Patients | ARMA

NRAS Wellbeing Courses

NRAS launched their Wellbeing Courses in May and owing to their success the next set are now being released.

The NRAS Wellbeing Courses starting within the next month are:

Tripudio: Gentle form of exercise performed to different genres of music.
Yoga: Breathing exercises to help support day-to-day exercises, designed to help create a little mobility and strength throughout the entire body.
Tapping for Pain Management: Gently tap the various acupressure points with techniques aiming to relax the mind and body.

The courses consist of either two or five/six weeks in length, meeting once a week online.…

Read more of this article

‘Medicines in RA’ – new module launching in SMILE soon

SMILE-RA is a unique and engaging e-learning experience for people with RA and their families who want to understand more about RA, and its treatments. SMILE-RA has a modular approach to learning, so each module is on a particular theme or subject and takes between 20 mins and half an hour to complete.

There is an intuitive interface that makes it easy to use and navigate your way around. After registering and completing the Foundation module which includes baseline evaluation questions, you can then direct your own learning experience and choose whichever modules are of interest to explore next.…

Read more of this article

Tiny Magic Moments: how treating my RMD has influenced my hopes for the future

By Anna Wilson – EULAR Edgar Stene Prize essay competition, runner-up in the UK national competition

After almost nine years of increasing intensity, the pain throughout my body was becoming unbearable. I vividly remember arriving at my doctor’s appointment that day to receive my blood test results, my fingers tightly clutching a list of symptoms.

“I know it sounds like I’m a hypochondriac,” I began awkwardly, “but I get inflamed eyes, rib cage pain, lower back spasms and stabbing in my hips that is so bad I struggle to walk in the morning.…

Read more of this article

Charity collaborative on mental health support in paediatric rheumatology

A group of JIA charities (CCAA, Juvenile Arthritis Research, JIA@NRAS, SNAC and Versus Arthritis), working collaboratively with the British Society for Rheumatology, is investigating access to mental health provision and support within paediatric rheumatology.

In February 2022 CCAA sent out a survey to families which ran for three weeks and received just over 300 responses. The plan is to use the information gathered to help campaign for better services for children, young people and their families. CCAA is incredibly grateful to all those families who took time to respond and to share their experiences.…

Read more of this article

Blood matters

Blood Matters is the new National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society (NRAS) guide to the blood tests used in managing rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and adult juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).

Blood tests are an important part of both the diagnosis and monitoring of RA and JIA, but the different tests, abbreviations and numbers can be confusing, and it might not always be clear to you what the purpose of each test is, why it’s important and what the results mean.

NRAS has created this resource because they strongly believe that having a good understanding of your blood tests is important to help you to manage your condition and improve outcomes.…

Read more of this article

How treating my rheumatic disease has influenced my hopes for the future

Guest blog by Chantal Lyons. This essay was the national selection entry winner for the UK for the Edgar Stene Prize 2022

Everything changed in the year I turned twenty-three. In the spring, I began to run, dragging my unfit body off the sofa and into the local park. In the summer, I began to dream of running the London Marathon like my father had. And in the autumn, I could no longer ignore the white-hot pain growing in my hips and back.…

Read more of this article

Introducing Informatree

The Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA) is delighted to launch Informatree, a brand new, free website resource aimed at helping people with psoriatic arthritis to live well.

People living with psoriatic arthritis worked together with healthcare professionals who treat people with the condition, psychologists and researchers to develop the new resource. The contents were agreed upon by people living with psoriatic arthritis and clinicians.

The project was led by the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, and informed by people living with psoriatic arthritis worldwide.…

Read more of this article

Brace Yourself! PROP-OA knee pain trial

How a research trial will support people living with knee pain and osteoarthritis though advice, exercise and knee braces

Knee pain affects one in four people over 45 years in the UK. The most common cause is osteoarthritis, but many people will suffer without getting the diagnosis.

Osteoarthritis and its symptoms vary a lot and negatively affect people’s daily lives. There is no cure for osteoarthritis, but with treatment, symptoms can be improved and allow people to stay active.

Wearing a knee brace is one of the options that could help by reducing the load going through the joint and improving its stability.…

Read more of this article

Online Pain Toolkit 5-day workshop

Online Pain Toolkit workshop for UK and English-speaking EU residents
Presented by The Pain Toolkit – the home of supported pain self-management.

Many people may not have access to pain management programmes and so the Pain Toolkit has organised a team of experiences coaches to run a 5-day (2.5hrs a day) workshop. The workshop is open to people living with persistent pain, and open to maximum of 10 participants. Pain Toolkit will be running three workshops during 2022 in Canada and Australia.…

Read more of this article

Psoriasis Association’s Facebook Live sessions

New videos of Facebook Live sessions on psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis and lifestyle now available

The Psoriasis Association is delighted to bring you recordings from the two Facebook Live sessions that we held during Psoriasis Awareness Week 2021. The videos feature information and advice from experts in nutrition and exercise, based on this year’s Psoriasis Awareness Week theme – lifestyle factors that may be important to consider when living with psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis – including diet and exercise.

The first video ‘Pso: Let’s Talk Food’ sees Consultant Dermatologist and nutrition expert, Dr Thiviyani Maruthappu, and Professor of Health Psychology/Behavioural Medicine at Cardiff University, Professor Christine Bundy, examine the evidence for nutrition in psoriasis.…

Read more of this article