Bacteria in milk linked to rheumatoid arthritis

A strain of bacteria found in milk and beef may be a trigger for developing rheumatoid arthritis in people who are at risk, according to a new study from the University of Central Florida. A team of UCF College of Medicine researchers has discovered a link between rheumatoid arthritis and Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis, known as MAP, a bacteria found in about half the cows in the United States. The bacteria can be spread to humans through the consumption of infected milk, beef and produce fertilized by cow manure.

For the study, researchers recruited 100 of her patients who volunteered clinical samples for testing. Seventy-eight percent of the patients with rheumatoid arthritis were found to have a mutation in the PTPN2/22 gene, the same genetic mutation found in Crohn's patients, and 40 percent of that number tested positive for MAP. People born with this genetic mutation and who are later exposed to MAP through consuming contaminated milk or meat from infected cattle are at a higher risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune and inflammatory disease that causes the immune system to attack a person's joints, muscles, bones and organs. Patients suffer from pain and deformities mostly in the hands and feet. It can occur at any age but the most common onset is between 40 and 60 years old and is three times more prevalent in women. Some RA patients suffer from Crohn's disease and vice versa, the researchers say a national study needs to investigate the incidence of the two diseases in the same patients.
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High salt diet hobbles the brain

A new study has shown that mice fed with a very high-salt diet experienced declined blood flow to their brain, the integrity of blood vessels in the brain suffered, and performance on tests of cognitive function plummeted.

Researchers found that those effects were not as long has been widely believed, a natural consequence of high blood pressure. Instead, they appeared to be the result of signals sent from the gut to the brain by the immune system.

The study, conducted by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York. The research sheds light on a subject of keen interest to scientists exploring the links between what we eat and how well we think, and the mediating role that the immune system plays in that communication.

This suggests that even before a chronic high-salt diet nudges blood pressure up and compromises the health of tiny blood vessels in the brain, the oversalted gut is independently sending messages that lay the groundwork for corrosion throughout the vital network.

In the small intestines of mice, the authors of the new research found that a very high-salt diet prompted an immune response that boosted circulating levels of an inflammatory substance called interleukin-17. These high levels of IL-17 set off a cascade of chemical responses inside the delicate inner linings of the brain's blood vessels.

The result in mice fed with the high-salt diet: blood supply to two regions crucial for learning and memory-the cortex and hippocampus slowed markedly. And mental performance slid. Compared to mice fed a diet lower in salt, the maze-running skills of the mice who consumed high-salt levels faltered, and they failed to respond normally to whisker stimulation, or a new object in their cage.

In mice, that evidence of cognitive impairment was apparent even in the absence of high blood pressure. The immune system's role in sending signals between brain and gut is also seen in diseases like multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and inflammatory bowel disease-all disorders that are linked to poor functioning of the brain's blood vessels.
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Vitamin D may prevents Rheumatoid arthritis

Maintaining sufficient vitamin D levels may prevent the onset of inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, it is less effective once inflammatory disease is established because diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis leads to vitamin D insensitivity. The impact of vitamin D on inflammatory disease cannot be predicted using cells from healthy individuals or even from the blood of patients with inflammation as cells from the disease tissue are different.

If vitamin D is to be used in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, clinicians may need to prescribe much higher doses than currently provide a treatment that also corrects the vitamin D insensitivity of immune cells within the joint. Vitamin D is a potent modulator of the immune system. In particular, vitamin D can suppress inflammation in autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis are frequently vitamin D deficient and may receive vitamin D supplementation.

The study involved using paired peripheral blood and synovial fluid from the inflamed joint of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The current understanding of vitamin D and rheumatoid arthritis is based on studies of patient blood which may not truly represent the situation at the site of inflammation -the joints. Investigating responses to the active form of vitamin D in immune cells from the inflamed joints of patients with rheumatoid arthritis compared to blood from the same patients, the inflamed joint immune cells were much less sensitive to active vitamin D.

This occurred because immune cells from the joints of rheumatoid arthritis patients are more committed to inflammation, and therefore less likely to change, even when they respond to vitamin D. Maintaining sufficient vitamin D may prevent the onset of inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. However, for patients who already have rheumatoid arthritis, providing vitamin D might not be enough. Instead much higher doses of vitamin D may be needed, or possibly a new treatment that corrects the vitamin D insensitivity of immune cells within the joint.
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Cyltezo for chronic inflammatory diseases

Cyltezo is for the treatment of multiple chronic inflammatory diseases, including: moderate to severe active rheumatoid arthritis, moderate to severe polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis, active psoriatic arthritis, active ankylosing spondylitis, moderate to severe active adult Crohn’s disease,
moderate to severe active ulcerative colitis and moderate to severe plaque psoriasis

Patients treated with adalimumab products, including Cyltezo, are at increased risk for developing serious infections that may lead to hospitalization or death.

Invasive fungal infections, including histoplasmosis, coccidioidomycosis, candidiasis, aspergillosis, blastomycosis, and pneumocystosis. Patients with histoplasmosis or other invasive fungal infections may present with disseminated, rather than localized, disease.

Antigen and antibody testing for histoplasmosis may be negative in some patients with active infection. Consider empiric anti-fungal therapy in patients at risk for invasive fungal infections who develop severe systemic illness.

Do not start Cyltezo during an active infection, including localized infections.
Patients older than 65 years, patients with co-morbid conditions and patients taking concomitant immunosuppressants may be at greater risk of infection.

Cyltezo for patients with these disorders; discontinuation of Cyltezo should be considered if any of these disorders develop.
Hematological Reactions
Congestive Heart Failure
Autoimmunity
Patients on Cyltezo should not receive live vaccines.
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Fish consumption ease arthritis pain

Regular consumption of fish ease joints pain caused by arthritis and prevents rheumatoid arthritis. Fish rich in Omega 3 oil are tuna, salmon, sardines, sashimi, sushi, trout, sole, halibut, grouper and poke.

Levels of inflammation will be lower with daily consumption of fish rich in omega 3. Researchers discovered that
eating fish at least twice weekly led to a reduction in disease activity among people with rheumatoid arthritis compared with eating fish less than once per month.

 Researchers analyzed data from 176 individuals with rheumatoid arthritis, food frequency questionnaire was used to gather information on participants' fish intake.

They were divided into four groups based on the frequency of their fish consumption: never to once per month; once each month to less than once per week; once each week; and more than twice per week.

Compared with participants who never ate fish or ate it less than once every month, the researchers discovered that participants who consumed fish more than twice each week showed significantly lower disease activity.

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