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Cardiovascular disease describes a set of conditions which affect the heart or blood vessels - which includes life-threatening problems such as heart attacks and stroke.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a long-term condition that causes pain, swelling and stiffness in the joints and mainly affects the hands feet and wrists.

The National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society (NRAS) - has set out to help people with rheumatoid arthritis to understand why they are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease - and the impact the condition can have on the heart.

Dr Holly John, consultant rheumatologist, said: The increased risk of CVD for RA sufferers has the same level of severity as those who suffer with type 2 diabetes.

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Its astonishing how many people with RA don't know that their condition could be detrimental to their heart.

The NRAS has launched a programme Love Your Heart, developed in partnership with Dr Holly John.

The organisation is making the programme widely available to everyone with this serious autoimmune condition so that they have the opportunity to lower their CVD risk.

Dr John said: Once aware, its very easy to manage risk factors from home with a healthier lifestyle, so Love Your Heart will be able to significantly raise awareness of this and help to address this major co-morbidity which can shorten the lives of those with RA.

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Its astonishing how many people with rheumatoid arthritis don't know that their condition could be detrimental to their heart

Dr Holly John

While experts said it is not clear exactly why people with rheumatoid arthritis are at increased risk, experts suggest people can reduce their risk of the condition by making sure arthritis is well controlled and even stopping smoking, eating more healthily and exercising regularly.

People with diabetes also have a higher chance of developing diabetes.

Blood vessels are damaged by high blood glucose levels, high blood pressure, smoking or high levels of cholesterol.

This is why it is important for people with diabetes to manage these levels by making lifestyle changes such as eating a healthy diet, taking part in regular activity, reducing weight if you are overweight and stopping smoking.

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The online programme will help sufferers understand why RA increases risk, calculate a score as to why rheumatoid arthritis increases risk and learn how to reduce the risk of CVD.

Ailsa Bosworth, Founder of NRAS said: In spite of the numbers of people with rheumatoid arthritis in the UK - 690,000- it does not have the public awareness of diseases such as Parkinsons and Multiple Sclerosis.

"It is still a relatively misunderstood and invisible disease.

Getting to a diagnosis can therefore often be challenging as people dont recognise the symptoms as a medical emergency. Equally, the increased risk of CVD is relatively unknown andso Im really excited to be working with Dr. John and hope that the Love your Heart programme will help all those with RA, like myself, to lead a longer and healthier life by addressing those risk factors that are within our own control.

Go here to read the rest:
Diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis - conditions put YOU at greater risk of THIS disease - Express.co.uk

This entry was posted on February 20, 2017 at 7:44 am and is filed under Arthritis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |