Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, autoimmune illness in which troubles are joint inflammation, obliteration of articular cartilage and synovial proliferation. This is also called a progressive disease characterized by synovitis of the peripheral joints, results in stiffness, swelling, pain, joint destruction, functional disability etc. It is completely different from other types of arthritis like osteoarthritis which can be termed as a wear and tear condition based on people age. Rheumatoid arthritis generally damages bone and cartilage inside the joints and weaken muscles as well as tendons that support the joints which leads joint destruction.

Rheumatoid arthritis generally develops in middle age and it is more frequent in women than in men. It has the tendency to affect any joint of a body but it mostly affect the wrist and fingers. As it is a progressive disease when it affects one hand then it continues to other hand too can be called as symmetrical pattern. It sometimes leads to other health complications like problems in heart, dryness in mouth or eyes, anemia, occasional fevers and sometimes feeling of fatigue.

Causes-

As the causes of Rheumatoid arthritis is still unknown but some scientific causes like the immune complexes which is composed of IgM activate complement and release factors that are chemo tactic for neutrophils. So these inflammatory cells release a lysosomal enzyme which is responsible to damage the cartilage and erode bone, while PGs (Prostaglandin) produced in the process results pain and vasodilatation.

Symptoms-

In most cases the rheumatoid arthritis symptoms are intermittent having regular flare ups. In severe cases these flare ups may continue for several years or sometimes a lifetime. Repeated and continual flare-ups lead to severe joint damage or disability. Clinical rheumatoid arthritis symptoms include joint swelling mostly in wrist, fingers of hand and feet, stiffness in the morning, fever, depression, weight loss and tiredness. The rheumatoid arthritis symptoms significantly appear in the body parts like joints, skin, kidney, lungs, heart and blood vessels.

"The symptoms in joints are called Synovitis. At this stage joints become swollen, warm, tender, stiff and limited movement. As it is more common in small joints of feet, hands, cervical spine, but it may affect larger joints like knee, shoulder. The other effects of synovitis are tethering of tissue and erosion of joint surface leads complete immobilization and deformity.

"The symptoms in SKIN are often subcutaneous rheumatoid nodule. These rheumatoid nodules are of few millimeters or a few centimeters in diameter. It usually seen at bony prominences, like the calcaneal, olecranon and Meta carpophalangeal joint. Several forms of vasculitis occur in rheumatoid arthritis. It has some severe forms like livedo reticularis leads to purplish discoloration of the skin because of the presence of obliterative cutaneous capillaropathy.

"The symptoms in kidney like chronic inflammation causes renal amyloidosis. Rheumatoid arthritis sometimes affects the kidney glomerulus directly through a mesangial infiltrate or a vasculopathy.

"The symptoms develop in heart and blood vessels are people are at high risk of atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction, stroke, endocarditic, pericarditis etc.

Treatment-

Early treatment allows patients to reduce substantial economic burden. The two goals of the treatment are to alleviate the current symptoms and to prevent future destruction of joints. Besides some traditional therapies some Conventional medicines are available like anti-inflammatory agents, disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), NSAIDS.