Wishing all the fathers out there a great Sunday!!! Thank you for your endless love and support!
Photo courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The Perils of Commuting
I spend a lot of time commuting by train between two urban centres in eastern Canada. It’s not a short commuter hop, in fact, it’s a 4.5 hr ride (if there are no delays like fallen trees or debris, or protesters or heavy freight traffic on the line) and then it’s another hour-long subway/bus ride after I arrive at my final destination. I do this ‘schlep’ fairly frequently to help out my elderly parents so I am exceedingly aware of how a physical infirmity or limitation can make even a simple train trip from Point A to B turn into a sweaty challenge. Continue reading
At the EULAR 2013, Dr. Ida K Haugen reported that hand osteoarthritis may increase the risk of heart disease. EULAR is the European League Against Rheumatism. They are hosting the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology in Madrid, Spain from June 12-15.
The congress is a platform for the exchange of scientific and clinical information in Europe. It is allows for fruitful interaction between medical doctors, scientists, people living with arthritis, pharmaceutical companies, and healthcare professionals.
1,348 participants participated in the Framingham Heart Study. According to Rheumatology News, the study found more than double the incidence of coronary heart disease among individuals with symptomatic hand OA, compared with those without hand OA (hazard ratio, 2.26; 95% confidence interval, 1.22-4.18).
“We hypothesized that the association between hand OA and coronary heart disease could be mediated through metabolic factors, such as hyperlipidemia and diabetes, or a more sedate lifestyle due to generalized OA,” Dr. Haugen said in an interview with Rheumatology News.
A £3m research project has been launched to study the impact of sport injury and the development of osteoarthritis. The research will be housed in the newly launched Arthritis Research UK Centre for Sport, Exercise, and Osteoarthritis, and is led by Nottingham University Hospitals Trust and The University of Nottingham.
The project will focus on how sport and exercise injuries can develop into osteoarthritis. It hopes to prevent osteoarthritis in professional and recreational athletes by reducing the impact a sport injury may have on them. The project hopes to discover better treatment options and screening tools to assess an athlete’s potential of developing osteoarthritis. Another aim of the program is to prevent or slow down degeneration in joints after an injury. Continue reading
For people with inflammatory forms of arthritis, fatigue, depression, pain, and sometimes disability are all part of the package. Those living with arthritis may need help from family and friends with household chores, and even from their kids. So, for parents with arthritis there may be extra layers of guilt (as if there aren’t enough already) that may come with the disease.
If you are wracked with guilt about having to make your children do more chores than their friends have to, you may be glad to hear that the work is good for them. Continue reading
Cheryl Koehn, president and founder of Arthritis Consumer Experts and person living with rheumatoid arthritis, has a special message to the province of Alberta.
Dear Alberta,
An arthritis rehabilitation program based at the University of Alberta Hospital, which provides physical therapy and occupational therapy to people who live north of Red Deer, is slated to be shut down.
From its 14 years of providing patient education in Alberta and across Canada, Arthritis Consumer Experts (ACE) knows how vital the Rheumatology Specialty Rehabilitation Program is for providing physical therapy and occupational therapy to people with arthritis. These therapies are not merely add-on or superfluous treatments with unproven benefits. They are essential to a well-rounded treatment plan for preventing permanent joint damage, lost function, and work disability. Continue reading
