Living with Chronic Pain
People in Pain Learning from each other
Some Info on Chronic Pain
Here you will find information on different Chronic Pain Diseases. I will try to update this page as I get more information.
Chronic pain: When no physical cause can be found
From MayoClinic.com
Special to CNN.com
Chronic pain may develop for no apparent reason. Despite repeated exams and tests, your doctor may not be able to link your pain to a specific physical cause or condition. But this doesn't mean your pain isn't real.
So what's going on?
Consider possible causes
Often, the cause of chronic pain isn't well understood. Years of research have failed to uncover the precise physical causes of many painful ailments, including fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and irritable bowel syndrome.
Sometimes a serious infection is followed by chronic pain. In other cases, altered electrical and chemical nerve signals cause pain to persist long after an injury has healed.
A heightened sensitivity to pain also may be a factor. People with chronic pain often have lower than normal levels of painkilling endorphins. In other cases, pain signals from injured or diseased tissue amplify or distort pain messages by activating pain circuits in the peripheral nervous system, spinal cord and brain.
It's not your imagination
Without an identifiable physical cause for your chronic pain, you may worry that the pain is all in your head.
"In a sense, pain is always in our heads," says David Martin, M.D., an anesthesiologist who specializes in pain medicine at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. "By definition, pain is a subjective and personal experience. Its existence cannot be proved. But what you feel is very real."
Help is available
Chronic pain is a challenge — and you don't need to face it alone. Work with your doctor to manage your pain. Treatment options may include:
_ Medication. Sometimes over-the-counter pain relievers or medicated creams or gels are effective. For more severe pain, your doctor may prescribe an opioid medication. Some people find relief with tricyclic antidepressants such as nortriptyline (Pamelor). Seizure drugs such as gabapentin (Neurontin) or carbamazepine (Tegretol) may relieve some types of chronic pain as well.
_ Injection therapy. Instead of prescribing pills to control chronic pain, your doctor might inject medication directly into the affected area. Such injections are usually a combination of a numbing agent (local anesthetic), which provides immediate relief, and a corticosteroid, which reduces inflammation.
_ Nerve stimulation. Various devices use electric impulses to help block or mask the feeling of pain. With transcutaneous electrical
nerve stimulation (TENS), a portable, battery-powered unit delivers an electric impulse through electrodes placed on the affected area. Spinal cord and peripheral nerve stimulators are implanted beneath the skin with electrodes placed near the spinal cord. A hand-held unit allows you to control the level of stimulation.
_ Medication pumps. An implantable medication pump supplies pain medication directly into the spinal fluid. To replenish the pump, drugs are injected through the skin into a small port at the center of the pump.
_ Physical and occupational therapy. Stretching and strengthening exercises can improve your strength and flexibility. Sometimes learning new ways to handle daily activities can minimize the pain.
_ Complementary therapies. Various complementary therapies may offer relief from chronic pain, including acupuncture, biofeedback, chiropractic care and hypnosis. Ask your doctor if such therapies may be helpful for you.
_ Counseling. A counselor can help you manage your emotional response to chronic pain, as well as identify patterns of thought or behavior that may aggravate your pain.
Your lifestyle matters, too. Reduce stress. Do something relaxing every day. With your doctor's OK, exercise regularly. Build a solid support system. Focus on the good things in your life. Chronic pain may be unavoidable, but it doesn't need to control your life. Take action today.
Below are some Chronic Pain Diseases:
**Also, help support any of these Diseases by using Good Search when searching the web. Go to www.GoodSearch.com and put in your charity, then do the search. The money will go to your charity, thank you for your help!!!! **
What is complex regional pain syndrome?AKA RSD (Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy): Bright Orange Red and Yellow Ribbons with Flames (Put out The Fire) of the pain of RSD
Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a chronic pain condition that is believed to be the result of dysfunction in the central or peripheral nervous systems. Typical features include dramatic changes in the color and temperature of the skin over the affected limb or body part, accompanied by intense burning pain, skin sensitivity, sweating, and swelling. CRPS I is frequently triggered by tissue injury; the term describes all patients with the above symptoms but with no underlying nerve injury. Patients with CRPS II experience the same symptoms but their cases are clearly associated with a nerve injury.
Older terms used to describe CRPS are "reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome" and "causalgia," a term first used during the Civil War to describe the intense, hot pain felt by some veterans long after their wounds had healed.
