Many rheumatologists enter the medical profession because they feel a deep-rooted need to ease suffering and help others attain a better quality of life. You could argue that Arthur Virshup, MD, took that one step further by volunteering his time to those who wouldn’t be able to receive care otherwise. 

Dr. Virshup, age 79, of Palm Beach Gardens in Florida, passed away on May 26, 2022. In 1975, he co-founded what’s now known as the John Whelton Arthur Virshup CreakyJoints South Florida Arthritis Clinic. At that time, Dr. Virshup was one of just two rheumatologists in Palm Beach County (the other was his co-founder, Dr. John Whelton). Today, this clinic serves South Florida arthritis patients who cannot afford treatment, providing regular and free rheumatology care to more than 100 area patients.

Dr. Virshup was known for spending ample time with every patient, getting to know each one personally — and understanding them, not just their disease. 

“He was very passionate about giving back to the less fortunate in the community,” says Barbara Boyd-Floering, Patient Care Coordinator at the John Whelton Arthur Virshup CreakyJoints Arthritis Clinic. “He knew there was a big need for health care to the underserved and uninsured. Rheumatic diseases are crippling, and without proper health care, these patients did not have a chance at a normal life.” 

The patients who go to the clinic today receive consistent and high-quality care identical to patients seen in private practice. They have access to laboratory and imaging services subsidized by local supporters, including Quest Diagnostics and Diagnostic Centers of America. Every month, rheumatologists volunteer their time to care for patients at their private offices in Boca Raton, Boynton Beach, Stuart, and West Palm Beach, Florida.

“Dr. Virshup loved his work,” says Boyd-Floering. “It gave him joy to give back to the community, which is why he continued to volunteer long after retirement.” He exemplified the three “A’s” — ability, availability, and affability — says Michael Schweitz, MD, his medical partner of several years. “He was just a very confident doctor who cared deeply about taking care of his patients,” says Dr. Schweitz. “He never turned anyone away. If it was 5 pm and a doctor called about a patient who was in pain, he’d say, ‘Send them over. I’ll wait.’”

Dr. Virshup was loved by his patients — and even had some that were with him for 40 years, says Dr. Schweitz.

Born in New York City, Dr. Virshup grew up with his parents, Emanuel and Dorothy, and his sister, Barbara. He was married for 45 years to his wife, Lorraine, who passed away in 2013. He is survived by his two children, Tamara and Seth, and his sister Barbara.

He received accolades for his work throughout his career. Just one example: He was given the “Hero in Medicine Award” by the Palm Beach Medical Society in 2006.

Dr. Virshup’s funeral was held May 31, 2022, in Boynton Beach, Florida.

To apply to be a patient at the CreakyJoints South Florida Arthritis Clinic, download the application form found here. 

Sources

Dr. Arthur M. Virshup. The Palm Beach Post. May 29, 2022. https://www.palmbeachpost.com/obituaries/pwpb0221442.  

Interview with Barbara Boyd-Floering, Patient Care Coordinator at the Whelton Virshup CreakyJoints Arthritis Clinic.

Interview with rheumatologist Michael Schweitz, MD.

The post Honoring the Life of Dr. Arthur Virshup — Founder of the John Whelton Arthur Virshup CreakyJoints South Florida Arthritis Clinic appeared first on CreakyJoints.

Learn more about our FREE COVID-19 Patient Support Program for chronic illness patients and their loved ones.

While COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective against preventing hospitalization and death, emerging research shows that your age, level of immunosuppression, and other underlying conditions can put you at risk for complications even after being fully vaccination.

In a recent study, published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), researchers analyzed outcomes of 1.2 million people who completed primary COVID-19 vaccination between December 2020 and October 2021. People who might have received additional doses and/or booster vaccine doses were included (1.2 percent received additional vaccine doses).

This means the study did not include people who received boosters or third doses of the vaccine.

Read about getting a 4th ‘booster’ dose of the COVID-19 vaccine for immunocompromised patients. 

