Symptoms Of Spondylitis Fatigue
While lack of energy is the primary feeling, spondylitis fatigue encompasses many other symptoms, including mood-related disorders not typically associated with normal exhaustion. They include:
- Sleep deprivation
- Feelings of failure, lack of confidence
- Difficulty concentrating or making decisions
A rheumatologist can diagnose whether your symptoms are a response to overexertion or an indication of underlying disease.
Demographics And Disease Characteristics
There were 681 patients in our study. The median age of the patients was 40.5 years. Sixty-six out of 681 patients were diagnosed with nr-axSpA. The median disease duration of the group was 8 years and 77.7% were HLA-B27positive. Nearly half the patients were receiving TNFi therapies. The median FSS was 4.7 and the median fatigue level according to BASDAI Q1 was 5 . According to the FSS 4 and BASDAI Q1 5, 58.4% and 54.9% of the group were classified as severely fatigued, respectively. The frequency of total severe fatigue was 67.3. summarizes the clinical and laboratory characteristics of the patients.
Comparison of patients with severe and low fatigue scores. BASDAI inflammation refers to the mean of BASDAI questions 5 and 6. BASDAI spinal pain, arthralgia, and enthesitis refer to the questions 2, 3, and 4, respectively. Severe fatigue is defined for patients who have total FSS 4 or BASDAI fatigue 5. For continuous variables, data are expressed as median . Other data are % unless otherwise specified.
How As Flares Are Diagnosed
Doctors rely on individual patients experiences to determine if AS is flaring. You should notify your doctor if your symptoms are out of the ordinary or more severe than your usual disease activity, Dr. Appleyard says.
However, there are objective ways to assess disease activity and functional ability in patients with AS, such as the BASDAI and the BASFI .
These questionnaires measure the major symptoms of AS and the patients ability to cope with everyday life. Rheumatologists use these measurements to help determine disease activity and to assess response to treatment, Dr. Appleyard says.
In addition, AS symptoms as a whole are related to increased levels of certain cytokines in the blood, Dr. Appleyard says. Blood levels of these substances are closely correlated with the activity of the disease, she says.
You can use our ArthritisPower app to track your symptoms and disease activity and share your results with your doctor.
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Leaving Room For Your Golf Balls
Clare Clark, an occupational therapist in Wales, understands how difficult it can be to live well with axial SpA , especially when you have fatigue. This is Clares view on how to ensure you enjoy life with axial SpA .
If you would like to read more about managing fatigue you can access our guide here.
How Can I Help Myself
The right exercise regime can improve strength, flexibility, wellbeing, energy levels and sleep. Ideally you should get advice from a specialist rheumatology physiotherapist. Dont forget NASS branches meet weekly for supervised group physiotherapy.
Taking enough rest is just as important as taking exercise. How much and how often you need to rest will vary from one person to another but resting for 10 minutes every hour is often recommended. Rest times could include reading a book or magazine, watching a favourite TV programme or having a warm bath.
Relaxation techniques can help the body recharge itself and may also improve sleep.
Pace yourself. Pacing activities can help regain some control over fatigue. Try to prioritise so that you are doing the most important things first and leave more difficult jobs for when you are feeling at your best. Ideally try to plan ahead so you develop a weekly schedule which sets a pace you can live with, allows you to address your top priorities and leaves you time for rest.
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You Are Not Alone: Finding Support For Spondylitis Fatigue
How does fatigue affect your daily life? Has your rheumatologist found the right medication to manage your symptoms? What helps you successfully get through each day? Share your tips and experiences in a comment below or on MySpondylitisTeam. You’ll be surprised how many other members have similar stories.
Myspondylitisteam Member Tips For Managing Fatigue
Some members use medical marijuana or cannabidiol , where legally available, to fight fatigue and exhaustion:
- I take edibles before bed. It gives me overnight pain relief and helps me sleep.
- A CBD tincture has really helped with fatigue.
