In the last four decades a lot has changed. One of the most profound changes is in our mortality rates. People are dying much later and living far longer which is great news for everyone. This is largely because of massive advances in medicine and lifestyle and a generally heightened understand of what makes us tick. There aren’t many illnesses which we can’t treat and those that are chronic and can’t be outright cured can be managed and sufferers can generally go on to live long and happy lives.
So, great news for everyone except one group of people. In a recent study conducted at the Mayo Clinic in the USA, it was shown that sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis have seen no improvement in their rate of mortality in the last four decades. This information is shocking as the treatment for the condition has actually advanced a great deal. The main symptoms, pain and loss of mobility, can be managed and don’t have to have such a massively detrimental affect on your life, at least not as much as they once did. So what’s causing patients with rheumatoid arthritis to keep dying at the same rate they did in years past?
Well, to understand that you first need to know a little about rheumatoid arthritis itself. It’s an inflammatory condition which is caused when your own immune system mistakes the cartilage in your joints for a foreign and potentially harmful organism and attacks it relentlessly. This causes the swelling which is so common in the condition and the swelling causes the chronic pain and the eventual loss of mobility. Rheumatoid arthritis also takes a steadily worsening toll on the main organs of the body, those being the heart, kidneys and the liver. It’s well known that this organ damage is a persistent cause of early death in a lot of sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis all over the world.
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