I have RA I am sorry about for your friend. Right now I am Enbrel and it has made a world of difference compared to the other meds I was on.
Best advise I can give is "Do not stop moving." I lost a lot of muscle mass when I was first diagnosed there are some hypothesized disease specific process as to why this happens however they do not know. Google RA and Cachexia to get an idea. At first it hurt like hell in the AM essentially woke up nearly crippled and it would get easier as the day wore on if I moved, keep moving.
There are a lot of websites and articles out there most of it is crap a good clue is when they say "cures rheumatoid arthritis" there is no cure. Somethings will help "some" people but not all. Some one I know swears by diet all the things that she says causes her to go into a flare i.e. milk does not bother me hell I crave milk.
Vitamin B is about to become you friends good friend embrace your friend. Until the flare and disease process is brought under control your friend has a war raging inside the body, that battle takes a lot of energy. I once slept for 14 hours vitamin B helped some so that I could be somewhat productive at my job.
Tell you friend eat, sleep, move and do not give up It will get better. It is going to be discouraging and maddening for a while until it is brought under control it is also going to take time. There is a whole section here on C60oo I take it and it has helped me tremendously it is not something that I would tell someone I did not know to do. It has helped me a great deal the information is there so they can make up there own mind as to what is best for them.
For my own curiosity was your friend ever in the service and were they given the anthrax vaccine?