CRPS can strike at any age and affects both men and women, although most experts agree that it is more common in young women.
What are the symptoms of CRPS?
The key symptom of CRPS is continuous, intense pain out of proportion to the severity of the injury (if an injury has occurred), which gets worse rather than better over time. CRPS most often affects one of the extremities (arms, legs, hands, or feet) and is also often accompanied by:
- "burning" pain
- increased skin sensitivity
- changes in skin temperature: warmer or cooler compared to the opposite extremity
- changes in skin color: often blotchy, purple, pale, or red
- changes in skin texture: shiny and thin, and sometimes excessively sweaty
- changes in nail and hair growth patterns
- swelling and stiffness in affected joints
- motor disability, with decreased ability to move the affected body part
Often the pain spreads to include the entire arm or leg, even though the initiating injury might have been only to a finger or toe. Pain can sometimes even travel to the opposite extremity. It may be heightened by emotional stress.
The symptoms of CRPS vary in severity and length. Some experts believe there are three stages associated with CRPS, marked by progressive changes in the skin, muscles, joints, ligaments, and bones of the affected area, although this progression has not yet been validated by clinical research studies.
Stage one is thought to last from 1 to 3 months and is characterized by severe, burning pain, along with muscle spasm, joint stiffness, rapid hair growth, and alterations in the blood vessels that cause the skin to change color and temperature.
Stage two lasts from 3 to 6 months and is characterized by intensifying pain, swelling, decreased hair growth, cracked, brittle, grooved, or spotty nails, softened bones, stiff joints, and weak muscle tone.
In stage three the syndrome progresses to the point where changes in the skin and bone are no longer reversible. Pain becomes unyielding and may involve the entire limb or affected area. There may be marked muscle loss (atrophy), severely limited mobility, and involuntary contractions of the muscles and tendons that flex the joints. Limbs may become contorted.
Doctors aren’t sure what causes CRPS. In some cases the sympathetic nervous system plays an important role in sustaining the pain. The most recent theories suggest that pain receptors in the affected part of the body become responsive to a family of nervous system messengers known as catecholamines. Animal studies indicate that norepinephrine, a catecholamine released from sympathetic nerves, acquires the capacity to activate pain pathways after tissue or nerve injury. The incidence of sympathetically maintained pain in CRPS is not known. Some experts believe that the importance of the sympathetic nervous system depends on the stage of the disease.
Another theory is that post-injury CRPS (CRPS II) is caused by a triggering of the immune response, which leads to the characteristic inflammatory symptoms of redness, warmth, and swelling in the affected area. CRPS may therefore represent a disruption of the healing process. In all likelihood, CRPS does not have a single cause, but is rather the result of multiple causes that produce similar symptoms.
CRPS is diagnosed primarily through observation of the signs and symptoms. But because many other conditions have similar symptoms, it can be difficult for doctors to make a firm diagnosis of CRPS early in the course of the disorder when symptoms are few or mild. Or, for example, a simple nerve entrapment can sometimes cause pain severe enough to resemble CRPS. Diagnosis is further complicated by the fact that some people will improve gradually over time without treatment.
Since there is no specific diagnostic test for CRPS, the most important role for testing is to help rule out other conditions. Some clinicians apply a stimulus (such as touch, pinprick, heat, or cold) to the area to see if it causes pain. Doctors may also use triple-phase bone scans to identify changes in the bone and in blood circulation.
The prognosis for CRPS varies from person to person. Spontaneous remission from symptoms occurs in certain people. Others can have unremitting pain and crippling, irreversible changes in spite of treatment. Some doctors believe that early treatment is helpful in limiting the disorder, but this belief has not yet been supported by evidence from clinical studies. More research is needed to understand the causes of CRPS, how it progresses, and the role of early treatment.
Because there is no cure for CRPS, treatment is aimed at relieving painful symptoms so that people can resume their normal lives. The following therapies are often used:
- Physical therapy: A gradually increasing exercise program to keep the painful limb or body part moving may help restore some range of motion and function.
- Psychotherapy: CRPS often has profound psychological effects on people and their families. Those with CRPS may suffer from depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder, all of which heighten the perception of pain and make rehabilitation efforts more difficult.
