Heart Disease & Arthritis – Know Your Risk

Did you know February is American Heart Month?  As such, this is a great time to consider the connection between arthritis and heart disease.

 If you have rheumatoid arthritis, pay close attention.  Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been found to increase your risk of heart disease.  According to an article in US News, “the increase in heart disease risk among RA patients may be due to the systemic inflammation brought on by the disease”. 

A Mayo Clinic study, reported in US News, “found that while 85 percent of the RA patients between the ages of 50 and 59 had an intermediate or high risk for developing heart disease within 10 years of diagnosis, just 27 percent of comparable non-RA patients did.”  That should get your attention.

In addition, WebMD reports, if you are a woman with rheumatoid arthritis, then your risk of having a heart attack doubles.   Your risk triples if you have had arthritis for 10 years or more.   Did you get that?  Triple the risk!

So, if you fall into this category, what do you do?  Get to know what other risk factors you have.  You can find risk factor information at the American Heart Association, such as physical inactivity, smoking, high cholesterol, etc.  Take this information to your next doctor or rheumatology appointment.  Discuss it with your doctor.  Find out what steps you can take to decrease your risk and improve your heart health.

Want more information on Heart Disease?  Check out the American Heart Association.

Can Vitamins Be Harmful?

As an arthritic, who takes a TNF-blocker, my immune system has been almost non-existent in the last six months.  (I’m sure that many of you can relate.)  In an attempt to improve my health and my immune system, I began taking a daily vitamin pack.   Each pack had several pills to provide overall health.  I was so excited to find something that I thought would pull me out of the frequent bouts of sickness.  However, that was short-lived.

After about three weeks of taking these vitamins, I began having heart palpitations.  This was not a sudden onset.  At first, it happened once or twice a day.  Then, increased to the point where they would occur several times in just a few minutes.   When I realized that they were getting worse, I scheduled an appointment for my physician. 

So after two appointments with my general physician, trips to pick up and drop off a 24-hour heart monitor, wearing the heart monitor and documenting palpitations for that 24-hour period, bloodwork, four hours in the emergency room and an appointment with a cardiologist, it turns out that the culprit was the vitamins.  Can you believe that?  Because the palpitations started slowly, I did not suspect the vitamins.

These vitamins were distributed by a well known company, so I don’t believe there was a problem with the quality of the vitamins.  Instead, I think that there are so many things in vitamins that may contradict with medicine that we are already taking or our bodies may just have a reaction from a combination of some of the ingredients.  It is difficult to know exactly what caused the reaction. 

I have been off of the vitamins for about two and a half weeks now and am feeling back to normal.  Well, as normal as can be anyway. 

My suggestion to you, if you start taking new vitamins, is to be aware of how you feel while taking them.  You know your body.  If you don’t feel right, stop taking them and call your doctor if necessary. 

I also recommend discussing the vitamins with your doctor before taking them.  Obviously, your doctor will not always know how you will react on the vitamins, but it is good to let them know what kind of vitamins you want to take and find out if they will conflict with your current medications.