Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune inflammatory disorder that commonly affects a person’s joints. In the body of a few people, the disorder gets serious and causes a wide variety of damage to the skin, heart, eyes, lungs, and blood vessels. The issue happens in your body when the immune system attacks the body’s tissues. When inflammation happens in our body due to this infection, it can cause damage to other parts of the body. In some cases, the issue might cause physical disabilities.
Let’s jump deep and study the details about the issue here.
Symptoms That Might Appear In Your Body
When a person is suffering from the issue of rheumatoid arthritis, the following issues might appear in her body. Some symptoms are normal, and some of them can be severe also. We have discussed all of them in the points below-
- Your joints might become tender and warm due to the disorder.
- The inflammation in the issue can also lead to swollen joints.
- Joints will become stiff when you become inactive for a few hours. Due to this, the issue becomes worse in the mornings.
- Fatigue becomes a very common issue in a person’s body due to the disorder. It happens along with fever and loss of appetite.
- Deformation of the joints might happen if your issue remains untreated for longer.
- Your smaller joints will show the symptoms of the issue first. For example, the joints between your fingers and toes.
When the issue becomes serious, then the symptoms will also appear in other parts of the body like-
- Skin
- Lungs
- Kidneys
- Nerve tissues
- Blood vessels
- Eyes
- Heart
- Salivary glands
- Bone marrow
When To See The Doctor?
You should see your physician when you see any symptoms of joint swelling and continuous pain. Always check your fingers and toes and see the physician in the earlier stage only. If you wait for the issue to cure automatically, then it advances.
Causes Of Rheumatoid Arthritis
Our body’s immune system is the reason for rheumatoid arthritis, which we call the issue an autoimmune disorder. In normal cases, the task of our immune system is to cure the infections that a person is suffering from. But sometimes, the immune system starts attacking the healthy tissues of the body, especially joints. The reason behind the issue is not clear, but the issue might become serious due to environmental factors, viruses, and bacterial infection.
The risk of rheumatoid arthritis increases in the following cases-
- The chances of rheumatoid arthritis in the body of a female are much higher than a male.
- As a person ages, the problem advances in the body. It starts when a person is in middle age but gets serious when you reach 50 or 60. The issue rarely happens in the body of children.
- The issue also depends on the family history. If someone has an issue in your family, the chances of it happening are high in your body.
- Excess weight can make the issue severe in your body.
- Cigarette smoking can also increase the risk of rheumatoid arthritis. Smoking is going to make the symptoms of the issue severe.
Complications Of The Infection
Due to rheumatoid arthritis, the following are the issues that might occur in your body-
- Due to the issue, your bones become weak. This condition is known as osteoporosis, in which the chances of fracture increase.
- The issue can also increase the chance of Sjogren’s syndrome, in which your eyes and mouth become dry.
- Your body composition might become uneven due to the arthritis infection. Your BMI starts increasing during this issue.
- You will notice fire bumps of tissue happening around your pressure points. They are visible at pressure points but can also happen in your heart and lungs.
- Inflammation might happen in the sac in which your heart is present. This can harden and block the arteries of the person.
- When the issue happens in your body, it gets prone to certain infections like influenza, shingles, pneumonia, etc.
- Progressive shortness of breath can also happen in your body due to inflammation of rheumatoid arthritis.
Diagnosis Of Rheumatoid Infection
The physician diagnoses the issue of rheumatoid infection by the following-
- The physician will first check the physical symptoms in your body. They will check the swelling, redness, and warmth of your joints. The reflexes of the person might also decrease.
- When a person suffers from an infection, their erythrocyte sedimentation rate increases. They will check it through blood tests. It will indicate the presence of inflammation and such processes in your body.
- To see the level of infection in your body, X-rays can help. They will get to know the severity.
Treatment Of Rheumatoid Arthritis
When a person has rheumatoid arthritis, they can take help from medications. They are really helpful in providing relief from the symptoms of arthritis. One of the best medicines people can consume is disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). One of the best medicines in this category is Hydroxychloroquine 200 mg and Hydroxychloroquine 400 mg. When you use the medicine, the salt will suppress the activity of the immune system in your body.
Due to this, the impact on the tissues will decrease. You will notice a steep decline in your symptoms when you use the medicine regularly for a few months.
If you stop using the medicine, the symptoms will again rise in your body. That is why you should continue the medicine dose until you permanently improve the issue. Apart from DMARDs, there are some other medicine categories that physicians might suggest-
- Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can help reduce pain and inflammation for some time in your body.
- Corticosteroid medications help improve the situation and save the joint from permanent damage.
- Biologic agents paired with conventional DMARD medicines.
Therapy
One way to get rid of the pain and inflammation symptoms is therapy. You should visit an occupational therapist and discuss the issue you are facing in your joints. They will help you with some assistive devices that introduce flexibility and avoid stressful joints. If the pain still does not go away, and your joint is damaging slowly, you should take help from the option of surgery. Several surgeries, like tendon repair and joint fusion, are available on the market.