- Sympathetic nerve block: Some patients will get significant pain relief from sympathetic nerve blocks. Sympathetic blocks can be done in a variety of ways. One technique involves intravenous administration of phentolamine, a drug that blocks sympathetic receptors. Another technique involves placement of an anesthetic next to the spine to directly block the sympathetic nerves.
- Medications: Many different classes of medication are used to treat CRPS, including topical analgesic drugs that act locally on painful nerves, skin, and muscles; antiseizure drugs; antidepressants, corticosteroids, and opioids. However, no single drug or combination of drugs has produced consistent long-lasting improvement in symptoms.
- Surgical sympathectomy: The use of surgical sympathectomy, a technique that destroys the nerves involved in CRPS, is controversial. Some experts think it is unwarranted and makes CRPS worse; others report a favorable outcome. Sympathectomy should be used only in patients whose pain is dramatically relieved (although temporarily) by selective sympathetic blocks.
- Spinal cord stimulation: The placement of stimulating electrodes next to the spinal cord provides a pleasant tingling sensation in the painful area. This technique appears to help many patients with their pain.
- Intrathecal drug pumps: These devices administer drugs directly to the spinal fluid, so that opioids and local anesthetic agents can be delivered to pain-signaling targets in the spinal cord at doses far lower than those required for oral administration. This technique decreases side effects and increases drug effectiveness.
Is research currently being done on CRPS?
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), supports and conducts research on the brain and central nervous system. Some studies are conducted at the Institute’s laboratories and clinics on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland. Others are funded through grants to major medical institutions across the country. NINDS-supported scientists are studying new approaches to treat CRPS and intervene more aggressively after traumatic injury to lower the chances of developing the disorder. Other studies to overcome chronic pain syndromes are discussed in the NINDS pamphlet, "Pain: Hope Through Research."
Where can I get more information?
For more information on neurological disorders or research programs funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, contact the Institute's Brain Resources and Information Network (BRAIN) at:
BRAIN
P.O. Box 5801
Bethesda, MD 20824
(800) 352-9424
http://www.ninds.nih.gov
Information also is available from the following organizations:
| American Chronic Pain Association (ACPA) P.O. Box 850 Rocklin, CA 95677-0850 ACPA@pacbell.net http://www.theacpa.org Tel: 916-632-0922 800-533-3231 Fax: 916-632-3208 |
Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome Association
(RSDSA) P.O. Box 502 99 Cherry Street Milford, CT 06460 info@rsds.org http://www.rsds.org Tel: 203-877-3790 877-662-7737 Fax: 203-882-8362 |
| American RSDHope Organization P.O. Box 875 Harrison, ME 04040-0875 RSDHope@adelphia.net http://www.rsdhope.org Tel: 207-583-4589 |
National Foundation for the Treatment of Pain P.O. Box 70045 Houston, TX 77270 NFTPain@cwo.com http://www.paincare.org Tel: 713-862-9332 Fax: 713-862-9346 |
| American Pain Foundation 201 North Charles Street Suite 710 Baltimore, MD 21201-4111 info@painfoundation.org http://www.painfoundation.org Tel: 888-615-PAIN (7246) Fax: 410-385-1832 |
National Headache Foundation 820 N. Orleans Suite 217 Chicago, IL 60610-3132 info@headaches.org http://www.headaches.org Tel: 312-274-2650 888-NHF-5552 (643-5552) Fax: 312-640-9049 |
| Mayday Fund [For Pain Research] c/o SPG 136 West 21st Street, 6th Floor New York, NY 10011 mayday@maydayfund.org http://www.painandhealth.org Tel: 212-366-6970 Fax: 212-366-6979 |
International Research Foundation for RSD/CRPS USF Medical Clinics c/o Dr. A. Kirkpatrick 12901 Bruce Downs Blvd., MDC59 Tampa, FL 33612 info@rsdfoundation.org http://www.rsdfoundation.org Tel: 813-907-2312 Fax: 813-830-7446 |
Fibromyalgia Facts: For Fibromyalgia a Purple Ribbon and Bright Pink and White Braclets
What Is Fibromyalgia?
Fibromyalgia is a disorder that causes muscle pain and fatigue (feeling tired). People with fibromyalgia have "tender points" on the body. Tender points are specific places on the neck, shoulders, back, hips, arms, and legs. These points hurt when pressure is put on them.
