Spoons for joints

Today 12 october is World Arthritis Day. This is personally affecting me and my family's life so I would like to spread some awareness and education if you are interested.

There are many forms of arthritis and most of them are not the "wear and tear" type.

I have Rheumatoid Arthritis. It is an autoimmune inflammatory arthritis that currently cannot be cured, only treated.

Rheumadoid Arthritis (RA) attacks your immune system by attacking healthy cells in your body by mistake, causing inflammation in the affected parts of the body. Basically my immune system has some bugs and I need someone to reprogram it. Currently nobody knows how to do that.

RA mainly attacks the joints, usually many joints at once. RA commonly affects joints in the hands, wrists, and knees. In a joint with RA, the lining of the joint becomes inflamed, causing damage to joint tissue. This tissue damage can cause chronic pain, unsteadiness (lack of balance), and deformity (misshapenness). This damage is irreversible.

But RA doesn't only affect the joints. It can also affect other tissues throughout the body and cause problems and damage in organs such as the lungs, heart, and eyes.

Signs and symptoms of RA
With RA, there are times when symptoms get worse, known as flares, and times when symptoms get better, known as remission.

The signs and symptoms of RA could be:

Pain or aching in more than one joint
Stiffness in more than one joint
Tenderness and swelling in more than one joint
The same symptoms on both sides of the body (such as in both hands or both knees)
Weight loss (weight gain can come from meds)
Fever
Fatigue or tiredness
Weakness

The fatigue when you have RA could be debilitating. It is not a normal tiredness that you can sleep off.

There are different types of medications to treat RA with. Most of them have in common that they suppress the immune system. This is currently the most efficient way to treat this but it comes with a cost of being more vulnerable to infections. When you get a virus or a bacteria you can become more sick than the average person and it takes you longer to recover.
This also means that vaccines work less efficiently so we get less antibodies and it lasts a shorter amount of time.

As an added bonus you cannot take your RA medications that lowers you immune system while you have the infection, so you risk having an RA flare-up as well.

It is also possible to build up antibodies to the medications and then they don't work anymore and you have to try a new one. Some people have gone through all the medications and now have very limited options.

Other ways that you can help manage RA with is to lessen the amount of stress, eat healthy, move as much as you are able to, learn to say no and to balance your life and commitments.
Extra body weight puts stress on your joints and stress in your life can trigger flare-ups.

There is a lot more to say about this chronic condition but I wanted to spread some awareness on this day as there are a lot of misconceptions about RA.
If you read this far, thank you for that and for being curious and wanting to learn. If you want to know more, don't hesitate to ask me!

# voedingstips rheumatoidarhrtitislife

I managed to bike really far today. I have bought an electric bike so if I need I can take extra help from the battery powered engine. My new biologic medication seems to work well for now and my diet of no meat, mostly plants is hopefully part of the improvements. This was my meal after biking. Vegetable and Tempeh stir-fry. Extremely simple and quick to make. All you need is a wok pan and whatever spices you want to use. The Tempeh gives you good texture and plenty of protein.

Do you eat mushrooms?
Umami is considered the fifth basic taste, alongside sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. It is a savory flavor and is a great replacement for meat flavor. Mushrooms are one of the few plants foods that have strong umami flavor.

Vegan stir fry for dinner 😋

Vegan massaman curry!