There are many ways to deal with chronic arthritis pain. Today I choose to write about it in a very simple way, by composing a haiku. Yep, I said “haiku.” I blame the haiku idea on feeling generally quirky today.
Mission accomplished: I entertained myself. Bonus points if: I entertain you. Write your own chronic pain haiku in the comments. Let’s have some fun with this!
Jasmine blooms
Inflammation aggravates
Pharmacy closes soon
What do these three seemingly unrelated things have in common?
They were all in Westwood, California this afternoon. Shia LaBeouf (Megan Fox, if she’s more your style) was presumably attending the premiere of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, at the Mann Bruin while I was tending to my rheumatoid arthritis at my rheumatologist’s office.
All this Hollywood fuss nearly made me late to my appointment.
Only in Los Angeles…
I ran across an interesting article about how gum disease might be linked to Rheumatoid Arthritis. A recent study concluded that when patients received treatment for their gum disease, their RA symptoms improved. From the article:
The study, published in the Journal of Periodontology, found treating gum disease was linked with reduced joint pain, fewer swollen joints and less morning stiffness in patients suffering from a severe form of rheumatoid arthritis.
Take care of those gums!
Via UPI [Treating gums helps rheumatoid arthritis]
Wanted to get this up before I head to work, so I’m re-posting part of an article that appears on ArthritisToday.com:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given its nod to certolizumab pegol (Cimzia), a drug previously approved to treat Crohn’s disease, to also treat moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis.
Certolizumab pegol belongs to a class of biologic drugs that block an inflammatory protein called tumor necrosis factor alpha, or TNF-alpha. Other drugs in this category include etanercept (Enbrel), infliximab (Remicade), adalimumab (Humira) and golimumab (Simponi), which was approved last month.
Cimzia’s molecule is slightly different from the other drugs in its class, however, because it is pegylated, or coated, a process that, in theory, should help it slip by the body’s immune system more easily and may make it less likely to cause an infusion reaction.
Pegylation may also help the drug work more quickly. According to UCB, the Belgian company that makes certolizumab pegol, when used in conjunction with methotrexate, patients in clinical trials for Cimzia reported a reduction in symptoms as early as the first week.
Certolizumab pegol is administered with at-home injections, which can be given every two or four weeks.