People with fibromyalgia may also have other symptoms, such as:
Facts about MPS ( Myofascial Pain Syndrome ) Also a purple RibbonTrouble sleeping Morning stiffness Headaches Painful menstrual periods Tingling or numbness in hands and feet Problems with thinking and memory (sometimes called "fibro fog").
What Causes Fibromyalgia?
The causes of fibromyalgia are unknown. There may be a number of factors involved. Fibromyalgia has been linked to:
Stressful or traumatic events, such as car accidents Repetitive injuries Illness Certain diseases. Fibromyalgia can also occur on its own.
Some scientists think that a gene or genes might be involved in fibromyalgia. The genes could make a person react strongly to things that other people would not find painful.
Who Is Affected by Fibromyalgia?
Fibromyalgia affects as many as 1 in 50 Americans. Most people with fibromyalgia are women. However, men and children also can have the disorder. Most people are diagnosed during middle age.
People with certain other diseases may be more likely to have fibromyalgia. These diseases include:
Rheumatoid arthritis Systemic lupus erythematosus (commonly called lupus) Ankylosing spondylitis (spinal arthritis). Women who have a family member with fibromyalgia may be more likely to have fibromyalgia themselves.
How Is Fibromyalgia Treated?
Fibromyalgia can be hard to treat. It's important to find a doctor who is familiar with the disorder and its treatment. Many family physicians, general internists, or rheumatologists can treat fibromyalgia. Rheumatologists are doctors who specialize in arthritis and other conditions that affect the joints or soft tissues.
Fibromyalgia treatment often requires a team approach. The team may include your doctor, a physical therapist, and possibly other health care providers. A pain or rheumatology clinic can be a good place to get treatment.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not yet approved any medicines to treat fibromyalgia. Doctors treat fibromyalgia with medicines approved for other purposes. Pain medicines and antidepressants are often used in treatment.
What Can I Do to Try to Feel Better?
There are many things you can do to feel better, including:
Taking medicines as prescribed Getting enough sleep Exercising Eating well Making work changes if necessary.
Myofascial Pain — a Neuromuscular Disease
CONDITION: Myofascial Pain Syndrome
DESCRIPTION:
Myofascial pain syndrome and fibromyalgia are often compared and confused. Myofascial pain syndrome is a common, painful muscle disorder caused by taut bands or “trigger points” in the muscles. These trigger points are tender areas in muscles causing local and referred muscle pain. They can create a “jump sign” or twitch response, which means an involuntary shortening of the band of muscle.
How does myofascial pain syndrome develop?
A common cause of pain, as in myofascial pain syndrome, as well as many other clinical syndromes, is rooted in muscle spasm. Muscles commonly contract to stabilize a joint when a ligament is lax or weakened. As a result, muscle spasm may cause ischemia, which is a decreased flow of blood and poor oxygen to tissues. This can stimulate pain receptors that are sensitive to chemicals. The blood vessels are compressed and blood flow is decreased with a muscle spasm, accompanied by a concurrent increase in the rate of metabolism in the muscle tissue. Trigger points can be caused by a number of factors, including sudden trauma, fatigue, repetitive motions and over-activity, nutritional deficiencies and nervous tension or stress. The most common cause, however, is chronic ligament laxity.
What are the symptoms of myofascial pain syndrome?
Trigger points are usually classified as active or latent. Active triggers are constantly painful while latent ones are “silent” until examined. A local twitch response is created by both forms when examined medically and usually brings a loss of range of motion, weakness and decreased flexibility of the muscle to actively and passively stretch. Sometimes trigger points can set off secondary trigger points due to the increased stress on the affected groups of muscle.
Conventional medical treatments may help relieve the symptoms of myofascial pain syndrome, but they do not address the root of the problem. By strengthening structural weaknesses in the body, as natural medicine treatments like Prolotherapy do, myofascial pain syndrome may be alleviated permanently.
Discover why we believe that natural medicine treatments are the best way to treat myofascial pain syndrome.
Learn about the treatments for Myofascial Pain Syndrome
Treatment of Myofascial Pain Syndrome:
The Response of Modern Medicine
Since myofascial pain syndrome is caused by taut bands or trigger points in the muscles, treatments have included traditional physical therapy such as massage, ultrasound and stretching. Although these treatments provide relief, the results often diminish on the patient's way home. The problem is that these efforts do nothing to strengthen the weakened ligaments and, thus, do not alleviate the chronic pain that people with this condition experience.
