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Neck Pain and Arm Tingling, Rheumatoid Arthritis and B12 Deficiency

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rheumatoid arthritis B12 deficiency and neck pain

Is your neck pain really due to RA or are you vitamin B12 deficient?

Cervical spine degeneration is thought to occur in between 25% and 86% of patients with Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and this can cause a variety of neurological problems including spinal cord compression and even death. Around 7-34% of patients end up requiring neck surgery to decompress the spine and relieve symptoms and one study even found that some 10% of patients dying from RA did so because of fatal cord compression.

Recognizing the symptoms of spinal cord compression can lead to prompt treatment and a more positive prognosis, but what if symptoms of cord compression in the cervical spine are really being caused by an underlying vitamin B12 deficiency? Read more

Treating Fibromyalgia-Related Neck Pain with SNRIs

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cymbalta savella neck pain fibromyalgia treatment

Is Cymbalta overprescribed for neck pain and other fibromyalgia symptoms?

Cymbalta and Savella offer only a small degree of pain relief for those suffering from fibromyalgia, according to a new meta-analysis. The Cochrane review’s authors suggest that advertisements for the drugs that show women becoming free of fibromyalgia symptoms are misleading and that physicians need to discuss realistic expectations with their patients. More than five million Americans are thought to suffer from fibromyalgia, with around 80% of patients women and many receiving one of these selective serotonin and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs)as treatment. Read more

Mice Fail as Models of Human Inflammation

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mice as disease models fail undermine animal research

Leaving the mice alone and testing drugs on human cells appears preferable.

According to new research mouse models of inflammation do not reflect human patients’ experience, meaning that drugs tested on mice and then approved safe and effective for humans were approved on an unsound basis. This could explain why over 150 such drugs determined as effective in mice failed to adequately treat human sepsis patients. Read more

Neck Pain in Children – NSAIDs Linked to Acute Kidney Injury

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kids and neck painMany kids suffer from neck pain but a new study suggests a serious risk of acute kidney injury (AKI) in kids taking NSAIDs for pain, especially when they are also dehydrated. How can we safely treat neck pain in our kids and what can we do to reduce the risks if NSAIDs seem necessary? Read more

Laser Spine Procedures: Post-Surgical Guidelines

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Recovery from laser spine proceduresLaser spine procedures are performed to help patients find relief from symptoms caused by nerve irritation and compression caused by certain common spine conditions. After undergoing one of these minimally invasive procedures, many patients are typically able to walk on their own within an hour or two. This is an appealing concept to some individuals dealing with back or neck pain, considering that patients who undergo another possible surgical approach – open spine surgery – may be in a hospital bed for several days or more.

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FDA Approves Tofacitinib for Rheumatoid Arthritis

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first oral rheumatoid arthritis medication approved neck pain causes

Xelijanz from Pfizer is the first approved oral medication for RA, but it has some serious side-effects.

A new drug, tofacitinib, is the first oral medication for Rheumatoid arthritis to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Tofacitinib will offer another option for those with moderate to severe active RA that has not responded to methotrexate treatment. Two new studies of the drug appear to show that the oral medication is helpful in quelling the immune system response that causes joint damage in the disease and which can cause neck pain, pinched nerves, cervical spine subluxation and spinal cord compression where severe. Read more

Zoloft and Neck Pain

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zoloft neck pain

Could your antidepressants be causing your neck pain?

Neck pain and Zoloft (sertraline) can be connected in a number of ways. Sometimes Zoloft may cause neck pain, sometimes it can actually help relieve neck pain, so what can you do if this common antidepressant and anxiety medication appears connected with your neck pain? Read more

Contaminated Epidural Steroid Injections Lead to Deadly Fungal Meningitis

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New England Compounding Center (NECC) - fungal meningitis outbreak and epidural steroid injections

Contaminated steroids used in epidural steroid injections for neck pain linked to fourteen fungal meningitis deaths so far.

The number of patients now thought exposed to the potentially contaminated methylprednisolone acetate causing an outbreak of deadly fungal meningitis has risen to some 14,000 according to the CDC. Around 12,000 individuals have so far been contacted to explain the risk after they received the potentially contaminated epidural steroid injections for neck pain or a steroid injection into a joint such as the knee, shoulder or ankle. Epidural steroid injections for cervical spinal stenosis are sometimes used to relieve inflammation in pain, although lumbar spinal stenosis injections are more common for back pain as such injections can be problematic at the best of times in the complex area of the cervical spine. Read more

Effective Fibromyalgia Treatment with Electrostimulation Device

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new fibromyalgia treatment to break cycle of pain

RINCE helped more than 75% of patients reduce or eliminate need for pain medications for fibromyalgia.

Researchers from Flint, Michigan, unveiled a new electrostimulation fibromyalgia treatment this week at the American Academy of Pain Management (AAPM) 23rd Annual Clinical Meeting.

The study shows that this new, noninvasive cortical electrostimulation device is effective at reducing fibromyalgia symptoms, with researcher Jeffrey B. Hargrover, PhD, and colleagues explaining how neuroimaging studies to identify areas of abnormal pain processing in patients with fibromyalgia allowed the development of this targeted treatment. Significant benefits were found for those suffering from neck pain, generalized pain, fatigue, dysfunction and sleep disruption from the condition. Read more

Do Biologics for Rheumatoid Arthritis Increase Cancer Risk? New Analysis Says Not.

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rheumatoid arthritis drugs and cancer

BRMs are used to treat autoimmune disease, like RA.

Patients taking biologic medications to relieve neck pain and other symptoms of Rheumatoid arthritis may be relieved to hear that these powerful drugs do not appear to increase the short term risk of cancer, according to a new study.

The comprehensive meta-analysis carried out by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) this week and is expected to allay fears over the possible increased cancer risk in patients with RA who take any of the nine US FDA approved biologic response modifiers, such as abatacept and rituximab. Read more