Press Release

FDA Approves Uloric (R) (febuxostat) for the Chronic Management of Hyperuricemia in Patients with Gout
DEERFIELD, Ill., and OSAKA, Japan, Feb. 13 / — Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc., announced today that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Uloric(R) (febuxostat) 40 mg and 80 mg for the chronic management of hyperuricemia in patients with gout. This once-daily, oral medication is the first new treatment option in more than 40 years for the more than five million patients who have hyperuricemia associated with gout. Uloric was discovered by Teijin …read more

A new medication, called Uloric, may be close to FDA approval in the United States after an FDA advisory board recommended approval.
Gout is a type of inflammatory arthritis that was once called the disease of kings because it seemed to affect royalty more than the common folk.  It used to thought that gout was more common in the richer classes because the foods they could afford often triggered bouts of pain from gout. Gout is quite common though, affecting 1 in 30 Canadians (about 500,000) and up to 5.1 million Americans.
Uric acid, a waste product in the blood and urine, …read more

Historically, women have developed rheumatoid arthritis (RA) more than men. In the United States, about 29 men out of every 100,000 develop RA and this rate has remained fairly steady over the years. On the other hand, while it used to be that about 36 women out of every 100,000 in the US would develop RA, now 54 out of every 100,000 are.
Unfortunately, researchers can’t explain the increase in the numbers yet.
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Tags: chronic pain blog, pain blog, rheumatoid arthritis

If you’ve been considering having arthroscopic surgery for your arthritic knee, you may want to think twice. A new study has found that this surgery, done through tiny incisions and with special instruments that allow the surgeon to look inside, may be a waste of time, money, and resources.
It turns out that medications, physiotherapy and exercise has the same end result with arthritic pain in the knee.
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Tags: chronic pain blog, arthritic pain, arthritis, knee arthritis, arthroscopy

Gout is a disease that not many people know about – they may have heard about it, but they don’t know what it is or what causes it. We’ve discussed it here a few times:

Article: Sugary Soft Drinks Boost Gout Risk in Men
4-time NBA All-Star/Philadelphia 76ers coach, Maurice Cheeks lives with gout
Your coffee may help prevent gout

Now, there is an experimental drug, pegloticase, that lowered blood uric acid levels within a few hours in most patients. The medication is still in the trial phases, but if it is proven to be safe and effective, many people will benefit.
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Tags: chronic pain …read more

August is Psoriasis Awareness month. Psoriasis is a skin disease but it can also lead to a type of arthritis called psoriatic arthritis. As with rheumatoid arthritis psoriatic arthritis causes inflammation and pain in the joints, can can cause disability.
Here are some posts regarding psoriasis:

Efalizumab for Psoriasis May Trigger Psoriatic Arthritis
Press Release: FDA Committee Unanimously Recommends Approval of Ustekinumab for Plaque Psoriasis
Press release: New Guidelines for the Management of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis
Biologic agents for treatment of psoriasis
Press release: Ustekinumab Phase 3 data show long-term improvement of chronic plaque psoriasis
Press release: Humira (adalimumab) Receives FDA Approval For Moderate to Severe …read more

A couple of videos for you over at Medical News Today about arthritis. One is an overview and the other is Arthritis and the Weekend Warrior. Just click on the TV screen to watch them:

 Image: iStock
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For people who have rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and for whom different treatments need to be tried before an effective one is found, it may seem treating RA is like taking a stab in the dark. Although it may seem like that, it’s not so. Diseases like RA are usually treated following a set of guidelines that have been developed over the years and, as new treatments are developed and older ones are refined or discarded, new guidelines are developed.
Recently, new guidelines or recommendations were issued by the American College of Rheumatology for the treatment of RA. The biggest issue in …read more

Image details: Deompressed Diver served by picapp.com
Oxygen is being touted as a possible treatment for migraines and cluster headaches, according to researchers. According to this article, Oxygen therapy might ease pain of migraine, cluster headaches, the results of two studies showed that patients who received oxygen therapy had better pain relief than those who had a sham or placebo treatment.
Interesting idea.
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We’ve all seen ads for things to help people with their feet, but store-bought shoe inserts may not be the answer for people who have arthritis pain in their feet.
According to a new review that examined the results of 11 trials involving over 1300 people, researchers found that custom made inserts, or orthoses, were very helpful in reducing pain over three to six months.
If you have foot pain from arthritis, perhaps you should consider asking your doctor about custom made inserts.
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