Rheumatoid Arthritis: Overview and Causes

by Michael Grey An expert orthopedic and chief medical researcher

Rheumatoid Arthritis is a major health issue that troubles most people in and after their middle age. Read this article to know what factors act as driving forces in the occurrence of this joint disorder.

Overview

In medical terms, Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune condition that affects the skeletal structure of a body, mainly hands, wrists, and feet. It is a long-term bone disorder where the key symptom is incessant pain in the joints combined with swelling.

Often in the case of RA, you will observe that the symptoms are never persistent. There are flare-ups, meaning there will be times when the pain and other symptoms go beyond your control and then there will also be periods when you feel mild pain or discomfort and things are not that worse.

As such kind of flare is mostly unpredictable; it is advised to seek early treatment to reduce the possibilities of sudden occurrence. Also, treating RA at an early stage minimizes the damage that it could do to the bones and joints in the long-run.

Besides the prime symptoms, patients also go through other health difficulties like weight loss and fatigue. Early diagnosis is imperative to treat this condition in order to prevent irreversible damage to the joints.

Causes

Since it an autoimmune disorder, it implies that your immunity system that is responsible for fighting infections attacks the healthy body cells and tissues lining your joints. As a result, the joints show signs of swelling. Apart from swollenness, patients also experience pain and stiffness which make mobility difficult.

This type of arthritis not just affects the joints but extends its damaging effect on bones that connect the joints with the cartilages. Though what factors exactly triggers the occurrence of this dreadful disease is still a mystery, there are certain causes that mostly asserted as a contribution to it.

Here are the cases where the risk of occurrence is high.

If you have a family history, i.e. your parents or grandparents or anyone of blood relation is either suffering from RA or was diagnosed with this disease in the past.

If you are a chain-smoker. Researches and surveys on smokers and non-smokers show that those who smoke a lot are diagnosed with this joint disorder at an early age.

Women run a higher risk of RA, reasons for which are still unknown. While some link this to hormonal and reproductive factors, some experts believe that since the immune system is stronger in women, hence it is more reactive.

A series of attacks to the body’s healthy cells and tissues make the joints weak. The role of the immune system is to produce antibodies that will fight bacterial and viral infections. But when the system fails to do so and instead start sending antibodies mistakenly to the joint linings and the tissues surrounding it, it is termed as Rheumatoid Arthritis.

The areas that are mainly affected due to this joint disorder are –

Bones connecting the joints
Cartilages - the flexible tissues present in-between the bones
Tendons - the connecting tissues between bones and muscles
Ligaments - the tissues that join the bones with the cartilages

If a person showing the symptoms of RA is not attended for timely treatment, then the joints may start losing their shape as well as alignment. So, the key takeaway in this article would be, if a person feels any kind of discomfort or pain in the joints then he or she should immediately seek the advice of a health expert before it’s too late.

Michael Grey is a Marketing specialist at Healthy Joints System who is studying and doing research on nutritional supplements, especially those containing Glucosamine chondroitin MSM. To know the usefulness of these supplements, buy a pack today from Amazon online.