Arthritis Care is a phenomenal charity which works exceptionally hard on behalf of all people with arthritis.  If you haven’t already, then do take the time to visit their website at www.arthritiscare.org.uk - you’ll find a ton of useful resources and an award winning discussion forum full of members who know exactly what you’re going through.

Arthritis Care are looking for people who would like to take part in a sponsored skydive.  You can choose from 3 different types of jump; a tandem where you experience the thrill of skydiving from around 12,000 feet - strapped to an instructor and safely guided to the ground, a thrilling solo skydive - with two instructors with you as part of an Accelerated Freefall training course, or a static line parachute jump - performed from around 3,000 feet. All training is provided and no previous experience is required.

If you raise enough donations in sponsorship, around £360 depending on the type of jump you choose, you will get to jump for free!

For more details visit http://www.arthritiscare.org.uk/GetInvolved/Events/SponsoredSkydive

Firstly, I need to make a little confession.  I have never been a potato peeler type of girl, having always preferred to use my trusty vegetable knife for peeling.  However, recently I have been struggling with the arthritis in my wrist and the pressure needed for this most simple of tasks has become unbearable.  So I decided that it was time to road test the OXO Good Grips Y-Peeler.

The first thing that I noticed was how comfortable it is! The Y-peeler has a really wide, soft handle with grips to rest your thumb and fingers on - so no more tight grasping.  The second thing I noticed was how little pressure was needed to peel.  The blades are incredibly sharp (so be careful!) and literally glided across the potato I was testing on.  The blades also rotate meaning that you end up peeling the skin and not three centimetres of potato.

I really can’t recommend this product highly enough, both in terms of look and function - my not so trusty vegetable knife is soon to be consigned to the bin.

The link between depression and Rheumatoid Arthritis is well known, but recent research suggests that the mental state of your spouse may also have an affect on the disease activity of your RA. 

This is the conclusion of a study carried out by Mark Lam of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.  Lam studied 133 married couples and found that increased levels of spousal depression predicted a worse disease course in the partner with arthritis.  The findings stood up even after taking into account initial depression and disability in the person with arthritis.

The mechanisms behind these results are not understood.  The authors concluded that “whether depressed spouses are unable or unwilling to provide much needed support to the PWRA [person with rheumatoid arthritis], or whether their depressed mood affects PWRA outcomes in some other way, is yet to be determined”.

Nonetheless, this study suggests that a more holistic approach is required in the treatment of RA - one that looks at the whole of the person rather than just their symptoms.  A word of caution though, the study was in part funded by Pfizer, a well known manufacturer of anti-depressant drugs.  More research, as always, is required.