My one and only sibling, my sister who is 47 y/o and has been very healthy her entire life, has unfortunately been diagnosed with PsA.  I was unaware that she's had psoriasis for about 6 yrs, and has had one swollen finger and chronic back pain, along with ankle pain, for about a year. She finally went to a rheumy and they did all the usual blood work, everthing neg excet elevated sed and a pos. mono. She's tested positive for mono for the past 8 yrs. But with the psoriasis, sausage shaped finger and sed rate, they made the diagnosis. The really bizarre thing is that the first joint to be affected was her right index finger- she got up one morning and her finger was so inflamed and painful that she thought she must have broken it somehow, but the swelling and pain, altho lessened are still there a yr. later- the reason that's bizarre is that was the very first joint to be affected for me as well, followed by ankles and spine, just like she is experiencing now. I also thought that I had broken my finger somehow while I was sleeping (I use to have night terrors and thrash around quite a bit while sleeping- now I don't sleep so no night terrors- see, there's that silver lining!)

At first I wondered why I developed PsA in my 20's and she is just now developing symptoms. But I was very sick as a child with asthma and was hospitalized several times for pneumonia. She did not develop chicken pox the same time as me and my friend who got RA, but she did have them at sometime in her childhood. I had a tick bite as a child that made me sick enough for my parents to take me to the ER, I was treated with abx. Altho I know she's had tick bites, I don't think she's ever been sick from any of them. Then there's the fact that my symptoms started after the birth of my first child in my 20's and my sister does not have any children.

The only person we can find in our family history with arthritis symptoms is one of our great-grandmothers. She had several children, and her symptoms would flare up after each child was born. She did not live long enough for me to meet her.
PsA is more rare than RA, and with the exact same joints being affected in both of us I strongly suspect some shared genetic predisposition.
One last thing, I need info on any AP doctors in the Charlotte, NC area where she lives as she would like to try AP before her symptoms get bad enough that they start throwing biologics at her. She already turned down prednisone (yea!), she is taking motrin but it's not helping much. She asked me about natural anti-inflammatories and I told her all of the ones I could remember hearing about from you all, and it got me wondering if we could make a page on this site with a list of natural anti-inflammatories? We would have to include any potential side effects and probably something along the lines of a disclaimer that none of these remedies are approved by the FDA or whatever. If we already have something like this, nevermind!!!

linda