Doctors want to know if the drugs they prescribe to their ankylosing spondylitis patients are helping. If they are not seeing positive results, they may want to change course as soon as possible.

A crucial part of treating disease is knowing what causes disease. Sometimes, environmental factors cause disease. In other cases, it is genetic, as shown by the recent discovery of three new lupus genes.

Sometimes, your body can react negatively when you stop taking certain drugs. If a drug gets pulled off the market, you may have no choice but to stop.

While medications can help control your psoriatic arthritis, some drugs can harm parts of your body. It seems that TNF inhibitors may be one of those drugs.

Before getting pregnant, it is important to know if you are healthy enough to have a baby. Certain diseases, such as lupus, can make pregnancy risky for both you and your child.

Lately, the question around human papillomavirus (HPV) is whether adolescent girls should be required to get vaccinated. While some girls and parents may opt out of vaccination, others might think twice if they knew their risk was high.

It is not always clear why people of a certain ethnicity are more at risk of disease than others. Regardless, knowing who is at risk of lupus, for example, can help doctors make treatment decisions.

No matter who you are, it is important to take care of your heart. If you are a woman with inflammatory arthritis and a certain thyroid problem, it is time to start taking special care of your heart.

Steroids used to treat rheumatoid arthritis have been linked to the development of diabetes. Now, scientists may have pinpointed a steroid dose that treats arthritis without increasing the risk of diabetes.

Joint pain is not the only thing rheumatoid arthritis patients have to deal with. The disease is linked to a number of other problems, including heart attack and heart failure.