What if no one confused rheumatoid disease with just arthritis? What if the world understand that people with rheumatoid disease (RD) are not hypochondriacs because they have so many health problems? What if all of the effects of the disease were treated - not dismissed or ignored? Rheumatiod Arthritis Unmasked exposes the true nature of RD revealed in medical research. For about a decade, Kelly O'Neill Young has studied current and past academic research about RA, reading hundreds of journal articles for this book alone. Kelly, widely known as the RA Warrior, has also gained a unique perspective by listening to millions of visitors to her website and social network.
Patients will be armed to fight against becoming a victim of the RD mortality gap Doctors will know how to better diagnose and treat RD Friends and family will understand that their loved one with RD has a serious disease Rheumatoid Arthritis Unmasked is more than a gripping account of the dangers of RD - it is a path for change. This book equips all RA warriors to guide their own medical care and safeguard their health.
This book will arm you with facts that will save lives. "I admire deeply your ability to collect information, express feelings, write clearly and compelling, and point to why it matters. That's what the best change agents do, and you're tops." e-Patient Dave deBronkart EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER 1
One unfortunate effect of viewing the disease solely in terms of joint symptoms is the undocumented smoldering disease activity that takes place even in so-called "responders to treatment. Nearly every patient I've met who has been told she is "in remission" experiences joint symptoms either regularly or in the form of periodic flares. Furthermore, I have observed several people who experienced serious extra-articular illness after long periods of treatment-induced joint-symptom "remission."
Likewise, and editorial by Harvard rheumatology investigator Daniel Solomon points out that even when medical treatment successfully improves joint symptoms, "patients with RA continue to suffer from a variety of extra-articular manifestations, including cardiovascular disease (CVD).1> Health care professionals are mainly aware that the disease affects hands, but other disease symptoms are less readily acknowledged, examined, or measured. While the disease is referred to as "a type of arthritis,"2 it is difficult for people with rheumatoid disease to obtain appropriate medical att