Tag: autoimmune
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
Every time I turn around lately someone is talking about the swine flu (H1N1). There have been outbreaks on college campuses around the United States and with kids back to school everyone is a little nervous about what germs they may bring home. The vaccine for the H1N1 Swine flu won’t be available until October and the seasonal flu vaccine has only been available to selected clinics and doctors so far. It is entirely possible that even with the vaccine, many people will catch the flu.
Let’s face it even if you do everything right there is a chance that you can get swine flu or the seasonal flu. Hand washing seems to be the best line of defense and my kids tell me that there are hand sanitizer dispensers in every classroom. The local schools seem to be doing everything they can to prevent an outbreak, but unless you are living in a bubble there is still that chance that you or the people that surround you will become sick. It is entirely possible that many will come down with swine flu before the proper agencies are even able to get the vaccine to the people that would benefit from it most. So I thought I would talk about what to do if you actually come down with this strain or any other strain of flu.
Firstly, you are not going to know if you have H1N1 or the regular seasonal flu. The symptoms of this and any other strain of flu virus are sudden onset of cold like symptoms. Fever (over 100 degrees), chills, headache, dry cough, runny nose, lethargy, body aches are the most common symptoms but sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea have also been reported. If you or anyone that you are living with is experiencing these symptoms, get to the doctor right away.
The sooner you see a doctor the better. Anti-viral medications such as Tamiflu must be taken within 12-48 hours of the onset of symptoms to be effective. Tamiflu can help to reduce the duration of the symptoms of the flu up to 30%. Tamiflu is also prescribed for the prevention of the flu if you have been exposed to someone who has been diagnosed with the flu. This is particularly important if you have a compromised immune system.
If you are unfortunate enough to catch the swine or seasonal flu, there are many over the counter flu remedies that may ease your symptoms. Make sure to check with your doctor or pharmacist before starting any over the counter remedy because it may interact with any prescription drugs you are taking.
The most important thing you can do for yourself when sick with the flu is get plenty of rest. Having experienced the flu first-hand I can tell you that your body isn’t really going to want to do anything but rest. Make sure to get plenty of fluids when dealing with the flu because dehydration will only make you feel worse and may slow down the healing process.
If your symptoms do not improve or start to get worse, see a doctor right away. Many people with autoimmune diseases have a more difficult time fighting the flu because of the treatments for their disease often weakens their immune system. If you are experiencing shortness of breath, having difficulty breathing, experiencing chest pains as a result of coughing or are coughing up yellow, green or bloody phlegm get to a doctor right away. These may be symptoms of a much more serious condition.
Secondary infections as a result of the flu include sinus infections, bronchitis, ear infections and pneumonia. Some secondary infections may result in hospitalization. It is vitally important to listen to your body and if there is any indication that you are not improving call the doctor.
It can take up to two weeks for a healthy adult to get over the flu. If your immune system is compromised it probably will take longer. Most people with the flu recover completely within a reasonable amount of time, but there may be lingering symptoms such as a cough and general weakness. It is important that if you are unsure about any symptoms that you are experiencing that you contact your doctor and do not hesitate. It is much better to ask to see the doctor and have it be a relatively small issue than hold off and wait to see a physician and have it be much more serious and harder to treat.
Tags: autoimmune, autoimmune disease, campus, chest pain, chills, classroom, college, cough, dehydration, diarrhea, difficulty breathing, disease, doctor, dry cough, fever, flu, flu season, germs, H1N1, hand sanitizer, headache, kids, lethargy, nausea, outbreak symptoms, phlegm, remedy, runny nose, school, sinus infection, swine, swine flu, Tamiflu, United States, vomiting, vomitting
Posted in Autoimmue Disease, Decisions, Health/Fitness, Lesson Learned, News, Rheumatoid Arthritis RA, Solutions | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
Massage has been used for centuries to improve health and ease pain in the body-mind. There are more than 100 different types of bodywork they include deep tissue massage, acupressure massage and Swedish massage. Each one has it’s own technique and approach to bodywork. The benefits of massage therapy for rheumatoid arthritis are increased circulation, flexibility and massage can strengthen the immune system, reduce pain,stress and anxiety. There is scientific evidence that massage lowers cortisol(stress hormone) levels and improves immune system function.
When deciding on a massage it is important to find a competent massage therapist that is familiar with rheumatoid arthritis and or other autoimmune disease(s) that you may have. Find a therapist that is trained in many different techniques. They will be able to guide you in choosing the best therapy for your particular needs. You can also check with The National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork or The American Massage Therapy Association for a listing of certified massage therapists in your area.
