How long have you been suffering from painful joints? Have you noticed outward physical changes in those joints? Are your joints showing deformity and stiffness?
A combination of several factors may cause the development of rheumatoid arthritis. These factors may include infection, underlying malnutrition problem, endocrine gland disorders and the inability to cope with life's situations. Rheumatoid arthritis may also be due to poisons, viruses or bacterial toxins. The joint fluids of individuals suffering from rheumatoid arthritis do not show any evidence of pus or disease germs that are mostly seen in acute arthritis. People who suffered from physical or emotional shock, fatigue and injuries are mostly predisposed to rheumatoid arthritis. Individuals who are often exposed to cold and dampness usually develop the disease more easily. Women are more commonly affected with this type of arthritis compared with men.
Rheumatoid arthritis may occur after childhood and before a person reaches forty years old. Occasionally though, there are cases wherein it affects individuals who are already in their sixties or seventies. The beginning of this disease is often more gradual than rapid. This is usually characterized by a low grade fever, a feeling of weakness all over the body and headache. This type of arthritis usually involves the knees and the fingers first followed by the shoulders, wrists, ankles and elbows. In widespread cases, all of the joints in the body may be attacked. An active inflammation occurs in the joint's synovial membrane causing it to swell with accompanying moderate to severe pain. Rheumatoid arthritis basically involves the joints but it is also a systemic problem that usually affects the whole body.
Affected large joints are usually tender and warm to the touch, swollen and red with an increase amount of joint fluids. The infectious process causes absorption resulting into thinning of the joint cartilage that is often seen in x-ray examinations. Thinning of the joint cartilage can also be caused by the pressure created by muscle spasm or tendons that cross the joint and the calcium loss at bone ends causing it to become rarefied.
Deformity is a very familiar result of rheumatoid arthritis. This is caused by the contraction and atrophy of both tendons and muscles around the joints. These actions cause the muscles and tendons to bend unnaturally. These may even dislodge the bone out of the joint resulting in the characteristic rheumatoid arthritis deformity. There are also instances when the bone ends grow together creating a permanent stiff joint. The limbs can also be affected, which can be cold and clammy. In severe cases, the patient may become thin and anemic.
Rheumatoid arthritis appears to be curable in some cases but as a rule, it recurs over and over again after apparent healing. A person affected with rheumatoid arthritis and its accompanying deformity should accept the fact that he will be carrying this handicap all throughout his life. New methods of treatment however allow many arthritic patients to continue with their normal activities and still enjoy whatever life has to offer.
