Will this new rheumatoid arthritis medication or alternative therapy

relieve YOUR arthritis?

10 Questions to answer before starting

Here's 10 questions to ask your physician, rheumatologist or health care provider about new rheumatoid arthritis medication or alternative therapy for rheumatoid arthritis.

They should be happy to provide the answers because an informed patient feels less pain and does better! (says the National Institute of Health).

1. How does the new rheumatoid arthritis medication or alternative therapy for rheumatoid arthritis work?

2. What type of rheumatoid arthritis patients does it help the most—

Does it help those RA patients whose RA appeared suddenly (rapid onset)? What percentage?

How well does it help rheumatoid arthritis patients whose RA has progressed slowly, often with remissions (Gradual, progressing RA)? What percentage?

Does the new rheumatoid arthritis medication or alternative therapy help patients who just recently developed RA? What percentage?

Does it help patients who have had RA a long time? What percentage?

3. Does the new rheumatoid arthritis medication or alternative therapy help most patients like you?

Did your rheumatoid arthritis appear suddenly—or gradually?

Did you recently get diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis?

Or have you had the sign and symptom of rheumatoid arthritis for years? How many years?

4. What type of relief from rheumatoid arthritis can you expect from taking this new rheumatoid arthritis medication or alternative therapy?

Pain relief?

Decreased swelling?

Improved flexibility?

Less disease progression —how much less chance of needing joint replacement and for how long?

5. How long will it take for the new rheumatoid arthritis medication or alternative therapy to show these benefits to RA patients like you?

Minutes, Hours, days, weeks or months?

6. How long can you expect that this new rheumatoid arthritis medication or alternative therapy will help patients, like you?

Months?

Years?

7. Do most or some RA patients need higher doses of this new rheumatoid arthritis medication or alternative therapy to get the same relief?

If so, what percentage of patients need higher doses?

How soon have some of your patients needed higher doses?

When do most of your RA patients need greater doses for the same effect?

8. What kind of side effects does the new rheumatoid arthritis medication or alternative therapy cause?

How prevalent are the side effects—or how many patients experience them after 6 months, 2 years or 5 years?

How long can most patients continue to take the new rheumatoid arthritis medication or alternative therapy before the side effects cause the RA patient to switch or quit the new treatment?

9. If I stop taking the new rheumatoid arthritis medication, will the toxicity or side effects stop?

Some side effects, called reversible side effects, go away after the treatment stops. Which side effects will not go away after stopping the rheumatoid arthritis medication or alternative therapy?

How long will it take for the side effects to go away?

Side effects that don’t go away after stopping the treatment are called irreversible.

10. Is there a rebound effect?

Many rheumatoid arthritis medications inhibit a cytokine, enzyme or set of them. When you stop the medication, the sign and symptom of rheumatoid arthritis gets much worse.

Why?

Your body made more of the cytokine or enzyme that the new medication blocked. Without the new medication, you feel the full force of all that cytokine or enzyme. When stopping a treatment makes you feel worse, it’s called a rebound effect.

How bad will removing it make you feel—will you feel worse than before you began taking it?

If so, how long will this rebound effect last?

With all this information on the new treatment, you can decide whether the potential benefits for your rheumatoid arthritis are greater than the likely side effects.

To Your Good Health!!!

Hint: make a note as to how you feel before and each week for several months using the Health Assessment Questionaire. Then you’ll easily see how well the new rheumatoid arthritis medication or alternative therapy helped you.

Disclaimer: Please note that the information on this website is a sharing of information and knowledge from the research and experience of Dr. Molnar-Kimber and her community. It is not intended to diagnose nor treat any disease or precondition nor replace your one on one relationship with a qualified health care professional. It also is not intended to be medical advice. However, it is often observed that patients who take a major interest in their disease and learn as much as they can about their disease and potential treatments often improve faster than those who don’t. Dr. Molnar-Kimber encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your own research and discussions with your qualified health care professional.