From Brian Kenney, Senior Director, Corporate Communications, Centocor Ortho Biotech Inc.

 

Today’s blogosphere provides vivid personal accounts about the realities of what it is like to live with a chronic condition like rheumatoid arthritis (RA). There exists a very active community of RA bloggers (such as All Flared Up, The Single Gal’s Guide to Rheumatoid Arthritis, Rheumatoid Arthritis Guy, and Rheumatoid Arthritis Warrior) who share perspectives and questions about many related topics.

 

Listening to the perspectives of this social community has helped us to understand more about how RA can affect a person’s quality of life. For example, everyday activities that most of us take for granted – participating in family or work activities, spending time with friends, dating, exercising – can be daunting when someone must contend with stiff, swollen and painful joints routinely, and untimely flares of such symptoms.

 

There is a new online talk show, New Way RAâ„¢, that focuses exclusively on addressing topics of overall health and well-being for people living with RA. The show provides expert advice and practical information through an engaging and accessible web-based format. Visitors to the site can view the entire show online, listen to real-life anecdotes from people living with RA, register to receive a free copy of the DVD, and access resources for more information. (Full disclosure: the project is sponsored by Centocor Ortho Biotech Inc).

 

We hope that people living with RA, as well as their caregivers, find New Way RA helpful in answering some questions they may have about their overall well-being, and that this program will further raise awareness about a chronic disease that affects more than one million Americans, the majority of whom are women.

 

You can watch the show and learn more at http://www.newwayra.com/.

 

For more information about RA, check out CreakyJoints and the Arthritis Foundation.