Freedom from Rheumatoid Arthritis
Rheumatoid Arthritis affects approximately 1% of the population of India. However, for treating nearly a crore patients, the country needs at least 10 lakh rheumatologists, which are at an extreme shortfall at present. To raise awareness about the condition, The Times of India with MSN Labs organized a webinar, Freedom from Rheumatoid Arthritis in 15 cities Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Gurgaon, Indore, Jaipur, Nagpur, Lucknow, Noida, Pune, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru
What is RA
Explaining about Rheumatoid Arthritis, Dr Ashit Syngle said, RA is a chronic symmetrical inflammatory disorder, which means that your immune system attacks healthy cells in your body by mistake, causing inflammation in the affected parts of the body. Rheumatoid Arthritis affects approximately 1 percent of the Indian population. RA mainly attacks the joints.
Morning Stiffness and pain in the joints are the early symptoms to look out for, said Dr Shan, adding that the stiffness might last from half an hour to two hours depending on the severity. If the disease becomes obvious, swelling in the small joints of the hands and legs is another sign of RA.
Joints that are affected
RA is inflammatory, small joint, asymmetrical, polyarthritis. It affects small joints of hand and feet. There may/ may not be visible swelling. Both right and left wrist, ankles, elbow, knees, and even jaws may even be affected. Joints inside larynx too but that is not very common. People should consult a rheumatologist if there is any prolonged pain to rule out other diseases, advised Dr. Tanoy Bose.
Managing the condition
Once a person is affected, he/she is at a crossroads on how best to manage the disease. Once diagnosed, most people, especially the young or the unmarried- are in shock. Acceptance of the disease is very important and the patient along with parents and in-laws (in case of unmarried women), should learn to accept it said Dr Pooja Dhaon. She stressed one should consult a rheumatologist as early as possible with the onset of symptoms. Duration of treatment could stretch life-long", she said. Left untreated, RA can lead to joint damage or deformity or even total disability. Treatment should be taken from the very beginning to the end, she said.
Role of Immunity
Since RA is an autoimmune and inflammatory disease, which means one's own immune system attacks the healthy cells in the body, doctor's enlightened the audience about autoimmunity. Dr Roy said, Auto-immunity is when a person's innate immune system backfires and damages their joints. That should not be confused with low- immunity or hyper-immunity. Dr Keerthi added that many patients have the myth that if they start taking immunity boosters then RA can be prevented, which is not helpful in curing RA
As the doctors stated, RA is an autoimmune and inflammatory disease, wherein one's own immune system attacks the healthy cells in the body. However, there are many misunderstandings about the illness. Dr Mehra said. People believe that only if they have low immunity, they for the treatment will cause low immunity, but these are just myths. Patients who develop RA do not necessarily have low immunity. The disease is caused because of certain environmental or genetic risks which cause the immune system to dysfunction. However, she also added that there are rare disorders of immune deficiency which also cause RA among other conditions.
Know the cause
Informing about the prevalence of the disease, Dr Preksha Dwivedi, said, There are a lot of myths around the disease like it is only a disease of old age. Rather it affects most in the population of 30-5- age group. Though middle-aged women are at higher risk than men, but RA is equally common in both men and women towards the old age. RA can even affect kids
Dr. Abhishek Arvind Zanwar explained, The focus of treatment is also tackling various other problems such as diabetes, cholesterol bedside cardio vascular disorder. It is important to note that patients must consume a balanced diet, exercise for about 30-45 minutes a day, and focus on not consuming certain pro-inflammatory substances like tobacco, excesssugar, red meat and bakery products. The key is to also maintain a steady weight.
Why urgency matters
The doctors continuously stressed on prompt diagnosis and early treatment which would help in reducing the risk factors. Dr Ankit Jainsaid, Within six weeks of the onset of the disease, it is possible to diagnose the condition. However, in reality, people ignore their pain for years or buy drugs from local pharmacies which is just a temporary solution. By the time they realize to consult a rheumatologist, the condition has worsened. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to get early diagnosis and the correct treatment.
Doctors who participated
Pune
Dr Arvind Chopra
Dr. Pravin Patil
Dr. Nachiket Jeevan Kulkarni
Dr. Abhishek Arvind Zanwar
Dr. Aniruddha Temba
Dr. Ajit BapuraoNalawade
Bhopal
Dr. Ashish K Badika
Dr. Preksha Dwivedi
Dr. Akshat Pandey
Dr. Apurva Khare
Dr. Rahul Sahu
Noida
Dr. P D Rath
Dr. Sonal Mehra
Dr. Ankit Jain
Dr. Subodh Gururani
Dr. Sundeep Grover
Bangalore
Dr. Ramesh Jois
Dr. Abhishek Patil
Dr. Chethana Dharmapalaiah
Dr. Ramya J
Chandigarh
Dr. Ashit Syngle
Dr. Anil Abrol
Dr. Satbir Kaur
Dr. Parshant Aggarwal
Dr. Vikas Gupta
Chennai
Dr. K Shanmuganandan
Dr. S. Sham
Dr. Thilagavathi N
Dr. T. Aarthi Priya
Kolkata
Dr. R N Sarkar
Dr. Parasar Ghosh
Dr. Abhrajit Ray
Dr. Tanoy Bose
Lucknow
Dr S K Das
Dr. Pooja Dhaon
Dr Sujata Ganguly
Dr. Durgesh Srivastava
Dr. Shweta Agarwal
Hyderabad
Dr. G Narasimulu
Dr. Sarath Chandra MouliVeeravalli
Dr. Raj Kiran Dudam
Dr. A. N Roy
Dr. Keerthi Talari Bommakanli
Gurgaon
Dr. Vishal Kaura Aggarwal
Dr. Gaurav Seth
Dr. Shallu Verma
Dr. Siddharth Kumar
Jaipur
Dr. Rahul Jain
Dr. Akhil Goel
Dr. Manoj Khatri
Dr. Anu Daber
Dr. Avinash Jain
Ahmedabad
Dr Reena Sharma
Dr. Anuj Shukla
Dr. Romi Shah
Dr. Puja Shrivastava
Dr. Vishnu Sharma
Nagpur
Dr. Smruti Ramteke
Dr. Sandeep Kharka
Dr. SachinDhote
Dr. Parikshit Sagdeo
Delhi
Dr. Lt General Ved Chaturvedi
Dr. Maj Gen D S Bhakuni
Dr (Prof) Sudeep Upadhyaya
Dr. Jatinder Juneja
Dr. Priyanka Kharbanda
Dr. Divya Agarwal
Mumbai
Dr. Varsha P Bagul
Dr. S . M. Akerkar
Dr. Mamatha P Venkatesh
Dr. Raheesh Ravindran
