Medical Therapies

There are some medicines that clinics are using to help treat people who suffer from soriatic arthritis. Each of these drugs has been accepted by the FDA. The latest medications include…

The first drug is Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) blockers. This is a type of biologic response modifier. It is a new way to treat psoriatic arthritis. The most common drugs here are Enbrel and Remicade. It blocks cytokines. These are components of the body’s immune system. When they are blocked, the cause of inflammation is blocked and a patient gets some relief from pain, morning stiffness, and swollen joints. There are some serious health risks related to these drugs though. Even though this is true, a lot of doctors are still using these drugs.

The second drug that is used to treat psoriatic arthritis is Humira. A person takes Humira at home by giving themselves an injection every other week. This is like a diabetes patient who gives themselves an insulin injection. This medication has been shown to offer patients a lot of help with their illness. The health risks with Humira are not as serious as those that patients who take TNF may get.

The third drug that is used to treat psoriatic arthritis is glucocorticoids. These are usually just called “steroids.” They are also received by injection. Some treatment centers only use these as a last resort due to the problems that a patient may have with them. Most doctors would rather use NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) to reduce inflammation, joint pain and stiffness.

The fourth type of drug is called DMARDs (disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs). They are sometimes prescribed for severe cases of psoriatic arthritis. Some of the most common names for these drugs are Methotrexate, Sulfasalazine, Gold, and Cyclosporine.

The fifth and final drug is called Synvisc. This is also taken by injection. It is mostly used in mild to moderate psoriatic arthritis patients.

Specialists don’t use surgery very often for these patients because surgery is very risky. However, sometimes it is recommended when other drugs and treatments do not work.

Another option that is available is to use natural therapies.

Alternative or Holistic Therapies

There are many natural remedies available for treating a person who suffers with psoriatic arthritis. It is important to understand that these are experimental.

The first thing that a person may try is corrective cosmetics. These don’t help your pain but they can help how you look at life. This can then make it easier for you to manage your pain.

Secondly a person may try to watch their diet. This is because nutrition plays an important part in the treatment of psoriatic arthritis. People with arthritis should take vitamins C, E and A. They should also eat a lot of olive oil, vegetables, and cold-water fish like salmon, mackerel and herring can help reduce your pain. People should also see if they have more pain when they eat citrus fruits, red meat, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and alcohol. If they do have more pain, then they should not eat these things.

The third thing that may help is exercise. Exercise is important because it keeps the muscles around a joint strong. When you don’t use a sore joint, the muscles will become weak and there will be more pain.

Fourth, a person may find some relief in hot and cold treatments. Heat can ease pain, relax tense, painful muscles and increase blood flow. Cold has a numbing effect. It can dull the feeling of pain. This is why a lot of physical therapists use heat as part of their treatment.

The fifth alternative therapy is that of light treatment (UVB or PUVA). A person can use either natural or artificial light. Light helps a person feel better and increase their energy level.

Sixth, a person may find that rest is a big help. This does not mean that a person should not be active. A person should just stop before becoming too tired. Some people with psoriatic arthritis do have extreme fatigue. They may need to rest more than normal.

A part of this resting may include splints. Splinting a joint in a comfortable resting position may help to reduce swelling. This can help reduce pain, swelling, and stiffness.

Seventh, since psoriatic arthritis has to do with psoriasis, skin care can be very important. This means that a person who has soriasis should keep their skin moist with lanolin cream, light mineral oil, petroleum jelly, cocoa butter lotion or baby oil. Doctors often give patients a prescription cream to control really dry areas. A humidifier should be used in the winter. Strong soaps, deodorant soaps, and chemicals should not be used.

Eighth, a person may try different supplements to help ease their pain. The dietary supplements glucosamine, S-adenosyl-methionine (SAM-e), and chondroitin can help with joint pain and movement. However, they do not help with inflammation.

Support for Living with Psoriatic Arthritis

Help coping with this arthritis can come from doctors, families, and group support. This group support can be found online. People can search for forums (also known as message boards) and chat rooms by using their favorite Search Engine (ie Google). These groups can provide some important help.

What Psoriasis Looks Like

The symptoms of psoriasis are red spots or patches that grow bigger and get scales that flake off. People who get severe psoriasis may even get blisters. Doctors can tell if you have psoriasis after they look at your skin closely. If doctors are not sure if you have psoriasis, they may take a small sample of your skin and send it to a specialist to look at under a microscope.

Psoriatic Arthritis and Psorisis

Some of the people who have psoriasis will also get psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Psoriatic arthritis is a certain type of arthritis that develops in people who have psoriasis. Arthritis is a painful condition in your joints. It can make you feel tired and weak.

