to pressure from sitting or leaning.
3. Systemic JRA, which affects the whole body. Symptoms include high fevers that often increase in the evenings and then may suddenly drop to normal. During the onset of fever, the child may feel very ill, appear pale, or develop a rash. The rash may suddenly disappear and then quickly appear again. The spleen and lymph nodes may also become enlarged. Eventually many of the body's joints are affected by swelling, pain, and stiffness.

Source: http://kidshealth.org

Thank you for taking the time to read about RA!