Rheumatoid arthritis is a painful disease that afflicts many individuals. The symptoms and signs of rheumatoid arthritis usually show when the individual is around the age of 30 to 50 years old. There is no absolute cure for this disease and the root causes of rheumatoid arthritis are still unclear. Surgery and pain relief can be used to alleviate and improve the condition of the disease.

Symptoms Of Rheumatoid Arthritis

The symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis are usually very few when the individual is still at the initial stage of the disease. Early on, you might get an inkling that you have rheumatoid arthritis when you feel that your joints are tender and swollen sometimes. This is actually because one of the causes of rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. You may also feel that your joints are unusually warm compared to other parts of your body or other joints.

Another definitive symptom of rheumatoid arthritis is the symmetrical pattern of occurrence by this disease. Symmetrical pattern means that unfailingly, when your right knee has the symptoms, the left one will have it too. This is one of the ways of knowing if you have rheumatoid arthritis instead of any other kind of arthritis.

Why We Have It

One of the theorized causes of rheumatoid arthritis is the malfunction of the autoimmune system of a person. This malfunction has the autoimmune system believing it should attack the joints. This attack on the joints is one of the main causes of rheumatoid arthritis pain and inflammation. There are also some theories regarding the causes of rheumatoid arthritis that center on genetics and environmental factors.

Genetics have shown that many families with rheumatoid arthritis have retained this throughout their family trees. If you have rheumatoid arthritis, the chance of having an ancestor with it is 30%. Studies have also shown that some individuals with no family members with rheumatoid arthritis can also develop the disease.

This brings us the other theory regarding the causes of rheumatoid arthritis, which are environmental factors. Studies have also yielded that some individuals who have not been exposed to certain types of bacteria may be more likely not to develop rheumatoid arthritis. Hormonal factors can also be part of the causes of rheumatoid arthritis as some recent studies have shown.

As there are still no clear causes of rheumatoid arthritis, the best that we can do is to treat the disease to the best of our abilities with the knowledge that we have about it.