What is Rheumatoid Arthritis
What is Rheumatoid Arthritis
What is Rheumatoid arthritis (abbreviated as RA) – a type of autoimmune disease.
* Autoimmune diseases – basically, this is where the body will actually mistakenly attack its own cells. The body has an overactive immune response the tissues and substances that are normally present.
This type of disease causes chronic (long lasting and reoccurring) inflammation of the joints. RA can also cause the tissue around the joints to become inflamed as well as other bodily organs. RA usually affects the small joints in your hands and feet but can also affect your wrists and knees. In addition to affecting the joints, rheumatoid arthritis may occasionally affect the skin, eyes, lungs, heart, blood, or nerves.
When the body has an “invader”, the immune system’s job is to track them down and destroy them, main infections. For people with autoimmune diseases, the antibodies that are in their blood can target their own body tissues. This can cause inflammation. Rheumatoid arthritis is often called a “systemic illness” or “rheumatoid disease” because it can affect multiple organs of the body.
Even though Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic disease, some patients can go for a long time without having any symptoms. RA is normally a progressive disease that can cause you to lose function of the joints and even destruction of them.
Symptoms: (Read about Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms)
Rheumatoid arthritis can have different symptoms depending on the person and these symptoms can change daily.
Quick Symptoms:
- swelling and pain in the joints
- stiffness, when you first wake up or after sitting for a while
- fatigue
You might also notice a decreased range in motion. Another thing to know about RA is that the affects are symmetrical, which means if one hand hurts, so will the other. Some other signs of when you’re having a flare is that you could become anemic, not have any appetite, and possibly running a low fever.
Long Term Effects
There’s no rhyme or reason as to why or what joints RA will go after. Some of the things you can expect will be damage to the tendons, ligaments, and cartilage. It’s also possible to wear away at the ends of your bones. One of the most common results of RA is not only deformity of the joints, but also disability.
Rheumatoid arthritis is usually more common in women by two to three times than in men. This can generally occur between the ages of 40 to 60 and even though there is no cure, the types of treatment has grown greatly.
Aggressive treatment, but more importantly early diagnosis, are some of the biggest factors for putting this disease into remission.
