Rheumatoid arthritis only affects a small percentage of the population but its symptoms can really disrupt your life. Since the disease has no cure, it’s important to know if you could be at risk and watch out for the early signs.
By treating rheumatoid arthritis early, it’s possible to prevent permanent health issues and malformations in your skeletal structure.
In rheumatoid arthritis, the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks healthy cells. The result of this autoimmune disease is painful inflammation throughout the body.
The disease can affect any part of the body but persons are most likely to experience joint pain in their wrists, hands, and knees. In a few cases, rheumatoid arthritis can affect the lungs, heart, and eyes.
When a joint is affected by rheumatoid arthritis, the lining becomes significantly inflamed. If left untreated, persons will experience significant chronic pain as well as deformity in the joints and issues with maintaining their balance.
The general symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis include:
It’s important to note that the symptoms may not remain the same all the time. Persons with rheumatoid arthritis usually experience a cycle of flares and remission. During the flares, the pain and stiffness can be debilitating while remission brings some relief.
According to the research that has been conducted so far, your risk for developing rheumatoid arthritis can be affected by genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors. These are a few of the areas you need to know about.
Your age – Rheumatoid arthritis can occur at any age but it’s more likely to affect older adults who are sixty and over.
Gender – Recent statistics show that women are up to three times more likely to develop the disease.
Your genes – Detailed research has identified certain genes known as human leukocyte antigen (HLA) which influence the occurrence of arthritis. If you smoke or are obese, the risk is even higher.
Smoking – Persons who smoke are at a higher risk for rheumatoid arthritis and continuing after a diagnosis can make the symptoms worse.
Not having children – It’s been shown that women who have not had children may have a higher risk of rheumatoid arthritis.
Your early environment – Recent studies have shown that children who were exposed to cigarette smoke had doubled their risk of developing the disease.
Obesity – Persons who are overweight have a higher risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis. In fact, as their weight increased, the higher the risk became.
Interestingly, ethnicity did not seem to be a major factor for developing this form of arthritis but the studies are still continuing.
Common Treatment Options
To be officially diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, your doctor would need to check your joints and order blood as well as imaging tests. It can be difficult to identify the disease in its early stages though so keep asking for those checks if your pain keeps getting worse. Once it’s been diagnosed, the first stage of treatment includes medications such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), steroids, and disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs).
These drugs may have significant side effects and so health professionals have been leaning more toward biologics, which focus on modifying the immune system. Of course, troubling the immune system’s response can affect how well your body defends itself against disease but biologics still have fewer side effects than steroids and traditional DMARDs.
According to a recent study, though, African Americans were less likely to be prescribed biologics even though these agents would decrease the number of side effects that would be experienced. If you’ve been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, make sure to discuss all your options with your doctor.
In more extreme situations, you may be referred to a physical therapist to improve your mobility. Some persons also need surgery to correct the effects of rheumatoid arthritis.
Depending on your risk factors, you might be closer to developing rheumatoid arthritis than you think. If you’ve been experiencing joint pain and stiffness regularly, it’s definitely time to check in with your doctor to see what the issue could be.
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