Got a chronic illness? Make yourself a priority and ask for help

(ARA) - Women still spend more time than their male counterparts on caring for families and managing household activities. Because of this, women often put others' needs ahead of their own health and well-being.

However, studies show that when a woman is diagnosed with a disease, her social network and relationships can affect her long-term health. This is true for chronic diseases like rheumatoid arthritis (RA) where close relationships can lead to better physical and emotional health, and the ability to complete daily tasks more easily.

Women are two times more likely to be diagnosed with RA than men, with the average age of diagnosis between 30 and 50 years old, according to the Arthritis Foundation. While sometimes hard to detect, RA is an autoimmune disease characterized by chronic joint pain, stiffness and swelling that can cause permanent joint damage. Seemingly simple tasks, like getting dressed or tying shoes, can become painful chores for women with RA.

Though loved ones and friends cannot reduce the painful physical symptoms of RA, they can play an important role in helping manage the disease. "Patients with a strong support network tend to be in better control of the disease," says Dr. John Klippel, chief executive officer of the Arthritis Foundation.

For women diagnosed with RA, creating a group of friends and family who can offer help is important to contribute to a better quality of life through emotional support and assistance with everyday tasks. Try these suggestions:

* Develop a list of friends and family who would be willing to help.
* Tell the people on your list exactly the type of help you may need.
* Keep a detailed calendar to schedule specific chores, exercises and more where you may need assistance.
* Consider professional services for physically challenging tasks like mowing the lawn, cleaning gutters and more.

With a strong support system in place, women with RA can face their condition with less worry by knowing that someone is always available to offer encouragement, companionship and assistance, if needed.

There are tools and programs that help patients and doctors work together to manage health conditions like RA and help teach patients to communicate about their symptoms and disease management. The Arthritis Foundation's "Let's Talk RA" program provides a free Communication Kit that includes step-by-step discussion tips, as well as a symptom tracker that patients can use with their rheumatologists. The "Let's Talk RA" Communication Kit, sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb, can be ordered at no charge from the Arthritis Foundation Web site, www.arthritis.org/LetsTalkRA or by calling (800) 283-7800.

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Diet and Rheumatoid Arthritis

The Arthritis Foundation recommends a healthy, balanced diet low in saturated fats and calories, and rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Other nutrition recommendations for RA patients include:

* Maintain your ideal weight.
* Eat a variety of foods from the basic food groups: bread, cereal, rice, and pasta; fruits and vegetables; milk, yogurt, and cheese; and meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs, and nuts.
* Avoid eating too much fat, saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol.
* Eat adequate amounts of starch and fiber.
* Eat high-quality, low-fat sources of protein.
* Avoid too much sugar.
* Avoid too much sodium (salt).
* Avoid alcohol.

Visit Discover Chiropractic to learn more about ways to deal with pain.

Discover Chiropractic
Family Wellness Center
9266 SW Beaverton
Hillsdale Hwy.
Beaverton, Oregon 97005

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Help your kids learn healthy habits for life

ARA) - Teaching kids healthy habits can be tough. From learning how to apply sunscreen to knowing how often to bathe, kids need help from mom and dad on caring for their bodies - including their skin, hair and nails.

Some of the American Academy of Dermatology's tips for parents and their children to care for skin, hair and nails include:

* Use peanut butter to get gum out of hair.

* Avoid using hair styling products near the face to prevent acne.

* Wear sunscreen every day to prevent skin cancer and premature aging. Even on a cloudy day, up to 80 percent of the sun's ultraviolet rays can pass through the clouds.

* Don't use tanning beds. There is no such thing as a safe tan.

* Put an ice pack on a bruise to reduce swelling. If it's a bad bruise, elevate the area above your child's heart for about 15 minutes to keep the bruising and swelling to a minimum.

The American Academy of Dermatology provides information about caring for skin, hair and nails for kids ages 8 to 12 and their parents on its Web site, www.KidsSkinHealth.org.

The children's section of the Web site features interactive games with Sammy the Skin Cell where kids can catch bugs, explore mazes and zap ultraviolet rays. The site also explains how skin, hair and nails work and how to take care of them, as well as fun facts including:

* An inch of skin has 650 sweat glands, 20 blood vessels and at least 1,000 nerve endings.

* You lose between 50 and 100 hairs a day.

* Hairstyles that pull the hair, like ponytails and braids, can cause hair loss.

