Rheumatoid Arthritis Support Group
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, inflammatory, multisystem, autoimmune disorder. It is a disabling and painful condition which can lead to substantial loss of mobility due to pain and joint destruction. The disease is also systemic in that it often also affects many extra-articular tissues throughout the body including the skin, blood vessels, heart, lungs, and...
How many here have hypertension?
After a lifetime of LOW BP, I now have hypertension. Age (76) and COVID may be contributing factors, but like all cardiac issues, I discovered it's more common in RA than the gen pop and of course inflammation is the culprit. So I'm guessing it's because my RA is not well controlled right now while I wait for Rinvoq to do it's thing, which is another 4-5 weeks.
Luckily, I have not needed to take the prednisone because that can also raise BP.
I’m new here, but YES!
I have had RA for 16 years and I had a new pain dr that left me with 0 pain med for the first time in 16 years.
I was in so much pain and stressed, my blood pressure went up for the first time in my life, I’m 50 and always had low BP.
Now in the 2 months in went high and now I’m on medication for high blood pressure.
I think I had a bad pain dr....
Sorry you ar ein pain.
I've had RA for more that 40 years and have never taken "pain meds." In the days before biologics and methotrexate, I took various NSAIDS to reduce inflammation which in turn reduced pain.
Now for a couple of decades I've been on biologics that keep me fairly pain free while they are working. For in between pain I use Voltaran. I very much try to avoid pain medication. I much prefer to take medication that stops the disease progression because - as we know - RA is systemic and can cause harm to our major organs if we are not on proper meds that treats the disease and not just the pain.