Severe COVID-19–associated outcomes (0.015 percent) or death (0.0033 percent) were rare overall, but the researchers identified several factors that increased these risks:

• Immunosuppression
• Age 65 and older
• Diabetes
• Chronic kidney disease
• Cardiac disease
• Pulmonary disease
• Neurologic disease
• Liver disease

Of the 1.2 million people analyzed, a total of 2,246 (18 per 10,000 vaccinated people) developed COVID-19 and 189 (1.5 per 10,000) had a severe outcome, including 36 who died (0.3 deaths per 10,000).

The researchers found that 77.7 percent of fully vaccinated adults who died had at least four of the above risk factors.

“This is not surprising at all, but it’s a study of 1.2 million people, so it’s an important confirmation of things that we’ve been writing about,” says Dorry Segev, MD, PhD, a transplant surgeon and researcher at Johns Hopkins Medicine, who was not involved in the study. “We’ve known for almost a year that there are groups of people — millions of people — who have suboptimal responses to their primary vaccination series, who need more protection.”

The occurrence of four or more risk factors increased with disease severity, from 18.8 percent (386) of individuals who had non-severe outcomes to 56.9 percent (87) of individuals who survived but had respiratory failure or were admitted to an ICU.

However, researchers did not find increased odds of severe outcomes associated with sex, race/ethnicity, time since primary vaccination, or whether the individual was infected when the Delta variant was rampant. (This study looked at infections during pre-Delta and Delta variant periods.)

Previous COVID-19 illness was associated with a lower risk of severe outcomes.

What This Means for You

Even if you’ve been fully boosted, you might still be at risk and require additional strategies to prevent severe COVID-19 outcomes. According to researchers, this may include:

• Chronic disease management
• Preventive measures to reduce exposure
• Additional primary and booster vaccine doses
• Effective pharmaceutical therapy to lower risk for severe outcomes

“There are two things that people need to focus on the most,” says Dr. Segev, who recently wrote an op-ed in the New York Times about how Omicron is not necessarily milder for the immunocompromised. “Do everything possible to prevent getting an infection — including all the recommended vaccine regimens. Then, make sure all of your medical issues are optimized so that if you do happen to get infected, which is quite common right now, you are in as good of shape as possible to withstand that infection.”

When you get an infection like COVID-19, underlying medical conditions reduce your physiological reserve for handling the infection, Dr. Segev adds.

Beyond the Study: The Omicron Wave

Taking preventive steps (vaccines, mask wearing, social distancing, avoiding large crowds) and managing any comorbidities is particularly important for immunocompromised patients in the age of the more infectious Omicron variant, which wasn’t studied as part of this research. Read more about Omicron and the immunocompromised in this guide for those at high risk for COVID-19.

“All of these findings, while they might not have been directly observed during the era of Omicron, most definitely apply to the era of Omicron,” says Dr. Segev. “Five months ago, I would have said that if you did the right things, you were almost guaranteed prevention. I think today, even if you do the right things, you are not fully guaranteed prevention — although you have a lot more protection than if you did the wrong things.”

That’s why it’s more important than ever to remain as vigilant as possible to avoid potential infection. “If people are vigilant with their prevention and medical optimization,” says Dr. Segev, “they are putting themselves in the strongest position to withstand the Omicron wave.”

Get Free Coronavirus Support for Chronic Illness Patients

Join the Global Healthy Living Foundation’s free COVID-19 Support Program for chronic illness patients and their families. We will be providing updated information, community support, and other resources tailored specifically to your health and safety.

Sources

Interview with Dorry Segev, MD, PhD, a transplant surgeon and researcher at Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Yek C, et al. Risk Factors for Severe COVID-19 Outcomes Among Persons Aged ≥18 Years Who Completed a Primary COVID-19 Vaccination Series — 465 Health Care Facilities, United States, December 2020–October 2021. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. January 7, 2022. doi: https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7101a4.

Segev D, et al. Omicron Isn’t Milder for Everyone, Like Our Patients. The New York Times. January 13, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/13/opinion/omicronimmunocompromised.html.