* Fingernails grow faster than toenails, and nails grow faster in the summer than in the winter.

For parents, the Web site provides additional information on how to help their children properly care for their skin, hair and nails, as well as information about adult conditions like rosacea and psoriasis.

The adult tips are more in-depth and range from how to help your child prevent acne to how to know if your child's insect bite is dangerous and should be brought to your doctor's attention.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

Pain meds can cause serious side effects

(ARA) - Karen Woolery has struggled with arthritis in her hands for the past 12 years, making her job as director of a day care physically difficult. The arthritis made even the simplest movements painful. To relieve the pain, she often took medications like ibuprofen, never realizing they could potentially cause her harm. Her doctors soon discovered Karen had a big problem - she had ulcers.

Woolery learned that those pain relievers, also known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), had caused her ulcers.

NSAIDs which include aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen are the most widely used drugs in the United States. Every day, more than 30 million Americans use NSAIDs for pain from headaches, arthritis and other conditions. In fact, it is estimated that more than 60 million Americans use NSAIDs regularly. Two to 4 percent of users - or over a million individuals, like Woolery - will experience serious complications from NSAID use, such as ulcers, each year.

"Many patients do not realize the risks associated with taking NSAIDs, such as nausea, heartburn, ulcers or complications from ulcers, and that the side effects can occur at any time regardless of whether you've taken an NSAID for a week or for a year," says Dr. Byron Cryer, professor of Internal Medicine - Digestive and Liver Diseases at Dallas VA Medical Center and University of Texas Southwestern.

NSAIDs, which may be over-the-counter or prescription medications, work by blocking enzymes that prevent the body from making a hormone called prostaglandin that causes inflammation and pain. By preventing the body from making prostaglandin, the lining of the stomach and upper gastrointestinal tract becomes weakened, which makes a person more susceptible to serious GI complications such as bleeding, ulceration and perforation, often without warning or symptoms.

A number of factors may increase a patient's risk for NSAID-associated GI ulcers and their complications. Risk factors include age, history of GI complication, use of corticosteroids or anticoagulants, cardiovascular disease, use of multiple NSAIDs, chronic use of NSAIDs and high-dose NSAIDs. For example, people taking low-dose aspirin for cardiovascular protection in addition to another NSAID have a two- to four-fold increased risk of gastrointestinal bleeding - a major and potentially life-threatening complication - compared with those not taking these medications together.

"I had no idea that taking a medicine for pain could be so harmful," says Woolery. "I always thought that my stomach ache was due to something else. I never talked to my doctor about the fact that there are side effects involved with taking NSAIDs."

According to Cryer, the "safety" of over-the-counter pain drugs is a common misperception. In fact, a study conducted by physicians at Eastern Virginia Medical School found that 22 percent of patients responding to the survey did not think that over-the-counter medications were important enough to list to their physicians. The study concluded that the perception that over-the-counter NSAIDs are benign is precisely the reason patients and their physicians need to discuss all NSAID use.

Understanding and reducing the GI risks associated with the use of NSAIDs is becoming an increasingly important part of patient care for primary care physicians and rheumatologists. Not every patient will require NSAID therapy, but those who do should work with their physician to determine whether taking a low dose would be an effective way to manage pain and inflammation.

For those who need a higher dose of NSAIDs, physicians may decide to add a GI protective therapy to reduce the risk of ulcers and more serious upper GI complications. GI protective therapies are medications that are already commonly found both over-the-counter and by prescription, and primarily fall into two categories - H2 antagonists and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). H2 antagonists are products like famotidine (Pepcid), while PPIs include products like lansoprazole (Prevacid), omeprazole (Prilosec), esomeprazole (Nexium) and pantoprazole (Protonix). Another less common therapy that may be used is misoprostol (Cytotec). Celecoxib (Celebrex), a COX-2 specific NSAID, may also be considered an option for some patients.

"The good news is that for people who take NSAIDs, there are options to address GI risks," says Cryer. "In the near future, we may see even more effective treatments that address both pain relief and potential GI complications in a single pill."

With the right information from her physician, Woolery now has the tools to better manage her pain and help keep the ulcers from coming back. She hopes her experience will encourage others to learn more about the risks associated with NSAID usage.

"I had no idea of the risks, but others can learn from my experience and speak to their doctor," she says.

For more information about NSAID risks, including a discussion guide for patients, visit www.connecttoprotect.com.

Courtesy of ARAcontent