In an ongoing effort to raise awareness, the Rheumatoid Patient Foundation (RPF) has now established February 2nd as Rheumatoid Awareness Day. This is the first time ever that a day has been designated for rheumatoid disease and it will give a voice to the millions who are living with this condition.
Rheumatoid disease (also known as rheumatoid arthritis) affects nearly 2 million people in the U.S. and one percent of people worldwide. It’s a progressive inflammatory disease causing joint and organ damage that can lead to severe pain and joint disabilities. Studies have also shown that rheumatoid disease has an impact on the heart causing higher incidence of stroke for patients.
Want to get involved? The RPF is hosting several social media events and is asking everyone to share educational materials via social sites and blogs to raise awareness.
You can also connect with other rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients just like you on PatientsLikeMe. Nearly 5,000 RA patients are tracking their health and learning from each other’s shared experiences every day. Add your voice to this growing community.
Rheumatoid Arthritis or RA can be a devastating disease especially if the kind causing physical deformation strikes a young person sometimes causing hideous deformities. The newer biological medicines can be very effective against certain presentations of the disease. Personally I saw a person in her twenties with early signs of deformation totally healed at a tent revival. She is still healed today.
Also watch out for a rumor causing confusion in the general public. When I was in sales for a large vitamin corp. I encountered several people who believed that our National Officials were being replaced by artificial sophisticated robot lookalikes. This supposedly included President Carter at the time. This was noticed when Carter appeared in Public parting his hair on a different side. These android creatures were called “Roomatoids” by the vitamin community. I stressed to them that the name should be changed because of it proximity to the serious word “rheumatoid” as in RA. It must have died out since I haven’t heard it since the mid 1980’s.