Rheumatoid arthritis is a systemic disease. That means it causes inflammation in not just the joints, but also in other parts of your body such as your internal organs. The organ that commonly get most affected by systemic aspect of RA is your heart. In fact, cardiovascular disease contributes to people with RA on average having a lower life expectancy than the rest of the population - it's called the mortality gap. This is the point where most of us want to stick our heads in the sand and pretend it's not happening. However, as with so many other aspects of RA, educating yourself can help you manage the risk, even improve your heart health and thereby increase your life expectancy. February is American Heart Month - what better time to pop our heads out of the sand and take a look! I spoke to Dr. Lisa Jackson, a cardiologist and expert in prevention from the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor to get more information on this issue.
Know Thyself
Taking care of your heart health starts when you're young. Dr. Jackson stated that "it's never too early" to educate yourself about risk factors, including family history of cardiovascular disease, the impact of diet, physical activity, obesity and so on. There are certain aspects of your health that you can monitor to be aware of changes in your body that may put you at risk. High blood pressure and high cholesterol are both risk factors for cardiovascular events. Dr. Jackson said "all 20-year-olds should know what their numbers are." Knowing your numbers when you are healthy allows you to create a baseline of normal. Later in your life you can compare test results to this baseline to see whether there have been changes in your health.
Dr. Jackson recommends that people with RA's "be especially vigilant regarding traditional risk factors. Diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol increase the risk of heart disease."
In addition to systemic inflammation, one possible reason for the mortality gap might be that people with RA don't receive optimal primary care. This may be because RA takes up so much room that other aspects of your health can fall by the wayside. It's important that you be an advocate for yourself and ask your family doctor to regularly check your blood pressure, your cholesterol, sugar, etc. You should also make sure you know the symptoms of a heart attack and know that these symptoms may be different in women. If you experience these symptoms, call 911 immediately.
Heart Tests and RA
The sooner you start the dialogue with your family doctor about the connection between RA and cardiovascular disease, the better. Most family practitioners are not aware of the intricacies of RA and you can do much to help educate them. This will help make them and you more vigilant about paying attention to this part of your health. Discuss when - or if - to start testing your heart to monitor your cardiovascular health. Generally, doctors try not to test just for the sake of testing to avoid false positives. This is when the tests indicate you have a problem, when in reality you don't. When it comes to cardiovascular tests, this can paralyze you with fear and potentially lead to a lot of unnecessary testing.