Prolotherapy versus cortisone Another standard practice of modern medicine is to give various kinds of injections in the affected areas. Again, although the patient receives pain relief, it returns all too soon. And some of these treatments may, in the long run, do more damage than good. For example, cortisone shots and anti-inflammatory drugs have been shown to produce short-term pain benefit, but both result in long-term loss of function and even more chronic pain by actually inhibiting the healing process of soft tissues and accelerating cartilage degeneration. Plus, long-term use of these drugs can lead to other sources of chronic pain , allergies and leaky gut syndrome.
The Natural Medicine Approach to Myofascial Pain Syndrome
A better way to treat myofascial pain syndrome is to trigger the growth of new ligament tissue with Prolotherapy. The strengthened ligament holds the joint in place, the muscle relaxes and the trigger point, as well as the pain, subsides. Prolotherapy is the safest and most effective natural medicine treatment for repairing tendon, ligament and cartilage damage. In simple terms, Prolotherapy stimulates the body to repair painful areas. It does so by inducing a mild inflammatory reaction in the weakened ligaments. Since the body heals by inflammation, Prolotherapy stimulates healing.
Prolotherapy treatment of the shoulder Prolotherapy offers the most curative results in treating chronic pain. It effectively eliminates pain because it attacks the source: the fibro-osseous junction, an area rich in sensory nerves. What's more, the tissue strengthening and pain relief stimulated by Prolotherapy is permanent!
Facts about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome a Blue or Navy Ribbon
What is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)? CFS is not the normal ups and downs experienced in everyday life. The early sign of this illness is a strong and noticeable fatigue that comes on suddenly and often comes and goes or never stops. It is not improved by bed rest and may be worsened by physical or mental activity. Persons with CFS most often function at a substantially lower level of activity than they were capable of before the onset of the illness. CFS is diagnosed two to four times more often in women than in men possibly because of biological, psychological, and social influences. What are the symptoms/warning signs of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome? In order to be diagnosed with CFS a patient must satisfy two criteria. Severe chronic fatigue must have lasted a duration of at least six months with other known medical conditions excluded by clinical diagnoses. Also, a person must concurrently have four or more of the following symptoms: substantial impairment in short-term memory or concentration; sore throat; tender lymph nodes; muscle pain; multi-joint pain without swelling or redness; headaches of a new type, pattern or severity; unrefreshing sleep; and post-exertional malaise lasting more than 24 hours. The symptoms must have persisted or recurred during six or more consecutive months and must not have predated the fatigue. What causes Chronic Fatigue Syndrome? Despite a vigorous search, the cause(s) for CFS remain unknown. One possibility may be that CFS represents an endpoint of disease resulting from multiple precipitating causes. Some conditions that have been proposed to trigger the development of CFS include viral infections or other transient traumatic conditions, stress and toxins. Is there any treatment? There is currently no cure for CFS. The therapies for this disorder are directed at symptom relief. It is important to maintain good health by eating a balanced diet and getting adequate rest, exercising regularly without causing more fatigue, and pacing oneself because too much stress can aggravate the symptoms of CFS. Working with a physician to develop a program that provides the greatest benefits also will help in reducing frustration with the illness. Non-pharmacological therapies include acupuncture, aquatic therapy, chiropractic, cranial-sacral, light exercise, massage, self-hypnosis, stretching, tai chi, therapeutic touch and yoga. Certain psychotherapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy also have shown promise for facilitating patient coping and for alleviating some of the distress associated with CFS. In pharmacological therapy there is a variety of medications that can relieve specific symptoms. It is important to begin with low doses and to escalate the dosage gradually as necessary. Some CFS patients may also find it therapeutic to meet with other people who have this illness, and this can be accomplished by joining a local CFS support group. Support groups are not appropriate for everyone, and may actually add to their stress rather than relieving it. What is the prognosis? The clinical course of CFS
varies considerably among persons who have the disorder. The actual percentage
of patients who recover is unknown, and even the definition of what should be
considered recovery is subject to debate. Some patients recover to the point
where they can resume work and other activities, but continue to experience
various or periodic CFS symptoms. Some patients recover completely with time,
and some grow progressively worse. CFS follows a cyclical course, alternating
between periods of illness and relative well being.