- I take Enbrel plus CBD oil for pain and fatigue.
Others find vitamins and supplements to be helpful:
- I found that vitamin B or D deficiency can cause fatigue.
- Sublingual B12 helps a lot.
- I take vitamin D whenever I feel a flare sneaking up on me.
- I take vitamin B after breakfast and again at 2 p.m. for fatigue.
- Ive been drinking Patriot Power Greens for 2 weeks. The first day I had so much energy, I got done in eight hours what would normally take a week.
Always check with your physician or rheumatologist before starting any new medication, supplement, psychological therapy, or exercise program.
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Secukinumab Provides ‘significant Sustained’ Fatigue Reduction In Ankylosing Spondylitis
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Secukinumab demonstrated rapid, stained improvements in fatigue for up to 3 years among patients with ankylosing spondylitis, according to data published in Arthritis Care & Research.
Fatigue is reported in up to 66% of patients with AS and has been identified as a key patient priority in the treatment of AS,Tore K. Kvien, MD, PhD, of Diakonhjemmet Hospital and the University of Oslo, in Norway, and colleagues wrote. Many patients report that fatigue negatively impacts HRQoL and social functioning thus, reducing this symptom remains an important unmet need in AS.
Interleukin-17A is one of the key cytokines driving the pathogenesis of AS, they added. Secukinumab, a fully human monoclonal antibody that selectively binds to and inhibits IL-17A, is approved for the treatment of AS based on the results of two randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trials, MEASURE 1 and MEASURE 2 that demonstrated significant improvements in the signs and symptoms of AS with secukinumab versus placebo. Secukinumab has previously been shown to provide rapid improvements in fatigue.
According to the researchers, there were significant improvements in FACITF scores from baseline with secukinumab, compared with placebo, across both studies at week 16 (P< .05. These improvements were sustained through week 156 in MEASURE 1 and week 104 in MEASURE 2.
What Is Ankylosing Spondylitis
Ankylosing spondylitis is a type of arthritis that mainly affects the back, by causing inflammation in the spine. This can make your back, rib cage and neck stiff and painful.
It often starts in people who are in their late teens or 20s.
In response to the inflammation, the body produces extra calcium around the bones of the spine. This can make extra bits of bone grow and cause your back and neck to be more stiff.
In rare cases some of the bones of the spine may link up, or fuse together because of the extra calcium. In serious cases this can make the spine curve forward more. You can reduce the risk of this happening, if you:
- keep active
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General Condition Of The Patients
According to , among the 120 AS patients, 104 were male, and 16 were female. The patients’ ages ranged from 18 to 66 years old, with a mean age of 36.4 ± 10.5 years. Overall, the MAF-degree, MAF-severity, and MAF-timing fatigue scores in AS patients in the previous week were significantly higher than those in healthy controls .
The People I Thought Cared Unconditionally Left
The worst part about my experience with chronic fatigue is how many people I witnessed slowly pulling away from me. I could feel the energy shift in our conversations. I was constantly left feeling like I was at fault for the downfall of those relationships, simply because I was too ill to do all of the things I once could. Falling ill somehow turned me into the bad guy. Its like it became this assumption that I was choosing to be this dull, desaturated version of myself. No matter how I tried to explain my illness and how it will affect my life, they never truly heard me out.
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When To Seek Medical Advice
You should see your GP if you have persistent symptoms of AS.
If your GP thinks you may have the condition, they should refer you to a specialist in conditions affecting muscles and joints for further tests and any necessary treatment.
Further tests may include blood tests and imaging tests.
Read about diagnosing ankylosing spondylitis.
Research And New Developments
Previous research has shown that ankylosing spondylitis has a strong genetic component and were currently funding several research projects to further understand this. Previously, we part funded research that identified a specific gene, called IL23R, thats linked to the condition. Were now funding a follow-on project to investigate how changes in this gene lead to the development of ankylosing spondylitis.
