Rheumatoid arthritis symptoms can be anything from a minor annoyance to a life-altering experience for people with this disease. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disorder that causes your bodies' defense mechanisms to attack otherwise healthy parts of your body; most commonly, your joints. In layman's terms, what basically happens is that you get fluid released into the joint space that causes swelling and discomfort. Most significantly, specific tissues in and around the affected joint become inflamed. As a result, people who have rheumatoid arthritis typically experience extreme pain and discomfort.

Generally speaking, rheumatoid arthritis symptoms initially include overall fatigue, a noticeable loss of appetite, morning stiffness that will usually last well over an hour, muscle soreness, as well as a generalized feeling of weakness. As you can imagine, these symptoms sound a lot like what might happen after spending a lot of time doing exercise or household chores. So, the key to distinguishing these symptoms from ordinary aches and pains is to take note of the persistence of these symptoms over time.

Other symptoms associated with rheumatoid arthritis include things such as anemia. That basically means that your bone marrow is not producing enough new red blood cells. You can sometimes also experience a burning sensation in your eyes as well as itchiness and some amount of discharge. Other symptoms that are more noticeable in late-stage RA is when the hands and feet develop deformities around the affected joints.

Another frequent and common symptom is limited range of motion. This is largely due to the fact that your joints are becoming increasingly swollen and filled with fluid. People may also experience a low-grade fever, and at times lung inflammation can also be present. Numbness and generalized tingling sensations have also been associated with rheumatoid arthritis symptoms.

As you can see, there are a wide variety of symptoms that could potentially alert an individual to the fact that they have this particular illness. It needs to be pointed out that the destruction of one's joints generally begins within two years after symptoms first present themselves. Therefore, it is critical that this disease be diagnosed early so that treatment can begin to help avoid rheumatoid arthritis symptoms and their destructive effects.