Signs & Symptoms

This type of arthritis is difficult to diagnose. It causes inflammation and swelling in and around the joints. The joints that are usually involved in psoriatic arthritis are usually the toes and the fingers. However, you can also get psoriatic arthritis in your other joints too.

You can be any age when you get psoriatic arthritis. Usually it occurs between the ages of 30 and 50. This type of arthritis is not very common. Some doctors think that it may be more common but is just difficult to diagnose because of the length of time between the symptoms showing up.

Many people who have psoriatic arthritis also get a stiff back or neck because of inflammation in their spine. This is called Spondylitis. It makes moving these areas very painful. Psoriatic arthritis can also cause you to have nail lesions. This means that your nails have pits, and become discolored and thick.

People who have psoriatic arthritis also have psroiasis. Psoriasis is a skin condition that causes your skin to be red and scaly. This arthritis is symmetric, meaning that it involves both sides of the body. Some of the other symptoms are fatigue, and redness and pain of the eye. It can also cause depression. This is because psoriatic arthritis makes life difficult to handle due to the pain. When it becomes hard to manage the tasks of daily living, it is easy to become depressed.

Diagnosing psoriatic arthritis can be difficult. Doctors do blood tests and joint fluid tests in order to diagnose this type of arthritis. In the joint fluid test, fluid is drawn from the affected joint. The blood test looks for indications of rheumatoid arthritis. People who get the diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis will not test positive for rheumatoid arthritis. This blood test will also show signs of inflammation and anemia. Doctors also do X-rays of the fingers and toes. (The x-rays show what damage has already been done.) This is important with any degenerative disease.

What to Do

There are a few things that you can do if you have psoriatic arthritis. First of all, people with psoriatic arthritis need to keep from getting hurt. Injury prevention is important so that you don’t make your arthritus worse. Secondly, you can watch your weight. Also, you can strengthen your muscles so that your joints have greater support.

Drugs

Doctors have also done research on two new drugs. These are angiotensin inhibitors and remicade.

Angiotensin inhibitors are drugs that decrease the ache in your joints. This is a new treatment, which looks very hopeful. It was originally used to treat high blood pressure but it can also help with psoriatic arthritis. However, this drug can irritate your bowels, and so you must use caution in taking it.

Remicade has just recently been approved for use in the United States. It was shown effective in a lab test. When you are truly being affected by your psoriatic arthritis, remicade can help. Remicade can reduce your symptoms.

Treatment Aims

Treatment aims at reducing joint pain and inflammation. It also focuses on improving and maintaining joint function.

Depending upon the intensity of pain, some patients benefit from conservative measures such as exercise, rest and diet management. Others make use of occupational and physical therapy and use mechanical support devices. These measures are particularly useful in managing pain in the large weight-bearing joints like the hip and the knee.

Medicines

Most medications are anti-inflammatory and aim at reducing pain. Patients may take the medicine orally or apply them topically. Sometimes an injection in the joints helps.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) consist of medicines like Ibuprofen and aspirin that help reduce pain and inflammation. But many of them cause intestinal distress when used for long periods. Steroidal injections quickly reduce pain and inflammation but can harm the tissues and the bones.

In case of severe pain that does not respond to exercise or medication, a series of injections of hyaluronic acid into the joints may be helpful. These products work for a limited span of time by restoring the thickness of the joint fluid. Thus there is enough lubrication between the joints – at least for a while.

Depending on any drug for long-term relief is not practical or advisable. When conservative measures are unsuccessful in managing pain and maintaining mobility, doctors consider surgery.

Therapeutic Exercise

A person suffering from pain should perform exercise at a level that avoids pain. In that case, exercise will not aggravate the problem. In fact, exercise can help in many ways:

• It strengthens the muscles around the joints
• It maintains and improves mobility
• Helps overweight people lose weight, and
• Promotes endurance

The most popular exercises are swimming, walking and light weight training. In most people, even a modest reduction in weight can dramatically reduce symptoms.

Accessories

Physical therapists provide devices like braces, canes, splints and walkers to reduce stress on the joints. Warm water soaks, paraffin wax drops and nighttime cotton gloves ease symptoms in the hand. A firm mattress, neck collar or a lumbar corset can reduce the tension in the spine.

Alternative (natural) Treatments

A national survey reported that in recent years more than 45% of people suffering from oosteoarthritis turned to alternative therapy for support and management of symptoms. Some of the most common treatments include Acupuncture and Acupressure, Magnet Therapy, therapeutic massage and Diet Therapy.

Food Supplements

Some studies suggest that natural food supplements like glucosamine, methyl sulfonyl methane (MSM) and chondroitin can relieve the pain and stiffness felt by persons with osteoartritus. Pharmacies and health food stores supply these products over the counter. You do not need a prescription for these.

Flax seed oil is another food supplement that produces essential omega-3 fatty acids and thus reduces inflammation.