The post Large Study Finds Fully Vaccinated Immunocompromised People at Higher Risk for Poor COVID-19 Outcomes appeared first on CreakyJoints.

Rheumatic conditions aren’t limited to symptoms like joint pain and stiffness. People with rheumatic conditions often also have skin symptoms like rashes, bruising, and damaged nails. These extra-articular (non-joint) manifestations often provide clues that can point a health care provider toward the right diagnosis, help them figure out which tests to order, or prompt them to change treatment to manage a flare. But doctors can’t identify visible indicators of disease unless they have some frame of reference. For new physicians, as well as those who don’t frequently see rheumatic disease patients, that familiarity starts with what they find in training resources, which include rheumatology image banks.

Although that might work fine in theory, there’s an issue when it comes to images reflecting diversity of skin color, since different conditions may present differently in different skin tones. According to a new study, published in the journal Arthritis Care & Research, “darker skin tones are significantly underrepresented in major rheumatology clinical image banks.”

To conduct the study, researchers from the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine analyzed images of rheumatic disease patients from four commonly used training resources: the American College of Rheumatology Image Library, UpToDate, the New England Journal of Medicine Images in Clinical Medicine and Clinical Cases (filtered by “rheumatology”), and the 9th edition of Kelley’s Textbook of Rheumatology.

Of the more than 1,000 images analyzed, the overwhelming majority (84 percent) featured rheumatic-related skin conditions on light skin tones. Only 13 percent of the images pictured patients with dark skin, and 3 percent were of “indeterminate” skin color.

This underrepresentation is especially problematic because several rheumatic conditions are more prevalent among certain ethnic and racial groups of people of color than they are in white people. For instance, according to the authors, Asian, Native American, and Black individuals make up roughly 44 percent of prevalent lupus cases in the U.S., but the overall representation of dark skin in lupus images is only 23 percent.

“Rheumatologists need to improve racial and ethnic representation of clinical images in our educational materials to teach trainees and decrease health disparities,” they wrote.

To that end, the authors suggested the editors of these rheumatic educational resources increase the number of images of darker skin they include and prioritize enhancing “image diversity for those diseases that are most commonly associated with cutaneous [skin] manifestations, including SLE, vasculitis, inflammatory myopathies, systemic sclerosis, sarcoidosis, and psoriasis.”

Track Your Symptoms with ArthritisPower.

Join CreakyJoints’ patient-centered research registry and track symptoms like fatigue and pain. Learn more and sign up here.

Sources

Strait A, et al. Race, Ethnicity and Disparities in Rheumatology Educational Materials. Arthritis Care &  Research. March 25, 2021. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/acr.24602.

The post Training Resources for Rheumatologists Include Few Images of Skin of Color, Study Finds appeared first on CreakyJoints.

Fighting for your country has both mental and physical ramifications which includes a higher risk of chronic illnesses — specifically arthritis.

According to a new National Health Statistics Report conducted by researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), veterans may have a higher rate of arthritis than the general population. The study analyzed data from the 2015-2018 National Health Interview Survey to estimate the prevalence of multiple chronic conditions (MCC) among adults ages 25 and older by veteran status and sex.

Researchers found that the two most common chronic conditions among veterans, regardless of age or sex, were hypertension (chronic high blood pressure) and arthritis. (Diabetes was the third most common chronic condition among young male veterans, while asthma was third for young women. The third most common chronic condition for both males and females over 65 was cancer.)

Arthritis was present in:

• 24% of male veterans ages 25 to 64
• 47% of male veterans age 65 and older
• 29% of female veterans ages 25 to 64
• 63% of female veterans age 65 and older

Hypertension was more common among younger male veterans (32 percent) than younger female veterans (25 percent), and slightly more common among older female veterans (69 percent) than older male veterans (64 percent).

“The elevated prevalence of arthritis among veterans was [one] key takeaway for us, as arthritis was the only chronic condition more prevalent among veterans than non-veterans across both age groups and both sexes,” lead study author Peter Boersma, MPH, told Healio Rheumatology.