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Facts on Rheumatoid Arthritis: Purple and Blue Ribbons
What Is Rheumatoid Arthritis?
Rheumatoid arthritis is disease that affects the joints. It causes pain, swelling, and stiffness. If one knee or hand has rheumatoid arthritis, usually the other does too. This disease often occurs in more than one joint and can affect any joint in the body. People with this disease may feel sick and tired, and they sometimes get fevers.
Some people have this disease for only a few months, or a year or two. Then it goes away without causing damage. Other people have times when the symptoms get worse (flares), and times when they get better (remissions). Others have a severe form of the disease that can last for many years or a lifetime. This form of the disease can cause serious joint damage.
Who Gets Rheumatoid Arthritis?
Anyone can get this disease, though it occurs more often in women. Rheumatoid arthritis often starts in middle age and is most common in older people. But children and young adults can also get it.
What Causes Rheumatoid Arthritis?
Doctors don't know the exact cause of rheumatoid arthritis. They know that with this arthritis, a person's immune system attacks his or her own body tissues. Researchers are learning many things about why and how this happens. Things that may cause rheumatoid arthritis are:
* Genes (passed from parent to child)
* Environment
* Hormones.
How Is Rheumatoid Arthritis Diagnosed?
People can go to a family doctor or rheumatologist to be diagnosed. A rheumatologist is a doctor who helps people with problems in the joints, bones, and muscles. Rheumatoid arthritis can be hard to diagnose because:
* There is no single test for the disease
* The symptoms can be the same as other kinds of joint disease
* The full symptoms can take time to develop.
To diagnose rheumatoid arthritis, doctors use medical history, physical exam, x rays, and lab tests.
How Is Rheumatoid Arthritis Treated?
Doctors have many ways to treat this disease. The goals of treatment are to:
* Take away pain
* Reduce swelling
* Slow down or stop joint damage
* Help people feel better
* Help people stay active.
Treatment can include patient education, self-management programs, and support groups that help people learn about:
* Treatments
* How to exercise and relax
* How to talk with their doctor
* Problem solving.
These programs help people:
* Learn about the disease
* Reduce pain
* Cope with physical issues and emotions
* Feel more control over the disease
* Build confidence
* Lead full and active lives.
Treatment for rheumatoid arthritis may involve:
* Lifestyle changes
* Medicine
* Surgery
* Regular doctor visits
* Alternative therapies.
Lifestyle Changes
Here are some ways to take care of yourself:
* Keep a good balance between rest and exercise
* Take care of your joints
* Lower your stress
* Eat a healthy diet.
Medicine
Most people with rheumatoid arthritis take medicine. Drugs can be used for pain relief, to reduce swelling, and to stop the disease from getting worse. What a doctor prescribes depends on:
* The person's general health
* How serious the rheumatoid arthritis is
* How serious the rheumatoid arthritis may become
* How long the person will take the drug
* How well the drug works
* Possible side effects.
Surgery
There are many kinds of surgery for people with severe joint damage. Surgery is used to:
* Reduce pain
* Help a joint work better
* Help people be able to do daily activities.
Surgery is not for everyone. Talk about the option with your doctor.
Regular Doctor Visits
Regular medical care is important so doctors can:
* See if the disease gets worse
* See if drugs are helping
* Look for drug side effects
* Change treatment when needed.
Your care may include blood, urine, and other lab tests and x rays.
Alternative Therapies
Special diets, vitamins, and other alternative therapies are sometimes suggested to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Some therapies help people reduce stress. Many of these treatments are not harmful, but they may not be well tested or have any real benefits.
People should talk with their doctor before starting an alternative therapy. If the doctor feels the therapy might help and isn't harmful, it can become part of regular care.
What Research Is Being Done on Rheumatoid Arthritis?
Research is being done in many areas:
* Immune systems
* Genes
* Families with rheumatoid arthritis
* The way hormones and the nervous and immune systems interact
* Infectious agents, like viruses and bacteria
* Research registries (collection of medical and family-history data on people with rheumatoid arthritis)
* Rheumatoid arthritis and pregnancy
* New drugs or drug combinations
* Quality of life for people with this disease.