There is very little proof regarding the effectiveness of these substances. However, Glucosamine/Chondroitin Arthritis Intervention Trial (GAIT) is conducting tests to ascertain the effects of food supplements on patients suffering from osteoarthritis in the knee.

Self-Help Measures

There are certain things every person can do at home. Warm showers and baths – especially whirlpool baths – often help reduce pain and stiffness. Warm wet compresses like castor oil compress comfort sore joints.

Additionally, plenty of support centers and web sites offer intelligent and practical advice to people suffering from this condition. Certain publications like “Mayo Clinic on Arthritis” suggest more treatment methods that make the life of a patient with soteoarthritis as normal as possible. Most of these resources use pictures and adequate explanation to better equip you.

In the future, prevention of osteoarthritis may become possible. At the very least, we may have a remedy that helps grow back the lost cartilage. However, till this happens a patient’s best bet is to take immediate steps to contain damage. Regular weight control, exercise and symptom management will help him or her lead a near-normal life.

Conventional and Holistic Measures

Usually a doctor will say a couple of things must be done at the same time to treat the child with polyarticular arthritis. One thing that can be done is to take medicine; another is to get exercise; and still another is physical therapy. What one child needs differs from what another child needs.

Drugs

There are different kinds of medications to help these children. Some of these are:

• Analgesics are a kind of fast-acting medicine that helps with pain. It does not treat irritation, which is the cause of pain. However, it will reduce pain for about 6 hours. Some mild analgesics can be bought at the local drug store. These include Tylenol and Motrin.

  You should be careful if you with an analgesic that you buy at the drug store. Make sure to follow the directions on it.

• Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs are also called NSAIDs. This kind of medicine will treat both the pain and the irritation that caused the pain. You can buy a mild NSAID at your drug store. One example is Advil (ibuprofen).
• Steroids can reduce irritation and the pain that it causes for awhile. These are available only by prescription.
• Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs (DMARDs) can slow down how fast this arthritis progresses. This is because this medication can reduce irritation. By doing so, joints and cartilage will not be destroyed. These drugs will take a long time to work. Only a doctor can give this kind of medicine. It is usually given with a NSAID so that pain can also be controlled.
• Biological Response Modifiers (BRMs) are a new kind of medication. They help to stop the body from destroying its joints. The most common name of such a medication is Enbrel. It is often used when a Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drug does not work.

Holistic

Physical therapy can really help these children feel better, in important ways. There are some activities and exercises that these children must do in order to feel better. For example, movements that help them be more flexible. Therapies can also help them to grow strong muscles. Exercise can keep joints moving easily.

Some suggestions physical therapists make to children are to go swimming, go for a walk, or use an indoor stationary bike. The physical therapist will also teach the child how to stretch before doing these exercises. This is important so that the muscles are kept healthy.

Sometimes there are things that they will not be allowed to do. For example: high-impact sports, like football. This is because it can really damage any weak joints and bones.

Natural Remedies

Sometimes these kids also need natural therapy. For instance, they need less stress in their lives so that they will feel better. This is why doctors should teach them how to relax and take care of their stress.

Foods and Dietary Supplements

Doctors may also tell children that they should eat more of certain kinds of foods. They may really tell a child they need a lot of calcium. This is because research has shown that these foods could make them feel better. Some foods that doctors tell these children to eat are:

Doctors also tell children to eat more unsalted nuts and seeds such as:

Usually when children are helped to do these things, they feel better. It may take a lot of work to do this but it is worth it.

Medications Commonly Prescribed

Doctors may also prescribe non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to help a child cope with arthritis. These are called NSAIDs. The most common NSAID for children is Motrin. Motrin can get rid of pain or at least make it manageable.

Sometimes prescription NSAIDs are also used. The most common medications that doctors are writing prescriptions for are Sulfasalazine, Methotrexate, and Enbrel. These medicines can help a child but they cannot be taken for a long time since they will stop a child from growing right and make them have weak bones. These drugs can be taken by mouth or if only one joint is in need of the drug, then the drug can be given by shot in that joint.

There are also drugs used for treating a child’s fever, rash, anemia, and eye problems.

Doctors may suggest that a disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) be used if NSAIDs do not work. DMARDs slow down how fast arthritus progresses. These take a long time to start working though. This is why they are most often taken with an NSAID. The most common DMARD that is used is Methotrexate. This is a safe drug since a child only has to take a very small amount of it to have results.

If a child is really having a lot of pain then their doctor may prescribe Corticosteroids. The most common one that is prescribed is Prednisone. This can interfere with a child’s growth though, so a lot of doctors don’t like to use it unless the symptoms are severe enough that it has to be used.

Alternative and Natural Therapies

Specialists also suggest alternative therapy methods. While these are experimental, many of them do work.