Check with your insurance company before you schedule an appointment with a massage therapist. The session may be offered at a reduced rate through your insurance provider or it may be covered if your doctor prescribed it. Check with your rheumatologist before you make the appointment, he/she may be able to recommend a therapist or give you specific cautions. Make sure that if you are flaring to hold off until it is under control. Do not have massage on an inflamed joint, it may make it worse.
Once you have the appointment, make sure that you express what it is that you hope to gain from this experience. Maybe you just want to relax or perhaps there is a particular part of your body that needs special attention. Be clear about the amount of pain or discomfort that you are experiencing prior to starting the massage and communicate if you are experiencing pain during the process. When the massage is over make sure to drink plenty of water. Massage increases circulation and releases toxins trapped in tight muscles. Water will help to flush out those toxins.
Tags: acupressure, arthritis, autoimmune, autoimmune disease, bodywork, circulation, flare, immune system, massage, pain, rheumatoid, Rheumatoid Arthritis RA, stress, swedish massage, theapy, tissue, toxin
Posted in Autoimmue Disease, Decisions, Health/Fitness, Rheumatoid Arthritis RA, Solutions, Spirit, Wellness | 1 Comment »
Friday, July 17th, 2009
The results of a recent study published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases indicate that the drug methotrexate (MTX) appears to be safe for long term treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. This conclusion was based on data collected from 88 studies that involved patients treated with methotrexate for at least 2 years.
Methotrexate is classified as a disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug also known as a DMARD. Methotrexate had been used to treat psoriasis and cancer prior to its approval by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration in 1988 to treat rheumatoid arthritis. It is also used to treat other autoimmune diseases including ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthriis, lupus and vasculitis. It can take from 6 to 12 weeks to feel the full effect of this medication. Taken once weekly via either 2.5 mg tablets or self injection, methotrexate blocks certain enzymes that affects the production of folic acid which is necessary for growing cells. Therefore it is necessary to take folic acid suppliments while on methotrexate.
It is important to avoid drinking alcohol while using this medication because of the increased risk of liver damage. Methotrexate can cause abnormal liver function so it is necessary to have blood work monitoring done every 8 weeks. The 88 studies concluded that 13% of people taking methotrexate experienced elevated liver enzymes however only 3.7% had to stop using the drug due to liver toxicity. Other side effects include nausea, vomiting ( may be based on the dosage), mouth sores, rash, diarrhea, blood count abnormalities, persistent dry cough, unexplained shortness of breath, cirrhosis of the liver ( rarely), gradual hair loss, and sensitivity to sunlight. Some over the counter and prescription medications may increase the toxicity of methotrexate so it is important to check with your doctor or pharmacist before taking any additional medication. Methotrexate can cause birth defects and can cause complications during pregnancy. It should not be taken if you plan on starting a family.
Patients in the study experienced side effects but usually mild. Methotrexate rates of discontinuation were less than gold, sulfasalazine and penicillamine but more than plaquenil in this study.
Of the 88 studies only 2 assessed the relationship between methotrexate and cardiovascular disease. One study concluded that there was no increased risk of cardiovascular disease, the other suggested that there may be a reduced risk. There was no increased risk of infections linked to methotrexate.
Tags: ankylosing spondylitis, arthritis, autoimmune, disease, inflammation, lupus, medication, methotrexate, psoriatic arthritis, RA, rheumatoid, Rheumatoid Arthritis RA, symptoms, vasculitis
Posted in Autoimmue Disease, Good News!, News, Rheumatoid Arthritis RA, Solutions | 4 Comments »
Thursday, July 9th, 2009
I had planned on doing an update on any news regarding the swine flu for a while now. I planned on keeping up to date on the spread of the virus and certainly a reminder update when it got closer to flu season for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. What I hadn’t planned on was the swine flu hitting my home so soon. As of the writing of this post we have been dealing with the swine flu for 10 days now. This morning’’s paper announced that another Rhode Islander has fallen victim to this virus. We are told that she had an “underlying medical condition”.
Late Sunday afternoon a week ago my 9 year old son Kevin started to get quiet. He was just not is usual bubbly self. He is normally a very active chatty boy. My little firecracker. He started slow down quite a bit and I even found him sound asleep in the middle of the day. Not at all like my Kevin. My motherly instinct new that something wasn’t right. As the day wore on he seemed to lose his appetite and was way too quiet. His color was off, he looked pale to me.
