What Causes Rheumatoid Arthritis
Rheumatism or rheumatic disorder is an umbrella term for conditions inducing chronic, frequently intermittent pain affecting the joints or connective tissue. The analysis of, and therapeutic interventions in, such ailments is known as rheumatology. The word “rheumatism”, nevertheless, doesn’t designate any particular disease, but covers at least 200 distinct ailments.
Sources dealing with rheumatism have a tendency to concentrate on arthritis, however “rheumatism” can also refer to additional conditions causing chronic pain, grouped as “non-articular rheumatism”, also called “regional pain syndrome” or “soft tissue rheumatism”. The expression “Rheumatic Diseases” can be employed in MeSH to refer to connective tissue ailments.
It is a chronic inflammatory disorder that can affect more than just your joints. In some people, the condition also can damage a wide variety of body systems, including the skin, eyes, lungs, heart and blood vessels.
An autoimmune disorder, rheumatoid arthritis occurs when your immune system mistakenly attacks your own body’s tissues.
Unlike the wear-and-tear damage of osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis affects the lining of your joints, causing a painful swelling that can eventually result in bone erosion and joint deformity.
The inflammation associated with rheumatoid arthritis is what can damage other parts of the body as well. While new types of medications have improved treatment options dramatically, severe rheumatoid arthritis can still cause physical disabilities.
Symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis
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 weight loss
Early rheumatoid arthritis will affect your muscles first — especially the joints which attach your palms to your hands and your feet to your toes.
As the disorder progresses, symptoms frequently spread into the wrist, ankles, knees, elbows, shoulders and buttocks. Typically, symptoms occur in the very same joints on each side of the human body.
Approximately 40 percent of the men and women who suffer from rheumatoid arthritis also experience symptoms and signs which don’t involve the joints. Rheumatoid arthritis can affect several nonjoint structures, such as:
- Kidneys
- Salivary glands
- Nerve tissue
- Bone marrow
- Blood vessels
- Skin
- Eyes
- Lungs
- Heart
Rheumatoid arthritis symptoms and signs might vary in severity and might even come and go. Periods of increased disease activity, known as flares, alternate with periods of relative remission — if the swelling and pain vanish or disappear. Over the years, rheumatoid arthritis may cause joints to deform and change out of place.
Causes rheumatoid arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis happens when your immune system attacks the synovium — the liner of the membranes which surround your own joints.
The consequent inflammation thickens the synovium, which may finally destroy the cartilage and bone within the joint.
The ligaments and tendons which hold the joint together weaken and extend. Gradually, the joint loses its shape and recovery.
A huge number of traditional herbal treatments were recommended for “rheumatism”. Contemporary medicine, both traditional and alternative, recognises that the various rheumatic disorders have various triggers (and many of these have multiple triggers) and require various types of treatment.
Yet, initial treatment of the significant rheumatological diseases is using analgesics, for example paracetamol and non-steroidal anti inflammatory medications (NSAIDs), members of which can be ibuprofen and naproxen. Frequently, more powerful analgesics are needed.
The early Greeks listed that bee venom had any beneficial effects on some kinds of rheumatism. Bee and ant bites have been called a folk treatment from the late 19th century, and at least one doctor developed a remedy comprising repeated formic acid injections.