The researchers did not speculate as to why rates of arthritis might be higher among veterans, but “this finding further demonstrates the high burden of arthritis in this population and may further inform ongoing efforts to improve veterans’ health and health care needs,” Boersma added.

Another takeaway for researchers was the prevalence of multiple chronic conditions (MCC) among veterans compared to non-veterans. They found that 49 percent of male veterans have MCC, compared to only 24 percent of non-veterans. The gap for women was slightly smaller, with 35 percent of veterans having MCC and 31 percent of non-veterans.

“The higher burden of these individual chronic conditions (particularly hypertension and arthritis) among veterans may explain the higher prevalence of having at least two chronic conditions among veterans,” researchers wrote, adding that they hope their research aids in the efforts to “improve both veterans’ health and better serve their health care needs, as MCC in adults is associated with increased mortality, increased health care spending, and decreased health-related quality of life.”

Here’s How You Can Be Part of Arthritis Research

If you’re diagnosed with arthritis or another musculoskeletal condition, participate in future studies like this by joining CreakyJoints’ patient research registry, ArthritisPower. ArthritisPower is a patient-led, patient-centered research registry for joint, bone, and inflammatory skin conditions. Learn more and sign up here.

Sources

Boersma P, et al. Multiple Chronic Conditions Among Veterans and Nonveterans: United States, 2015–2018. National Health Statistics Report. February 23, 2021. doi: https://doi.org/10.15620/cdc:101659.

Laday J. Arthritis Among Most Common Chronic Conditions for U.S. Veterans. Healio Rheumatology. March 9, 2021.
https://www.healio.com/news/rheumatology/20210308/arthritis-among-most-common-chronic-conditions-for-us-veterans.

The post Arthritis Is One of the Most Common Chronic Conditions Among Veterans, Study Shows appeared first on CreakyJoints.

While most of social media was aflutter during the 2019 Oscars trying to psychoanalyze the loving looks exchanged between Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, another subset couldn’t stop talking about Selma Blair. 

The actress, 46, walked the red carpet at the Vanity Fair Oscar party with a custom-designed cane in her first public appearance since sharing in the fall that she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). MS is an autoimmune disease that attacks the central nervous system, often causing difficulty with walking and balance.

It was an emotional evening for Blair, who wrote in an Instagram post about walking on the red carpet holding hands — possibly for extra support — with her manager Troy Nankin. “There are moments that define us. This is one of those indelibly watermarked in my heart,” she wrote. “So this was a streak of light. To say I am here. I am still in an exacerbation so there was some nervousness. I don’t do anything the way I was once able. I will though. I can regain much. Mommas gotta work. And I will be able to do so much more on my own.” 

Blair’s gratitude for Nankin is something everyone living with chronic illness can relate to. Calling him a hero, she wrote of him, “wanting me to shine brightly in a time that can be so challenging. He knew I wanted to be able to stand proudly as the woman I have become and hope to be. To be a part of something so special when my body won’t move clearly yet.”

A Powerful Moment

Blair’s posts and prominent use of her cane was impactful for everyone in the chronic illness community, whether they have mobility issues or not. 

Chronic illness means living with the bad and ugly — often more than the good. Assistive devices like canes may become necessary during flares, or even on a regular basis. Read more about how to use and select a cane for arthritis here.

By attending the Oscars with a cane in tow, Blair brought important visibility to living with disability.

“With amazing and courageous people such as Selma Blair, we do not let our illness define us or make us stay at home,” says Michael Kuluva, a fashion designer with rheumatoid arthritis who has used his New York Fashion Week shows to raise awareness for RA and other chronic illness. “You might not be able to physically see a disease or the pain it incurs. It takes incredible strength to not let your disease get you down. Having these fighters come out and live their life each day is the best awareness of all.” 

Blair’s appearance resonated with CreakyJoints members for similar reasons. “When a famous person admits an invisible illness, it helps raise awareness for the “regular folks”. Kudos to her!” Katie McKewen wrote on Facebook. “She looks like a warrior to me,” wrote Jeneen Roberston. “She is bringing awareness in the most amazing way.”

