Making the Most Out of Vaccines with RA


As I know first-hand, being immunosuppressed can make it a real challenge to fight back against infection and illness. Vaccines can protect you. With the arrival of flu season, this is even more important:

 "As another flu season approaches, those of us who take immunosuppressant drugs for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) start getting twitchy. One of the most unnerving things about taking these types of medications is being vulnerable to infection. Experts are looking at the just-past flu season in Australia and predicting a humdinger on this side of the world. There were “more cases of influenza than ever reported, so we could have a really bad flu season this year, but it’s unpredictable. So you’ve got to be prepared for it,” says Dr. Charles Gerba, professor of microbiology and environmental sciences at the University of Arizona.


But there is no need to move into a bubble — vaccinations can help protect your health."

Read more about how to make the most out of vaccines with RA in my new article for HealthCentral.

Comments

Rick Phillips said…
Oh, I am all for the flu shot. I love not being real person sick.
9:40 PM
Anonymous said…
I got a flu shot back in September. And I've now been sick with who-knows-what for FOUR WEEKS. So.. gotta say, getting a vaccine does not necessarily protect you from anything.
10:34 PM
Anonymous said…
Who cares anymore?
3:22 AM
Anonymous said…
Nothing left to care about...
3:25 AM
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