THE JOINT Your weekly dose of RA wellness The Movement Edition You Had a Great Day. Then You Paid for It. Yesterday I woke up feeling like my old self again. My energy was back, my body felt lighter, and I did what most of us do when a good day shows up out of nowhere: I tried to catch up on life. I cleaned the house, got in a hard workout, ran errands, and knocked things off my list that had been sitting there for days. By the end of the day, I felt productive again. Almost normal. I even...
7 days ago • 4 min read
THE JOINT Your weekly dose of RA wellness The Nutrition Edition Does Fasting Work When You Have RA? Every few years, fasting cycles back as the answer to everything. Weight loss. Brain fog. Inflammation. Longevity. The list grows with every new study. I’ve tried the protocols, read the studies, and paid attention to how my own body responded. I believe there is probably something to it, but the version that works best depends entirely on your body, your schedule, and, if you have RA, your...
21 days ago • 5 min read
THE JOINT Your weekly dose of RA wellness The Evidence Edition RA Doesn't Just Age Your Joints When I first started digging into this research, I expected studies on joint damage and disease progression. The usual. What I found went far beyond the joints. Rheumatoid arthritis appears to age the body at roughly 1.25 times the rate of the general population. That translates to about two and a half extra years of biological aging for every decade lived with this disease. Not just in your joints,...
28 days ago • 5 min read
THE JOINT Your weekly dose of RA wellness The Movement Edition The Two-Minute Rule Changed How I Think About Cardio When most people think about rheumatoid arthritis, they think about joints. Pain. Swelling. Stiffness. Not cardiovascular health. But people with RA have more than double the risk of cardiovascular disease compared to the general population, even when joint symptoms are controlled. That surprised me. What struck me even more was realizing how many people with RA avoid cardio...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
THE JOINT Your weekly dose of RA wellness The Mindset Edition When Your Mind Jumps Ahead of Your Body Early in my diagnosis, my mind went straight to the future. Not just the next few weeks. Years ahead. I wasn’t trying to understand RA. I was trying to predict what it would take from me. I pictured losing the things I love. Hiking. Working out. Independence.I thought about joint damage, mobility, and how long I had before any of it showed up. Every new ache felt like confirmation. My brain...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
THE JOINT Your weekly dose of RA wellness The Nutrition Edition You Might Be Doing the Same Thing I Was I used to skip breakfast thinking I was doing myself a favor.By 10 AM, I was starving.By afternoon, I had no energy left to give. I thought I was managing my weight. In reality, I was making my body work harder than it needed to. After my RA diagnosis, things got worse. The energy dips were still there, but now they came with fatigue, pain, and days when even a simple meal felt like too...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
THE JOINT Your weekly dose of RA wellness The Evidence Edition You Slept 8 Hours. Why Are You Still Exhausted? If you’re sleeping and still exhausted, this is why. You go to bed on time. You get your 8 hours. Yet somehow, you wake up feeling worse. By mid-afternoon, you're not just tired. It's that heavy, bone-deep fatigue. Your eyes feel heavy, and your body is moving through molasses. You're counting down the hours until you can get back into bed. Except you can't. I know this one...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
THE JOINT Your weekly dose of RA wellness The Movement Edition If Movement Feels Impossible, Read This No equipmentNo gymNo perfect day requiredAlmost no motivation needed Last week we talked about motivation, why it feels so hard with RA, and why waiting for it doesn’t work. This week is about what to do with that, without making things harder. If the word “exercise” makes you want to close this email, I get it. With RA, movement isn’t predictable. Some days your body cooperates. Other days...
2 months ago • 2 min read
THE JOINT Your weekly dose of RA wellness The Mindset Edition Motivation Isn't a Willpower Problem Before RA, motivation was simpler. You didn't feel like doing something. You pushed through. You got it done. With RA, it's no longer just an uphill battle. It's a war on a mountain. “Just try harder” doesn't work anymore, and inspiration isn’t coming to save you. The effort cost of any task rises fast with RA. It's not just “not feeling it” anymore. You're also pushing through fatigue, pain,...
2 months ago • 4 min read