“God bless. Ride it till the wheels fall off!” echoed Beverly Doris Weaver McGee.

People following the news on Twitter had similar reactions. Here’s a sample of them:

#SelmaBlair in tears as she attends the @VanityFair #Oscars party made me cry. I’ve often been walking with an aid and the exhaustion can just hit and you think, how am I going to do this? But you keep going. She is amazing. ?? pic.twitter.com/N3qvRJozOa

— Jennifer McShane (@Jenny_McShane) February 25, 2019

Yes, we are doing it. God Bless her. #SelmaBlair #Oscar2019 https://t.co/uif1dVgrrH

— Tracy Downey (@msgoddessrises) February 25, 2019

My grandma had such a debilitating form of MS and I watched an incredible woman become a shell. I wish #SelmaBlair every bit of strength possible in this journey. Take advantage of all meds and physical therapy to live your best life. You are beautiful and amazing.

— The Drinking Diva (@TheDrinkingDiva) February 25, 2019

I love that she worked her cane into her gorgeous look!
(When I can’t use my wheelchair, my cane isn’t as fancy as hers, but it can a be fun (but necessary) accessory…)#chronicillness #disability #selmablair

— Donia ? ?? (@DoniaLilly) February 25, 2019

As a person who has #MultipleSclerosis & walks with a cane it’s nice to see #SelmaBlair looking elegant & beautiful & totally rocking that cane ? https://t.co/Sws9bKdnuF

— The Hamberderler ??? (@teter45013) February 25, 2019

Become a Patient Advocate

If you’re moved by Blair’s stance and are looking for ways to become a chronic illness advocate, consider joining our 50-State Network. We support patient advocates with all different kinds of chronic illness — from MS to migraine to arthritis and more — and provide opportunities and platforms to speak out and make a difference. Learn more and sign up here.

The post Selma Blair’s Powerful Red Carpet Walk Is Exactly What the Chronic Illness Community Needs to See More Often appeared first on CreakyJoints.

Burning the midnight oil again? Your arteries may end up paying a serious price. While it’s already been well-established that lack of sleep harms your heart, a new study shows that it’s not only your coronary arteries that are vulnerable. It turns out that other vessels throughout your body are also more apt to become clogged with plaque and stiffen (a condition called atherosclerosis) if you tend to get fewer than six hours of sleep a night.

When your arteries become stiff and clogged, blood can’t flow through them properly. As a result, so-called non-coronary arteries may raise your risk of stroke, painful peripheral artery disease (often in the legs), and impotence, as well as a slew of other health problems.  

The new study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, included nearly 4,000 people who wore a sensor that tracked their sleep duration over the course of a week. The scientists reviewed the sleep data and ran imaging tests to check for plaque buildup in the arteries, including the femoral artery in the leg.

What they learned: The “very short” sleepers, who got less than six hours of sleep a night, were 27 percent more likely to have plaque buildup in the non-coronary arteries compared to those who got seven to eight hours a night. 

Although this study doesn’t directly prove that lack of sleep causes the non-coronary arteries to become clogged and stiff, anyone who regularly skimps on shut-eye should take heed. That’s especially true because the authors were careful to adjust for other common risk factors for atherosclerosis (such as preexisting diabetes, high blood pressure, or cardiovascular disease). That suggests that lack of sleep may be an independent risk factor for this problem. 

The authors concluded that “recommending a good sleep hygiene should be part of the lifestyle modifications provided in our daily clinical practice.”

While some night owls may simply need to start winding down earlier in the evening, be sure to talk to your doctor or a sleep specialist if you often have trouble falling asleep of find yourself waking frequently during the night. 

Keep Reading

• Painsomnia and Arthritis: Tips for a Better Night’s Rest
• The Surprising Link Between Sleep Apnea and Gout
• Why Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Get Heart Disease, Even When Their Arteries Look Healthy

The post If You Sleep Less Than 6 Hours a Night, Your Arteries Are More Likely to Be Clogged with Plaque appeared first on CreakyJoints.