Were also supporting a study thats investigating a gene called RUNX3. Researchers are investigating whether this molecule can be targeted with drugs. Results from this research may lead to the development of new and more effective drug treatments.
Were funding a project investigating the protein HLA-B27. This protein is found in over 90% of people with ankylosing spondylitis. Its thought that HLA-B27 proteins tend to fold incorrectly inside cells, which may lead to the immune system releasing chemicals that cause inflammation. This research aims to generate HLA-B27 specific treatments that overcome the problems associated with current treatment options.
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Ankylosing Spondylitis And Fatigue: Bills Story
Bill Balderaz’s back pain and stiffness often cause extreme fatigue. Get his real-life tips on how to deal with fatigue caused by ankylosing spondylitis.
Bill Balderaz, a health care marketing executive in Columbus, Ohio, says his chronic back pain from ankylosing spondylitis subsides when he’s giving one of his three children a piggyback ride. The pressure on my back when I carry one of my kids actually lessens the pain and inflammation, and I dont feel as tired either, he says.
Balderazs statement is surprising, given that he was diagnosed with AS in 2011. A form of spinal arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis is marked by inflammation, pain, stiffness, and often extreme fatigue.
When his back does hurt, Balderaz gets so tired that he fears he literally may fall asleep at the wheel. And its a stifling type of fatigue, one that can’t be helped by a cup of strong coffee or a few extra hours of sleep each night.
Back Pain And Stiffness
As with many types of inflammatory arthritis, a flare is marked by the increase of normal disease symptoms. If a patient experiences worsening joint or back pain lasting for more than a few days, then it is likely a flare, says rheumatologist Joan Appleyard, MD, an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Immunology, Allergy, and Rheumatology department at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. As Greatorex told us, AS pain is often worse first thing in the morning because you havent moved around much all night so your joints stiffen up.
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Supplementary Analysis: Effects Of Head Motion Depression Level And Treatment
We conducted additional tests to exclude the bias caused by head motion in our analyses. The mean relative framewise displacement in the AS patients was comparable to that in the HCs . Moreover, our main findings remained largely unchanged after entering mean relative head motion as a covariate of no interest in our analyses.
Psychiatric disorders are known to cause specific lesions in the brain. Although all the recruited patients were not clinically diagnosed as depressed or as suffering from other psychiatric conditions, the BDI of the AS patients was significantly higher than that of the HCs. However, there was no significant relationship observed between any of the above-mentioned FC, nodal properties, and GMV results with BDI scores. Therefore, it is unlikely that our main findings were confounded by depression.
Finally, to ensure our main findings were not biased according to treatment, we made a comparison between treated and treatment-naïve patients. There were no major between-group differences in any significant FC or nodes identified in our primary analysis .
Structural Analysis: Structural Covariance And Gray Matter Volume
In this part, we aimed to determine whether functional changes are derived from underlying structural abnormalities. It is well known that functional changes represent a state of transition over a relatively short period while structural changes need time to develop. Data were analyzed with the Computational Anatomy Toolbox toolbox segment data pipeline and integrated into SPM12. Firstly, we spatially registered the 3DT1 images to the tissue probability maps and segmented them into gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid. We then performed the affine registration to the stereotactic MNI space using the ICBM152 space. Secondly, on the basis of the Jacobian determinants calculated from the normalization process, we completed high-dimensional DARTEL normalization and nonlinear modulation. Thirdly, we removed the noise and bias and normalized the intensities to avoid MRI inhomogeneities and noise. Finally, to reduce potential inaccuracies during the normalization process, we smoothed the GM image . Moreover, we assessed the quality of the resulting images by visual check and analyzed the image quality index framework in CAT 12, ), only including the participants with QA no less than B- in our final analyses. Two subjects did not pass the image quality control and were excluded in our final analysis.
