Reactive Arthritis v. Reiter's Syndrome

[MrBadalkumar]

hello , i am a medical student and feel sorry that you were not treated appropriately by 2 doctors and want to thank you for your experience . take care .

[RheumatoidArthritisx]

@MrBadalkumar Thank you for your kind comments. I wish you all the best in your career as a medical doctor.

[TheUnion5]

fascinating. could you google "dr. carter + reactive arthritis" and get back to me with a comment? a recent double-blinded study showed that a combinations of antibiotics over 2 months cured over 22% of volunteers involved.

[RheumatoidArthritisx]

@TheUnion5 From what I can tell from what I read when I googled "dr. carter + reactive arthritis" Dr. Carter's study is an important one. It makes good sense to me that if someone has a chronic infection triggering reactive arthritis, that they will need to get rid of that infection to heal. My guess is that the 22% of volunteers who healed after taking 2 months of antibiotics must have had a chronic infection that then cleared up.

[RheumatoidArthritisx]

@RheumatoidArthritisx The study also mentions that 30-50% of people with reactive arthritis go on to develop a chronic form of the disease that can go on indefinately. That is what happened to me. I no longer had any infection, so I had to look to other ways to break the cycle of inflammation/autoimmune reaction. The other ways to break the cycle that I found are described in detail in my book, Conquering Arthritis.

[TheUnion5]

@RheumatoidArthritisx

i hear that, but in reality you're not really completely cured, are you? can you run? if not you should probably seek a specialist. apparantly the medication we're talking about used in this study is only accessible through a specialist, since one of them are used in treatment of leukemia, from what i understand.

[RheumatoidArthritisx]

@TheUnion5 Actually, I am completely cured.  I can run, walk, swim, jump, bike, hike, take martial arts classes, etc.

[RheumatoidArthritisx]

RE: tramadol The downside of trmado, like any opiate pain reliever, l is that It can be addictive and you can experience withdrawals from it. The downside of any pain reliever is that there are always some types of pain that they can't seem to touch. Pain relief can be good, but the other downside is that they don't treat the underlying problem, so they are a stop-gate measure, not an ultimate solution.

[RheumatoidArthritisx]

@ arraycs Thank you for sharing your experience of what helped you. For everyone else some background info: Tramadol is used to relieve moderate to moderately severe pain. Tramadol extended-release tablets are only used by people who are expected to need medication to relieve pain around-the-clock for a long time. Tramadol is in a class of medications called opiate agonists. It works by changing the way the body senses pain.

[RheumatoidArthritisx]

@ enya79 I am sorry to hear of your health problems. Reactive arthritis is triggered by a bacterial infection. Strep is a bacteria plus you may have had another bacterial infection associated with your tooth extraction. So yes, from your comment, I would say that you likely have reactive arthritis.

[enya79]

I think I have reactive arthritis. My troubles started when I got strep throat. Mild arthritis in the knee followed. After which my jaw locked after extraction of a tooth and this lead to extreme swelling of my facial muscles for weeks. Then I got strep throat again and this led to me getting an extremely bad case of erythema nodosum. Now I have very regular and painful arthritis in my knee. My doctor said that I have entheritis/arthritis in foot, wrists, and elbows. Is this reactive arthritis

[RheumatoidArthritisx]

@enya79 In addition, as you probably already know, erthema nodosum is often associated with inflammatory bowel disease. Even if your digestive system was fine before, the pain I imagine you experienced with your facial swelling may have triggered problems in your gut leading to both the erthyema nodosum and your arthritis.

[enya79]

@RheumatoidArthritisx Actually, I did not know this. What are the symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease? My symptoms during the erythema nodosum were extreme pain in the lower legs (knees downwards) with red bumps that eventually turned purple/blue. The arthritis/entheritis followed soon after. Also, I got the strep throat about 3 months after the facial swelling. Not sure if they're related. I think I need to determine if my diet can be making things worse but not sure what to do.

[RheumatoidArthritisx]

@enya79 type inflammatory bowel disease into google, it will give you a wealth of info

[roiplek]

bullshit?

[RheumatoidArthritisx]

@roiplek Please do not use profanity when commenting. What in particular are you taking issue with?

[roiplek]

@RheumatoidArthritisx

i'm sorry. i just think the person in the video should try to organize her speech. i actually suffer from a long term chlamydiae infection and only just now have i recognized the role of microbial infections in RA.

[RheumatoidArthritisx]

@roiplek Now that you know the link between RA and chlamydia infections, I hope you are able to get to the root of your problem and eliminate both of them. Good luck to you.

[molongtrev]

I have reactive arthritis-over 3 years now-yes the hla b27 gene is the key. I manage it quite well-diet-excercise etc but it takes a lot of hard work-and a couple of very good natural and prescribed medications-please keep away from LONG TERM cortio-steroid use.

[RheumatoidArthritisx]

Which natural and prescribed medications have you found most useful?

[molongtrev]

Hi Fellow sufferer,

Mobic-Prescribed

Amazing Arthritis Relief-Natural...can buy on the net.

Hydro Therapy Movement Exercises and water temp Must be 31'C or more.

Key a close eye on certain additives in food...look for a common one that sets off a reaction.

[RheumatoidArthritisx]

My experience has been similar. In my case, diet, exercise, proper rest, meditation, and body work have all been important. I agree about staying away from long term cortiosteroid use. Thanks for sharing your experience.

[Nascent99]

@molongtrev

What areas of the body did you have issues with in regards to the arthritis? Are you still in much pain and do you have permanent joint damage?

[RheumatoidArthritisx]

Sorry to hear you also had reactive arthritis. No, I don't have the hla-b27 gene. Do you?

[nico1blue]

i also have had reactive arthritis, it crippled me for several months. do you have the hla-b27 gene?

[nico1blue]

There is movement that the term Reiter's syndrome should be phased out, partly due to a move in the field of medicine to give descriptive names, rather than personal names, to conditions, and partly due to Dr. Reiter's experiments in Nazi concentration camps.

[RheumatoidArthritisx]

I was not aware of this name change movement, but both reason you mention make sense to me. It would be great if some of the sigma also went away with the name change, although as I mention in the video, the particular stigma I mention comes from another, in my mind, undeserved source.