Experts have long known that certain autoimmune diseases like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis increase the risk of heart disease, but whether having Sjögren’s syndrome — an autoimmune condition that interferes with the ability to produce enough saliva and tears — had the same effect wasn’t clear. Now, thanks to new research, the cardiovascular risks of Sjögren’s syndrome have come into sharper focus.

The research, a meta-analysis of 14 earlier studies that included data on more than 67,000 people, was published in Arthritis Care & Research. The authors, led by a rheumatologist at the University of Montpellier in France, determined that those with Sjogren’s syndrome are 30 percent more likely than those without it to die from cardiovascular disease.

Cardiovascular disease includes a variety of conditions such as heart attack, stroke, and arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythm), among others. While people with Sjogren’s may be at risk for any of these, the analysis found that heart failure in particular is a major concern.

People with Sjogren’s were twice as likely as those without it to be diagnosed with heart failure, a disorder in which the heart can’t pump enough blood. As a result, your body can become starved for oxygen and other nutrients. Common symptoms include severe fatigue and trouble breathing.

Although everyone should be concerned about their heart health, if you have Sjogren’s it’s smart to be especially vigilant about protecting yourself.

Talk to your doctor to assess your personal heart disease risk and find out which screening tests you might need (and how often). Maintaining good lifestyle habits can also help a lot: Don’t smoke, stay active, and eat a heart-healthy diet.

Keep Reading

• What the 2018 Cholesterol Guidelines Mean for You
• Fish Oil and Vitamin D for a Healthy Heart? Maybe They’re Not as Necessary as You Think
• The New 2018 Exercise Guidelines in 4 Words: “Move More, Sit Less”

The post Sjögren’s Syndrome Can Increase Heart Disease Risk by 30% — Here’s What You Need to Know appeared first on CreakyJoints.

About one in four non-smokers are exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This finding was obtained from an analysis of data collected during 2013-2014 as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

The 25 percent number is a dramatic improvement from 1988, when 87.5 percent of non-smokers were exposed to second-hand smoke — but it’s nearly identical to what exposure rates were during 2011-2012. It seems, say CDC experts, that “progress has stalled in recent years.”

The authors of the report also note that there are significant disparities in terms of who is being exposed to secondhand smoke: Children, African-Americans, those without a high school degree, and people who rent (versus own) their home are disproportionally impacted.

According to the report, about 50 percent of African-American non-smokers are exposed to secondhand smoke, as are 38 percent of American children (age 3-11) of any ethnic background.

While secondhand smoke isn’t as dangerous as smoking cigarettes directly, it contains more than 7,000 chemicals. Studies have linked secondhand smoke to sudden infant death syndrome, higher rates of ear infections and asthma in kids, and an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer in adult non-smokers.

The major drop-off in secondhand smoke exposure from the 1980s comes largely thanks to fewer people smoking, increased awareness of the dangers of secondhand smoke (and smoking in general), and “the adoption of comprehensive smoke-free laws prohibiting smoking in workplaces and public places in many states and localities,” according to the CDC.

How to move past the current plateau? “These findings underscore the importance of continued measures to enhance smoke-free policy coverage, including educating parents and caregivers about the benefits of voluntarily prohibiting smoking in their homes and vehicles. These steps can reduce secondhand smoke exposure across all population groups, particularly those with the greatest exposure prevalence.”

You can learn more about the dangers of secondhand smoke here.

Keep Reading

• Women Smokers Are More Likely to Be Diagnosed with RA, But Quitting Helps Lower Your Risk
• 5 Heart-Healthy Moves that Every Arthritis Patient Should Make
• There Are New 2018 Cholesterol Guidelines for Heart Health: Here’s What They Mean for You

The post 25% of Americans Are Exposed to Secondhand Smoke — and These Groups Are Affected the Most appeared first on CreakyJoints.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an autoimmune condition that affects your joints, isn’t something that you just wake up with one day out of the blue. Although scientists don’t understand exactly how the disease progresses, they do know that changes in the immune system can occur a decade or more before a person actually develops RA. During that window, there’s a theoretical opportunity to intervene and hit the pause button. According to a new, small study, the drug rituximab (Rituxan or MabThera) may have the potential to do just that.