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Track When Fatigue Hits
Like everything else about AS, fatigue can vary from person to person, notes Karen Jacobs, O.T., occupational therapist and clinical professor in the department of occupational therapy at Boston University in Massachusetts. So its important to figure out when fatigue hits you. That way, you can do your best to schedule meetings and attention-oriented work during your freshest hours and squeeze a nap in when its most effective. Get an hourly planner and note your energy level in each slot. Its really important for people to know their bodies and not push them too much, Jacobs says.
What It Feels Like To Have Fatigue
Heres how some people with ankylosing spondylitis describe their fatigue:
- Its just a draining feeling, says Steven Newman, 31, of Cleveland, Ohio, who started experiencing ankylosing symptoms when he was 15 but wasnt diagnosed until three years ago. The pain and fatigue is chronic, its daily, and its unceasing, he says. Its enough to drive you insane. Newman says he must force himself to get up and do the things he has to do, or hed never accomplish anything.
- Regan Brown Reynolds, 36, of Raleigh, North Carolina, was diagnosed in 2002. “You feel like youre dragging all the time, she says. Kind of like you have the flu.” The fatigue sometimes makes it hard to get motivated, she adds.
- On bad days, the fatigue is just way more than someone my age should have, says 37-year-old Rupali Soeters, PT, PhD, a physical therapist at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City who also has ankylosing spondylitis. Soeters was diagnosed at 19.
- I pretty much feel like I just did four or five hours of straight, hard, physical labor, says Donald Bredlow, 62, of York County, Pennsylvania. Bredlow started showing symptoms of ankylosing spondylitis when he was in his late teens but wasnt diagnosed until he was 31.
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Osteoporosis And Spinal Fractures
Osteoporosis is where the bones become weak and brittle. In AS, osteoporosis can develop in the spine and can increase your risk of fracturing the bones in your backbone. The longer you have the condition, the more this risk increases.
If you do develop osteoporosis, you will usually need to take medication to help strengthen your bones. There are a number of medications that can be used to treat osteoporosis, which can be taken by mouth as tablets or given by injection.
How Does Ankylosing Spondylitis Cause Fatigue
There are several ways AS can cause fatigue. The chronic inflammation caused by AS not only affects the joints but also affects the whole body. Inflammation causes a release of cytokines , and cytokines may cause fatigue. In addition, the body uses energy to deal with the inflammation, leaving less available energy overall.1,3
Dealing with the chronic pain of AS can make it difficult to sleep comfortably, adding to a sense of fatigue, and living with a chronic condition like AS increases a person’s risk for depression, which also causes fatigue as a symptom. Chronic diseases like AS also increase the risk of developing anemia of chronic disease , which can lead to fatigue.1,3
Some medications used to treat AS may cause fatigue as a side effect and worsen the symptom of fatigue experienced by people with AS.
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Functional Separation: Nodal Properties
Graph theoretical measures can reflect not only brain network functional integration, but functional separation based on nodal indices . On the basis of FC analyses, we obtained a 264 x 264 matrix for each participant. Next, we need to set the network sparsity . Because network sparsity has a fundamental impact on topological measures, reasonable network thresholding is necessary to guarantee appropriate network comparisons among different subjects and cost thresholds . We analyzed the nodal indices across a series of cost thresholds , and the resulting area under the curve analysis was completed on node metrics across all sparsity thresholds. The AUC analysis reflects the curves of topological measure changes varied as the function of sparsity. The detailed analysis method was described using GRETNA toolbox.
Briefly, nodal degree centrality represents the number of connections to a given node and reflects a node’s accessibility, and nodal betweenness centrality embodies the important roles of nodal communication across a given node as the bridge . On the basis of the AUC value of each node, we conducted comparisons to identify the differences in nodal degree and betweenness centrality between HC and AS patients. Group differences were tested based on two-sample t-test with FDR correction . These analyses were conducted in GRETNA. Connectome figures were presented by BrainNet Viewer 1.7 .
