any connection btwn RA and neurological diseases?

[Guest guest]

Hi

this is maybe a bit far-fetched and if it is, please just say " no-way. "

I was wondering if there could be any connection between RA and a

neurological problem called ataxia?

My older brother has had something called Friedreich's ataxia since he was

born, and my mother was, after many years of tests, diagnosed as having

" some sort of ataxia, but not Friedreichs's ataxia " a couple of years ago.

I was diagnosed with RA almost 3 years ago.

The F. ataxia is apparently a condition where the spinal cord gets weaker

and is normally diagnosed during childhood. My brother has very poor

balance, wandering eyeball (obviously not the correct medical term, but..)

and as a child had an operation to turn his foot out straighter and also, I

think, a weak immune system- always had a bad cough, very weak skin etc.

F. ataxia comes from a bad gene. I can't think of the correct word but if

both parents are carriers you have a 1 in 4 chance of getting it (we were 4

kids, 1 brother got it) and then a 1 in 2 chance of being a carrier.

I'm probably thinking needlessly about this but just want to know if there

is any chance of this appearing down the line and causing problems along

with the RA I already have?

I also have 8 bones in my neck as opposed to the normal 7 (and this makes me

a dinosaur ^-^) and thus have TOS and just hope that neither my neck nor

spine get involved in the RA. The 8th bone apparently makes my neck longer

than usual and so the top bone is quite close to my brain. That top bone,

acc, to my rheumy, is the one that is likely to get RA involvement?

Anyone heard of Friedreich's ataxia?

thanks

AnneMarie

in Japan