The study, published in the journal Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, followed 82 people in the Netherlands who were believed to be at high risk for developing RA. They already had joint pain and had tested positive for antibodies that are associated with RA (rheumatoid factor and anti-citrullinated protein) but did not actually have damage that is indicative of the full-blown disease.

Participants were randomly assigned to get a one-time infusion of 1,000 mg of rituximab or a placebo. Rituximab targets a specific type of immune cells (B cells) that are linked to inflammation in patients with RA.

Although using rituximab did not prevent RA, it substantially delayed the disease’s onset: People in the treatment group were 55 percent less likely to develop RA within 12 months. After the 12-month mark, an equal number of people in the placebo and treatment group (25 percent) were diagnosed with RA.

“The results of our current study show that a single infusion of rituximab may alter the disease process, although temporarily,” the authors wrote.

Can the progression to RA actually be stopped, rather than just slowed? The authors note that it might one day be possible, perhaps by giving people who are at high risk for RA an annual injection of rituximab or by exploring other therapies.

Keep Reading

• Is Rheumatoid Arthritis Genetic? The Answer Might Surprise You
• Lupus vs. Rheumatoid Arthritis: What’s the Difference?
• I Was Diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis in 1991 and Thought My Life Was Over — Now I See It Was Just the Start of a New One

The post At High Risk of Developing Rheumatoid Arthritis? A Dose of Rituximab May Help Slow Down the Onset appeared first on CreakyJoints.

About 84 million Americans have prediabetes, or borderline high blood sugar. If you’ve been diagnosed with it, there’s a 25 percent chance that you’ll develop full-blown diabetes within the next three to five years. Add arthritis to the mix, however, and your odds get even worse.

That’s the implication of a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which found that 32 percent of adults with prediabetes also have arthritis. The key issue:

“Approximately half of adults with both prediabetes and arthritis are either physically inactive or have obesity, further increasing their risk for type 2 diabetes,” say the authors.

The statistics on the overlap of arthritis, prediabetes, and obesity were derived from the 2009-2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES).

Type 2 diabetes has become an epidemic that shows no signs of slowing. Some experts have said it “represents one of the greatest global health challenges of our time,” and figuring out how to curtail it has been a major focus of public health research. Studies like the large Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) have provided proof that it’s often possible for people — including those who already have prediabetes — to dodge the disease by making lifestyle changes or taking medication.

According to findings from the DPP, people with prediabetes who participated in intensive lifestyle training for three years (personal counseling, 150 minutes of exercise per week, and dietary changes designed to help them lose 7 percent of their body weight) slashed their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 58 percent. Those who instead took metformin, a drug that lowers blood sugar, reduced their risk by 31 percent (versus those who got a placebo).

Managing Prediabetes and Arthritis

While many people can take a pill, making major lifestyle changes isn’t easy. Exercise seems to be especially important for both lowering blood sugar and helping with weight loss, but getting regular physical activity can be difficult for people who have joint pain due to arthritis.

Of course, if you can find a way to be active with arthritis, the pay-off is even greater: You’ll reduce your risk of diabetes and improve your joint pain and mobility.

If you have arthritis and need help getting more exercise (whether you have prediabetes or not), talk to your doctor. Low-impact activities, like swimming, walking, and stretching tend to be safe bets.

Keep Reading

• The New 2018 Exercise Guidelines in 4 Words: “Move More, Sit Less”
• Weight Loss Tips that Can Help When You Have Inflammatory Arthritis
• If You Have Arthritis and Use an Activity Tracker, You May Take *This* Many Extra Steps a Day

The post New Data: Almost One-Third of Adults with Prediabetes Also Have Arthritis appeared first on CreakyJoints.