It got me thinking, not that it caused it and as my grandmother had it and life style but was it the final nail that blow it full on???
As it was the first time I have ever had the flu jab and it was the swine type they were giving out
read this on net
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common chronic inflammatory joint disease. Multiple scientific articles have documented that vaccinations for influenza, MMR, and HBV, to name a few, could be triggers of RA in genetically predisposed individuals. However, there is limited data regarding the association of swine flu vaccine (H1N1) and RA. We report the case of a Mexican American female who developed RA right after vaccination with H1N1 vaccine. Genetically, RA has consistently been associated with an epitope in the third hypervariable region of the HLA-DR chains, known as the “shared epitope”, which is found primarily in DR4 and DR1 regions. The presence of HLA-DRB1 alleles is associated with susceptibility to RA in Mexican Americans. Hence, certain individuals with the presence of the “shared epitope” may develop RA following specific vaccinations. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of RA following vaccination with the swine flu vaccine.
One of the 36 million Mexicans living in the States gets RA after having a flu jab.....as against about 2 - 4,000 Americans who die from the flu each month. So the balance of risks seems pretty clear to me.
Yes it "could" be a trigger, but so could loads of others things. Don't overthink what can't be changed.
I had flu Jabs years before I had RA, plus Yellow Fever, Cholera, Typhoid,Smallpox, Polio,Tetanus, & any other vaccine needed to enter a country I was going to.
i have also had it every year since being diagnosed....but I am not a Mexican American so may that is why I can't blame the flu vaccine for my RA.....for the first time this year I had the flu ....obviously a strain not covered by my annual vaccine!
You will drive Yourself mad if you keep reading all the stories about what causes RA.......just listen to your rheumatologist & get on with living as healthy a life as you can.
Glad you are getting on with your life.....I refuse to acknowledge RA is in control...I know that I am & together with my Rheumy will never let it take over .
Beware of websites on vaccines. There’s been a damaging campaign against vaccine in the last 20 years. Recent reports of measles cases increasing in Europe as a result.
Yup, this increase in measles is happening now here in the U.S., too... there was just a report about in our national news just 2 days ago. Is a result of people refusing to vaccinate their children...
I also was diagnosed with RA after my first ever flu jab - developing many extremely painful joints over the course of a week or so- and did wonder at the time if the jab was to blame. However, there is RA in my family, I have tested positive for both RF and CPP indicators and X-rays at the time showed damage in my knees and hand indicating that I had actually had it for some time. That was nearly 3 years ago and fortunately my disease is under control with minimal medication. I have had the flu jab for the last 2 years with no ill effects at all so now really don't know what to think! As others have implied you can drive yourself mad wondering! As the nurse at my GPs said- without the jab you could have caught flu and that could have triggered it.
It may be that the flu was the trigger in your case, whereas it would not have been in most people, because you already had a pre-disposition to RA.
I did go down with it after really nasty and long lasting bout of flu. I’ve never had flu jab until after getting RD. Flu does see implicated a lot in all its guises. Wish someone would find the trigger for it ; thanks for posting article, interesting 🙂
I think the danger of thinking was it this or that, is that it leads to 'if only' which isn't helpful. The 'why' I can leave to the researchers, the 'what now' is more important to me (on OHs behalf). I understand that you are curious and would protect anyone from the disease if you could.
A lot of controversy around flu shots and their effects on our immune system and health in different ways. This is not fake news, like with all meds however, there may always be adverse effects but if you look at the big picture more good than bad comes out of it. Those of us on immuosuppressive medication are especially at risk for serious complications of the flu and are once again in a situation where adding a new med and choosing the lesser bad is the smart thing to do. I believe however that choosing to take the flu shot or not is not altogether straight forward and should be a well thought through choice. As an example where I was truely happy that we chose not to take the flu shot for my daughter.
Some years ago when we had the swine flu epidemic, there was a scare in my daughters school and children were given the choice to have the flu shot. We chose not to. These flu shots resulted in 16 cases of " sleeping sickness" in Finland. A chronic illness that cannot be cured.
I seriously doubt it because you are given such a miniscule amount of the flu in a vaccine. RA seems more likely to develop after a constant trigger. it is like an allergy - you are exposed to the allergen for a time but you have no reaction, then after a certain amount of exposure, you get a severe reaction and have to avoid that allergen forever.
I am still wondering whether I got it as a reaction to an ongoing chest infection or as a reaction to dozens of green gnat bites the previous year almost 12 months to the day of the RA onset and disappearing just before the RA onset.
American Indians - maybe also inhabiting Mexico - are supposed to have a pre-disposition to RA.
No I don't think so. It is a dead vaccine so cannot trigger flu-like symptoms and in my experience causes no adverse effects in my RA. or anything else. Unlike flu itself if immunosuppressed, flu could be catastrophic; so I have no hesitation I having the vaccine.
Well two and a half years ago I had my first flu jab . Six weeks later I started with RA ? I should have you jab this winter because l am on Toczilizumab
But because I have drug allergies I really don't know what to do. I will talk to my consultant next month.
No. Just no. The flu jab did not cause RA. It was not the final nail either. I understand the need for a reason, but sometimes there isn't one. Some things just happen, and I'm sorry that it happened to you x
I don’t know about triggering RA, but my body has a violent reaction to them. I run a high fever and have a relentless episode of uncontrolled vomiting. It is so bad that I stopped getting them and my doctors don’t argue about it.
It's hard to say in regards to "what caused the RA." In my case, I got RA when I was 15 months old... a very very small child. There was some thought that it was a combo of the fact that my father had an autoimmune disease, the fact that I grew up in coal country, and the fact that I got very sick as a child with some form of scarlet fever or roseola. Shortly after having the virus, I also came down with the symptoms of RA. My older sister also had the virus, but was fine afterwards. So -- there is a chance that multiple things could have triggered the RA. It's almost pointless to wonder. I personally do not get the flu shot, but I often wonder if it's the right thing to do. I'm not so much worried about triggering my RA with the flu shot, but instead triggering some other illnesses I have been suspected of having in the past as well. It's so hard making these types of decisions, having an autoimmune disease.
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