Rheumatoid Arthritis Unmasked

Book excerpt: What if no one confused rheumatoid disease with just arthritis?What if the world understood that people with rheumatoid disease (RD) are not hypochondriacs because they have so many health problems?What if all of the effects of the disease were treated ¿ not dismissed or ignored?Rheumatoid Arthritis Unmasked solves a primary problem for people living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the false impression that they are only fighting a type of arthritis.The facts in this book shatter the myth that too often confuses family, friends, employers, and most importantly medical personnel. In Rheumatoid Arthritis Unmasked you¿ll learn why the historical term rheumatoid disease (RD) describes not a type of arthritis, but a complex systemic disease with arthritis as only one of its symptoms. You¿ll understand how the fallacy of ¿arthritis¿ not only creates communication problems for people fighting RD, but also contributes to the devastating mortality gap by hindering needed clinical care and research that will lead to a cure. Rheumatoid Arthritis Unmasked exposes the true nature of RD revealed in medical research. For about a decade, Kelly O¿Neill Young has studied current and past academic research about RA, reading hundreds of journal articles for this book alone. But Kelly, widely known as the RA Warrior, has also gained a unique perspective by listening to the millions of people who visit her website and social network.¿Patients will learn key dangers to fight to avoid becoming a victim of the RD mortality gap.¿Clinicians will become better at diagnosing and treating RD.¿Friends and family will understand that their loved one with RD has a serious disease.¿Researchers will be more able to conduct impactful and successful investigations of RD.¿Health policy makers and medical payers will be able to properly categorize extra-articular RD.Rheumatoid Arthritis Unmasked is more than a gripping account of the dangers of RD - it is a path for change. This book equips all RA warriors to guide their own medical care and safeguard their health. This book will arm you with facts that will save lives.