Signs and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis may include: Tender, warm, swollen joints. Joint stiffness that is usually worse in the mornings and after inactivity. Fatigue, fever and loss of appetite.
Researchers think it's caused by a combination of genetics, hormones and environmental factors. Normally, your immune system protects your body from disease. With rheumatoid arthritis, something triggers your immune system to attack your joints. An infection, smoking or physical or emotional stress may be triggering.
Early signs include swelling and pain in the hands and wrists. The symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) typically affect the hands, wrists, and feet. Spotting signs of RA early could lead to an early diagnosis and appropriate treatment. Early and consistent management of arthritis can prevent further joint damage.
Key Points about Rheumatoid Arthritis
The joints most often affected by RA are in the hands, wrists, feet, ankles, knees, shoulders, and elbows. Symptoms may include joint pain, stiffness, and swelling; decreased and painful movement; bumps over small joints; and fatigue or fever.
No blood test can definitively prove or rule out a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, but several tests can show indications of the condition. Some of the main blood tests used include: erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) – which can help assess levels of inflammation in the body.
What Does Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment Look Like? The first-line treatment for RA is usually a DMARD called methotrexate (Rheumatrex, Trexall). You may also get steroids or corticosteroids as an anti-inflammatory. That's enough for most people, though some may need to increase the dose.
People with RA don't live as long as other people on average. Life expectancy, or how long you may expect to live, is influenced by many things, like your genes, age, medical history, and lifestyle. RA can shorten your life expectancy by an average of 10 years compared to people who don't have the disease.
Methotrexate is usually the first medicine given for rheumatoid arthritis, often with another DMARD and a short course of steroids (corticosteroids) to relieve any pain. These may be combined with biological treatments.
Rheumatoid arthritis can be life changing. You may need long-term treatment to control the symptoms and joint damage. Depending on how much pain and stiffness you feel and how much joint damage you have, simple daily tasks may become difficult or take longer to do.
People with RA are more likely to have narrowed or blocked arteries in the brain – the result of systemic inflammation. This can cause problems with memory, thinking and reasoning.
Exercise
In addition to performing targeted stretches, some dynamic, low-stress forms of exercise can benefit people living with RA. Activities such as swimming or cycling can strengthen the muscles around the affected joints. This can help reduce the overall impact on the joints and slow the progression of RA.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is recognized as the most disabling type of arthritis.
The symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis often develop gradually over several weeks, but some cases can progress quickly over a number of days. The symptoms vary from person to person. They may come and go, or change over time. You may experience flares when your condition deteriorates and your symptoms become worse.
It can cause pain, disability, and premature death. Premature heart disease. People with RA are also at a higher risk for developing other chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. To prevent people with RA from developing heart disease, treatment of RA also focuses on reducing heart disease risk factors.
The symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis often develop gradually over several weeks, but some cases can progress quickly over a number of days. The symptoms vary from person to person. They can come and go, and may change over time.
At-home rheumatoid factor (RF) testing: At-home rheumatoid factor testing detects levels of rheumatoid factor in the blood. Testing kits allow patients to obtain a sample of blood using a finger stick. Once a sample of blood is collected in a test vial, it's sent to a laboratory for analysis.
These symptoms are clues to RA: Joint pain, tenderness, swelling or stiffness that lasts for six weeks or longer. Morning stiffness that lasts for 30 minutes or longer. More than one joint is affected.
RA is symmetrical, where a patient feels symptoms in the same spot on both sides of the body, often in the joints in the feet and hands. Osteoarthritis, in contrast, begins in an isolated joint, often in the knee, fingers, hands, spine and hips. While both sides may hurt, one side is more painful.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound may help diagnose rheumatoid arthritis in the early stages of the disease. In addition, these imaging tests can help evaluate the amount of damage in the joints and the severity of the disease.