Later Sunday evening I went in to check on him and he felt really worm. I took his temperature and it read 104. Not a number I am comfortable with, but Kevin is my third child and I have seen dozens of times when one of the kids would spike a temperature only to have it go back down 24 hours later with no explaination. I knew what I needed to do. I gave him some ibuprofen and put a cold compress on him and gave him plenty of fluids. The ibuprofen seemed to bring the temperature down but only down to 100.2. I knew then it would be a long night. Every hour I checked his temperature, made sure that I kept a cool compress on him and watched and naturally worried. He seemed to be out of it the next morning, but then again Mom had been into bother him many times the night before.
First thing the next morning I started asking questions, Does anything hurt? Do you feel achy? Do you have a head ache? He said no he just felt cold. I suspected that was his fever that was making him feel cold. I continued to monitor him and by the end of the day his fever seemed to have broken and I thought it was just one of those 24 hour things that kids get.
Boy o boy was I wrong .
The next few days he had no fever or aches or pains just coughing and coughing and more coughing, post nasal drip and stuffy head. Night after night coughing all night long. He had no appetite but I was grateful that he was drinking plenty of fluids. Although I was not happy about his cough I was not overly concerned by it either. I gave him some cough medicine. I thought that he had caught a summer cold.
Then late Thursday evening he started with another fever. This time the fever was only 102. I knew at this point it was neither just a cold nor a 24 hour thing. He needed to see a doctor. This thing was not getting better on its own and now he’s got fever number 2. The first thing Friday morning I called the pediatrician’s office. We were lucky and got a 10:00am appointment. On the way there Kevin starts telling me how much better he is feeling. I still wanted the doctor to take a look at him.
We got into to see the doctor and after a thorough check up he announces that Kevin has all the symptoms of the swine flu. He tells me that he is seeing a dozen cases every day and they all seem to follow the same pattern. Initially a really high temperature that seems to pass after about 24 hours followed by cold like symptoms and then a secondary fever with contiunuing cold like symptoms. He even had one patient in the hospital with this virus. He also tells me that the state is not testing anymore because it is too expensive for so many mild cases of this virus. He said that the only time that the state would test is if the patient ended up with complications that cause them to end up in the hospital. He then tells me that Kevin has seen the worst of it and there is really nothing to do but keep an eye on him and if he gets worse come back in, but he didn’t anticipate that happening.
I actually asked the doctor if he was sure that it was the swine flu. I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing. After the shock wore off I asked the doctor if I should be concerned because of the medication I take for my RA. He suggested that I call my rheumatologist immediately which is exactly what I did. She put me on tamiflu for ten days and wanted immediate blood work done to check on my white blood count..
While we have spent the better part of 2 weeks now coughing and sneezing with tissues galore in my house, this was according to the doctor a really mild case of this H1N1 flu virus. The doctor’s say that we are actually lucky to have caught this virus now when the symptoms are mild so that our bodies have the chance to build up a resistance to this virus come flu season. I want everyone reading this to know I am very concerned how bad this will be during flu season. If what we have experienced is mild I for one cannot imagine what severe of even a normal case of this virus is like. When the flu vaccine is available I would suggest that everyone get it. You do not want to get this virus.
Tags: ache, arhtirtis, autoimmune, fever, ibuprofen, medication, RA, rheumatoid, Tamiflu
Posted in Autoimmue Disease, Decisions, Health/Fitness, Lesson Learned, News, Rheumatoid Arthritis RA, Solutions, Wellness | 9 Comments »
Monday, July 6th, 2009
This is an update on the status of the H1N1 ( Swine ) Flu information since my post on Swine Flu and Autoimmune Disease (click here to view previous post). One June 11, 2009 Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the World Health Organization(WHO) raised the worldwide pandemic alert to a Phase 6 ( also known as the pandemic phase). This phase is characterized by community level outbreak via human-to-human spread of the virus in multiple parts of the world.
Currently more than 70 countries have reported cases of H1N1 (swine flu) infection. This number has been steadily increasing in recent weeks. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) decision to raise the alert level to Phase 6 means that the spread of the disease is worldwide. At this time it is unclear how serious or intense this pandemic will be. It is difficult to predict how many people will become infected and how serious the complications from this disease will be.. Because this is a new strain of the influenza virus many people have little or no immunity against it. As of this post there is no vaccine to protect against the H1N1 (Swine Flu) virus. However the U.S. Government is taking steps to process and manufacture a H1N1 (Swine Flu) vaccine. The CDC (Centers for Disease & Prevention) has isolated the virus and has made a candidate vaccine which will be used to create the vaccine. It generally takes several months to complete the process to make a vaccine.