There are some natural ways to help a child with systemic arthritis. These are good since they will do no harm. You do need to really pay attention to see what actually works. This is because the symptoms of arthritis come and go. Whatever you decide is best for your child is up to you. One of the most important things to do here is to make sure that your child’s life is as normal as it can be.

Some doctors will recommend changes in your child’s diet so that you can improve their nutrition. These doctors will tell you to not let your child have any casein or gluten. This means that your child will not be allowed to eat milk, milk products, wheat, oats, barley, or rye. While this may sound like it is hard to do, it is not.

There are a lot of foods on the market today that are the same as “normal” products but they do not contain the ingredients that you are trying to avoid. For instance there are noodles, special milk, macaroni n cheese, and even pizza that you can buy that have no milk or gluten in them. These things taste just like they would taste if they did have milk or gluten in them. This will help your child feel “normal.”

Exercise – Good or Harmful?

When a child is feeling good, he or she should be encouraged to exercise. This is important so that they will have strong muscles and grow healthy. A parent should not become so protective of their child that the parent will not let the child run and play. Of course, you may not want to let your child play tackle football, but your child should be allowed to play something like baseball instead.

Physical therapy can also be used. A physical therapist may also suggest splints to help with normal bone and joint growth.

Topical Treatments

There are also some creams on the market today that are said to help with arthritis. Some of these creams do work. You need to be careful though. Most of these creams have been created for adults who have arthritis. So, if you decide to use a cream you will want to ask your doctor how you should use it on your child.

Living With Systemic Juvenile Arthritis

It is important to know that arthritis can vary from day to day. For this reason, a parent should do what works best each day for their child. No matter what it is that you do, you need to make sure a doctor checks your child on a regular basis. Your child will also need to have a doctor keep an eye on their eyes. This is to make sure that your child does not develop an eye irritation.

Pain, Swelling and the Fever Connection

Usually the pain is the worst in the morning because of the stiffness that comes from sleeping. The pain and swelling come after a two-week fever. This fever is really bad in the afternoons and evenings.

Some of these children also have a pink rash on their thighs and lower bodies. This rash may come and go. Since it is not always there, parents need to be sure that they see it when it is there so that they can tell their child’s doctor. It can also be helpful for the doctor to know what was going on before this rash was seen on the child’s body.

There are also times when this fever and rash may go on for a couple of years before the child gets swollen joints and pain. However, this joint pain and swelling has to be present for at least six weeks before a doctor will diagnose a child with Systemic arthritis.

Limping Could be a Sign

A child with this condition may also have low back pain. These children may limp or refuse to use an arm or leg because they say that it hurts. For this reason, children who use to be very active may now be very inactive. Sometimes this is because these children are anemic. This means that there are low levels of the red blood cells that carry oxygen into the child’s body. Anemia will make the child weak and tired.

There are also other parts inside of the body that can be affected. These are the child’s immune system and internal organs. The organs that are affected most are the heart, spleen and liver.

Eye Diseases

Another problem that these children have is with their eyes. Their eyes can become very irritated. These children can also get eye diseases. One of these eye diseases is called iritis. This is when the black part of the eye becomes very irritated. Another of these eye diseases is called uveitis. This is when the middle part of the eye becomes very irritated. A child will not have any big problems with their eyes before they get Systemic arthritis.

Doctors will sometimes do a blood test on these children, to check for this disability. The doctors are looking for rheumatoid factor. This is what a person who has rhumatoid arthritus has. They are also looking for antinuclear antibody. This is something that happens when the body attacks its own organs. Doctors know that a child with systemic arthritis will not have either of these things in their blood. Other things that doctors will do whenever they are diagnosing a child is take X-rays, do a good exam, and really look at the child’s past medical history.

Allergy Connection

A lot of doctors also believe that this disorder is caused by an allergy to something that the child is eating. The most common allergy that these children have is milk and milk products. This is because milk has something in it called casein. This is a protein that is found inside of milk. It can also be found in nondairy products too. Casein can make a person stiff, sore and have headaches. A lot of times, when children give up milk and milk products they no longer feel stiff, sore, or have headaches.

Something else that can irritate them is gluten. Gluten is found in wheat, barley, and rye — oats, too, though typically through processing cross-contamination. Other common food allergies for these children are corn and some things that are added to food, especially MSG and Aspartame. MSG is a type of salt. Aspartame is a kind of fake sugar.

The reason that doctors believe that systemic arthritis is caused by allergies to food is because all of the joints of the body are involved. This means that there cannot be a physical reason for this and so it is a chemical reason.

Most of the time this will not change into rheumatoid arthritis later on. However, if these problems are not taken care of in children, then they will have these problems throughout their life. If these juveniles are taken care of, then most of the time they will not have any problems when they grow up.