Rheumatic fever was once a common cause of heart problems in childhood. It remains a serious childhood health problem in many developing countries. In North America, it's become much less common due to improved hygiene and routine use of antibiotics for infections. When it does strike, however, it can still have serious consequences for heart health. Rheumatic fever is most frequent in children aged 5 to 15 years old, but can also affect adults and children younger than 5 years of age. However, there are no reliable figures on adults.

Causes
Rheumatic fever is caused by a combination of bacterial infection and immune system overreaction. It almost always follows a strep throat infection, which is an infection of the respiratory tract caused by bacteria of the Streptococcus family. Children are far more likely to get strep throat than adults.

Normally, Streptococcus causes a cough and a sore throat, and clears up with antibiotics. In some cases, however, children with strep throat begin complaining of pain in the joints or other unusual symptoms. This usually happens 2 to 4 weeks after the streptococcal infection (which may have already cleared up).

The disease has an affinity for the joints, the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord), and the heart. In the heart, the disease can affect the inner lining of the heart including the heart valves (endocarditis), the muscle of the heart (myocarditis), or the covering of the heart (pericarditis).

 Diet and Lifestyle
-- Try to be in warm climate and totally avoid cold atmosphere.
-- Take care that your bowel movements are regular and avoid constipation.
-- Take care to maintain your height to weight ratio or body mass index.
-- Always do a regular and mild exercises like range of motion after consulting a rheumatologist as some exercises might be harmful.
-- Try to sleep for maximum hours as it has direct affect on creating rheumatic disorder symptoms in the body.
-- Always try to eat the food that are easily digestible. Take care to take food regularly at the stipulated time. Eat between 10 am to 12 am and 5 pm and 7 pm and take very light evening meals.
-- Always have a wholesome diet which is nutritious that includes fresh and green vegetables, fruits.
-- Take chapattis, rice, millet, barley etc., but do not include milk and its products more in your diet.
-- Eat a lot salads which includes green leafy vegetables, tomato, carrots, cucumber etc.,
-- Take a plenty of boiled vegetables but reduce intake of onions.
-- Avoid taking alcohol.
-- Fasting one day per week helps a lot.