Rheumatoid Arthritis

Ligament erosion in joints, immobility, stiffness, swelling, pain and aching are what one could feel uncomfortable with, when they acquire a chronic and autoimmune disease in Rheumatic Arthritis (RA). Commonly it targets both hands and the wrists but doesn’t leave other joints elbows, shoulders, knees, hips, neck unaffected as well. Weariness and feverishness along with growth of several bumps under the skin at elbows called nodules and feeling unwell (malaise) like the one down in the dumps is indicative of RA.  Sjogren’s syndrome linked to a mouth disorder, dryness in eyes are some autoimmune disorders related to RA and those who undergo these are at risk to develop systemic complications and even anemia.

Feared to cause damage at any age it usually does its job of causing all these dangers anywhere between 30 and 50. Among those who have RA, 75% represent women. As the reports of National Institutes of Health indicate, above 2 million people in the US are said to have RA. If not attended to, this may even decrease the life span of a person and with passing of few years, may leave around 30 % to 40% of the population with disabilities. It is quite tedious to study the varying nature of its course as it may grow rapidly or even develop gradually with many years. There are cases in which people have quite got away with it while in some instances it gets into the stage of remission. Worse is the fact that pregnant women don’t feel many symptoms prior to delivering whereas things change quite rapidly once they do so.

Osteoarthritis perhaps comes about due to wearing down of tissues in joints because of injuries and RA is quite different from this. However RA does affect a person symmetrically i.e. if it causes damage in a knee, the other one will soon get affected as well. Mainly a genetic cause is associated with its development in human tissues however viruses, bacteria and some triggers in genes are also largely associated. Though it not contagious scientists believe a change in hormones might induce RA in people with particular genes that is vulnerable to an agent that causes it.