There is extreme pain, and then there’s sciatica! It is often described as the worst pain imaginable. With an acute attack of sciatica painkillers don’t work. Stretches and exercises don’t work. Tens devices have a marginal impact. Massage therapist Ian Garside suffered a sciatica attack lasting 3 weeks to the extent where he could not leave his house. Unable to find anything that could ease his pain, he designed the novel Sciatic Pain Relief Cushion which has proven to relieve pressure on the sciatic nerve. Editor of the independent back health website www.BackMentor.Me spoke to him to find out how his invention relieves sciatic pain.

Read more: Secret of sciatica relief. Take pressure off the nerve!

Brushing your teeth well could help prevent arthritis, scientists claim. Researchers found a link between the bacterium responsible for gum disease and earlier onset of rheumatoid arthritis, as well as faster progression and greater severity of the condition.

Read more: Clean teeth can hold off arthritis...?

Physical activity can be a protective factor against the causes of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to findings published in Arthritis Research & Therapy. Researchers from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden examined middle aged and elderly women from the Swedish Mammography Cohort to determine if risk of RA was associated with physical activity.

Read more: Exercise Can Protect Against Rheumatoid Arthritis

Although there is not an existing blood test that can identify early-stage osteoarthritis (eOA), a new biomarker finding documented in Nature Scientific Reports could be the first step in developing one.
Naila Rabbani, PhD, and colleagues at Warwick Medical School created an algorithm that could lead to an osteoarthritis diagnosis before any physical symptoms occur with just a single test. They based their analysis in part on previous research that showed people with early-stage rheumatoid arthritis (eRA) may have citrullinated proteins (CPs) in their blood.

Read more: Developing Blood Test Could Predict Osteoarthritis Before Symptoms Occur

Web-based interventions including social support groups and gamification can help rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, according to research published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research in January.

Researchers from the University of Lugano in Switzerland explored 5 prongs of web based interventions in order to observe the effects on RA patients. The interventions included online social support features and gamification – application of game design principles to non game related tasks and functions, used to improve user engagement and self contribution – on physical activity, health care utilization, medication overuse, empowerment, and RA knowledge of the patients. A total of 155 patients were included in the study and were recruited into 1 of 4 experimental conditions. Data was collected through identical questionnaires at baseline, at 2 months post test, and after an additional 2 months of follow up.

Read more: Online Interventions Aid Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

Call it a gut reaction. That's essentially what the Chicago Tribune did when reporting on a possible link between "the trillions of microbes living and working" inside our digestive systems and rheumatoid arthritis, a "mysterious and painful autoimmune disorder that causes inflammation in the joints." While the paper reports that a smoking gun trigger has yet to show itself, some "emerging research" suggests that our "intestinal bacteria" has the potential to influence our odds of developing certain autoimmune diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis.

Read more: A gut feeling about microbes and rheumatoid arthritis