RA Complicatons and Comorbidities


A couple of weeks ago, someone bemoaned the fact that there wasn't a list of all the extra conditions and complications you have to be aware of when you have RA. So I wrote one:

"Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) isn’t just a bit of arthritis. It’s a serious disease that affects the joints and other systems in the body, including organs, tendons, and the vascular system.

Untreated, RA can cause serious complications. And when you have RA, you may also develop comorbidities, a word for medical conditions that occur with the main disease. We have articles on many of these complications and comorbidities in our archives, but wanted to present a more comprehensive list in one place."

You can read the rest of the list of comorbidities and complications of RA on HealthCentral. 
 

Comments

Rick Phillips said…
I believe type 2 diabetes screening should become a regular part of the RA check-up annually. I believe type 2 can be missed because we are struggling with RA and we cannot always separate the issues. I can see little downside for inclusion in our regular blood testing.
8:49 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Farber’s Disease: Could Your Child’s Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis Be Misdiagnosed?

Image
Joint inflammation or contractures. Nodules (small lumps under the skin or in other tissues). A weakened or hoarse voice. Children with these symptoms may have been diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) or other types of juvenile arthritis . But do they actually have JIA or do they have Farber’s disease? An equine digression When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras. This is an adage in the medical world that encourages doctors to not wander off exploring rare and esoteric reasons for a patient’s symptoms. Because most of the time, that hoof beat of a rash likely isn’t the plague, the joint pain more likely a type of arthritis than the bends (especially if the person has never scuba dived) and you get the picture. But once in a while, it actually is a zebra. And even if it’s first identified as a horse, eventually, the stripes come through. It took five years of my parents running around to different doctors before one finally recognized that I had...
Read more

13 Things to Know for Rheumatoid Arthritis Newbies + Facebook Live

Image
Getting a diagnosis of any type of chronic illness can throw you for loop. There is so much to know and you have so little energy. My new slideshow for HealthCentral collects 13 things you need to know as an RA newbie : "Receiving a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a moment of strange duality. On one hand, you may be relieved to finally have answers for the symptoms you’ve been experiencing. On the other, it can be incredibly overwhelming to find out you have a chronic illness. Wrapping your head around all the new factors RA brings into your life is a long-term process. Here are some of the things you need to know." See the slideshow on HealthCentral . And in case you missed it, here is the Facebook Live I did yesterday talking about this topic:   
Read more