Countries in the Southern Hemisphere are just beginning their influenza season. Information obtained from the Southern Hemisphere countries experiences during their flu season may provide valuable information to Northern Hemisphere countries in preparation for it’s own flu season
All 50 states in the U.S., the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have reported cases of the H1N1 (Swine Flu) virus. Most people in the United States that have become ill with the H1N1 virus have recovered without medical treatment. Currently 33,902 cases of the H1N1 (swine flu) virus have been reported in the United States with 170 deaths reported. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) does anticipate that there will be more new cases of this virus reported, more hospitalizations and more deaths associate with this virus in the weeks to come. The CDC anticipates signification illness associated with the H1N1 (Swine Flu) virus in the fall and winter months which is typically the U.S. influenza season.
The CDC ( Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has issued priority use for antiviral drugs during this outbreak to treat people that are at increased risk of severe illness and those hospitalized with the H1N1 virus. People at high risk include young children, people with chronic health conditions such as diabetes, asthma, metabolic disease, lung, heart or kidney disease or those with weakened immune systems and those with neurologic or neuromuscular disease.
The CDC has provided information on what to do if you become sick (click here for link ) and how to care for someone who is sick with the virus at home.(click here for link) The most important thing that you can do right now is to stay informed.
Tags: antiviral, arthritis, autoimmune, autoimmune disease, CDC, Center for Disease Control & Prevention, chronic, complications, Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan, flu season, government, H1N1, health, immune system, infection, influenza, information, pandemic, phase 6, rheumatoid, Rheumatoid Arthritis RA, swine flu, WHO, World Health Organization
Posted in Autoimmue Disease, News, Rheumatoid Arthritis RA | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
According to new research published June 28, 2009 in Nature Medicine, scientists have uncovered one molecular switch that triggers the immune system to attack the joints in people with rheumatoid arthritis. The authors of the study from Imperial College London state that blocking this signal may provide effective arthritis treatments in the future. Approximately 1 percent of the population suffers from rheumatoid arthritis the most common autoimmune disease. About half of all patients are not responding to the current treatments available today. Research scientists working on this study state that stopping this disease closer to the root of the problem could possibly be the best way to treat the disease. The results from their study suggest a new direction for therapies.
In healthy people when a microbe invades the body the immune system responds by turning on a molecular switch that sends the immune system into action to protect the body from disease. In this study, the signal molecule called tenascin-C can trigger the same molecular switch and activate the immune system. High levels of this signal molecule tenascin-C in joints may cause the activated immune system to attack the joint tissue that leads to persistent inflammation that is common in rheumatoid arthritis. The molecular switch is called TLR4. It is found on the surface of the immune cell and in prior research mice without TLR4 do not show chronic joint inflammation.
The researchers in this study are hopeful that scientists can develop new treatments that target the interaction between tenascin-C ( the signal molecule ) and TLR4( the molecular switch ). This may help to combat rheumatoid arthritis. Dr. Kim Midwood, the head author of this study from the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology at Imperial College in London states that “We have uncovered on way that the immune system may be triggered to attack the joints in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. We hope our new findings can be used to develop new therapies that interfere with tenascin-C activation of the immune system and that these will reduce the painful inflammation that is a hallmark of this condition.”
The researchers conducted 5 studies. One study suggests that tenascin-C is needed to sustain inflammation. They produced joint inflammation in mice with and without the gene for tenascin-C and found that the mice without the gene for tenacin-C showed no swelling or tissue distructions however the mice with the gene that could produce tenascin-c had severe swelling in the joint and bone and cartilage damage. In a later study, mice joints were injected with the active part of the tenacin-C molecule. Researchers found that it caused the joints of the mice to become inflamed and with higher doses the reaction was more intense. In another study, scientist found that by taking human immune cells called macrophages and fibroglasts from the swollen joints of patients with rheumatoid arthritis and adding tenascin-C the cells produced more molecules that cause inflammation.The study authors are planning on working out the exact mechanism in tenacin-C that increases these levels of inflammation in the joint and explore way to inhibit it.
Tags: arthritis, autoimmune, condition, diseasse, doses, Dr. Kim Midwood, fibroglasts, gene, immune, Imperial College London, Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, microphage, Nature Medicine, painful, research, rheumatoid, system, tenacin-C, TLR4
Posted in News, Wellness | 12 Comments »
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