AMIHAN came at the heels of the gusty winds and torrential rains of pesky Rosita, bringing in the Siberian breeze that bites to the bone especially during the early dawn hours.
Thankfully, there are now successive sunshiny days much to the delight of housewives who can now wash and dry their long-stacked cloths, blankets and other apparel. However, the cold temperature has brought again- annually that is- from November to February- a bane common to elderlies and senior citizens.
“Rayuma” is a painful, aging-related illness, with resultant limitation of motion as well as deformities in some joints. To set things straight, from a strict medical point of view, the word ‘rayuma” refers to osteoarthritis, the joint disease due to getting old.
In fact, as early as 40 years- middle age- both male and females are equally affected, with the weight bearing big joints showing the early degenerative changes, particularly the cartilage, that serves as some sort of cushion between the ends of big bones, example the femur or thigh bone and the tibia or shin bone of the legs. Other joints include the shoulder, ankle, hips
Rheumatoid arthritis is a rather special, unique type of arthritis, classified under the heading of auto-immune diseases, illnesses that occur when the immune system’s self-recognition system fails, so that there is the production of the so-called auto-antibodies, antibodies that attack and destroy its own cells and tissues.
In rheumatoid arthritis, the auto-antibodies direct their assault against the synovium- the protective lining of the joints, thus the original, smooth painless gliding over of the ends of the joints become now a subject of friction and pressure causing pain and as the disease progresses, deformities develop with peculiar sizes and shapes like swan neck, boutonniere.
Unlike osteoarthritis which affects the big weight-bearing joints, rheumatoid arthritis affects the smaller joints like wrists, hands, fingers in a symmetrical manner. More females suffer from rheumatoid arthritis and may occur earlier in their mid-30s. The signs and symptoms are also more severe and problematic so much so that even the usual medicines for osteoarthritis are not enough to alleviate the pain. DMARDS are disease modifying anti-rheumatoid drugs for RA are often used by rehab and rheumatology doctors, including the anti-malarial and even anti-cancer drugs.
Common sense dictates that during these chilly months, women with rheumatoid arthritis could wear gloves whenever it is practical like attending early morning mass. Of course, there are the usual medicines, the so-called NSAIDs- non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs- which at different doses could ameliorate the signs and symptoms of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
However, there is the dilemma of doctors- who want to relieve the pain and discomfort of their patient- but at the same time, wary and worried about potential effects of the lining of their gastrointestinal tract and kidneys, thus, the strict advice is “please use it only for severe pain, and on a full stomach”