What is Arthritis? What Causes Arthritis
The word arthritis comes from the Greek arthron meaning "joint" and the Latin itis meaning "inflammation". The plural of arthritis is arthritides. Arthritis affects the musculoskeletal system, specifically the joints. It is the main cause of disability among people over fifty-five years of age in industrialized countries.
Arthritis is not a single disease - it is a term that covers over 100 medical conditions. Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis and generally affects elderly patients. Some forms of arthritis can affect people at a very early age.
What causes arthritis?
In order to better understand what is going on when a person suffers from some form of arthritis,
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Hard lumps, or bone spurs may appear around the joint. In some cases the joint might swell. The most common affected joints are in the hips, hands, knees and spine.
• Rheumatoid arthritis - The patient often finds the same joints in each side of the body are painfully swollen, inflamed, and stiff. The fingers, arms, legs and wrists are most commonly affected. Symptoms are usually worst on waking up in the morning and the stiffness can last for 30 minutes at this time. The joint is tender when touched. Hands may be red and puffy. There may be rheumatoid nodules (bumps of tissue under the skin of the patient 's arms). Many patients with rheumatoid arthritis feel tired most of the time. Weight loss is common.
The smaller joints are usually noticeably affected first. Experts say patients with rheumatoid arthritis have problems with several joints at the same time. As the arthritis progresses it spreads from the smaller joints in your hands, wrists, ankles and feet to your elbows, knees, hips, neck, shoulders and jaw.
• Infectious arthritis - The patient has a fever, joint inflammation and swelling. He will feel tenderness and/or a sharp pain. Often these symptoms are linked to an injury or another illness. Most commonly affected areas are the knee, shoulder, elbow, wrist and finger. In the majority of cases, just one joint is affected.
• Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis - The patient is a child. He will experience
Arthritis occurs when the body incorrectly identifies its own tissue as foreign matter and attacks it. Arthritis includes a set of more than eighty autoimmune diseases. Arthritis attacks connective tissues and joints. It causes stiffness, pain, inflammation, and swelling of the joints. Some kinds are crippling, but rarely leads to death. There are many different
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic syndrome that is characterized by inflammation of the peripheral joints, but it may also involve the lungs, heart, blood vessels, and eyes. The prevalence of this autoimmune disease is between 0.3% to 1.5% of the population in the United States (Feinberg, pp 815). It affects women two to three times more often than men, and the onset of RA is usually between 25 and 50 years of age, but it can occur at any age (Reed, pp 584). RA can be diagnosed by establishing the presence of persistent joint pain, swelling in a symmetric distribution, and prolonged morning stiffness. RA usually affects multiple joints, such as the hands, wrists, knees, elbows, feet, shoulders, hips, and small
“Rheumatoid arthritis is a type of chronic arthritis that occurs in joints on both sides of the body, such as both hands, both wrists, or both knees. This symmetry helps distinguish rheumatoid arthritis from other types of arthritis”. If a joint is deemed as arthritic that means that there is inflammation within the joint. Inflammation within a joint can cause swelling, redness, warmth and pain within that joint. Rheumatoid arthritis primarily affects the joints, but may also affect the skin, eyes, lungs, heart, blood, or nerves. Rheumatoid arthritis can present itself in many different ways. For some, joint symptoms develop gradually over several years, while others may develop quickly. Some people are affected by rheumatoid arthritis for a short
• Stiffness and pain in the joints. Usually, the joints in the hands, wrists, and ankles are the ones affected. This symptom may also last for weeks, especially in adults.
Joint stiffness may develop after long periods of sleeping or sitting. Nodules ranging in size develop in nearly one-third of people who have rheumatoid arthritis. Nodules usually develop on the elbows, knuckles, spine, and lower leg bones. Weight loss and a low-grade fever can also occur. Rheumatoid arthritis results in the destruction of cartilage in the joints, targets the synovial lining of joints and can damage the lungs, heart and the blood vessels. It occurs when your immune system attacks the synovium which is the lining of the membranes that surround your joints. The inflammation that results thickens the synovium, and can also destroy the cartilage and bone within the joint. The tendons and ligaments that hold the joint together get weak and stretch. This process causes the joint to lose its shape and joint
Rheumatoid Arthritis is a systemic autoimmune disorder. There are more than 100 different types of Arthritis, yet it is estimated that it affects approximately 1% of the population in the Western World. The disease is generally diagnosed in middle aged adults and the elderly. In rarer cases, children can also develop the disease and it is called Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. Women are three times more likely to have rheumatoid arthritis than men. (Stevens) Many people living with Rheumatoid Arthritis appear to be healthy individuals, but suffer internally. Today, I will discuss what rheumatoid arthritis is, how it is diagnosed, and how it affects the body.
Arthritis affects more than just the joints. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks various joints, internal organs,
Like with any disease, signs and symptoms can be experienced differently based on the individual. Rheumatoid Arthritis has a few that are common with the majority of people; joint pain, tenderness, swelling, and stiffness are inevitable. As the disease grows more severe, deformity and loss of the joints range of motion can occur.
With rheumatoid arthritis there are many painful problems as well as symptoms and causes of this genetic disorder. First, the description of the disorder is how painful it can be. The painful swelling can lead to bone erosion, which means that the bone will wear away. Next, the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis can be hard on the body. You could have fatigue (extreme tiredness), a fever, or weight loss. As well, you can have morning stiffness which can last for hours. Lastly, some causes of the disorder are that the immune system attacks the synovium which is the lining of the membrane that surrounds your joints. In other words, what happens is the synovium inflames which destroys the cartilage and bone in the joint. As you can see rheumatoid arthritis has many painful problems, symptoms and causes.
A symptom of this autoimmune system disease includes tender and warm, swollen joints, usually in the smaller joints of your body.
Rheumatoid arthritis is a disease that has direct involvement with the immune system. This disease is considered to be degenerative and currently the only thing that can be done is manage the painful symptoms and suppress the self targeting actions by using immune suppressing drugs. The cause of rheumatoid arthritis is mostly unknown but there is a high amount of evidence that there are genetic predispositions for the disease. This being said however there are also environmental factors to asses these include, bacteria, viruses, fungi and other environmental factors. Doctors primarily use a physical examination to first suspect R.A. then send for blood work to confirm. There are many aspects to this disease and many questions left
Arthritis is an inflammation of the joint(s). There are tons of different types of arthritis, but the two most common types include; osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis. Osteoarthritis is common when an infection or an injury occurs to the joints, which can then breakdown cartilage tissue. Rheumatoid arthritis is considered an autoimmune disorder. This happens when your immune system attacks the tissue of the body. You can tell if you have some type of arthritis if you have pain, swelling, and stiffness in the joints. Sometimes you can see redness on the skin around the joint. My grandma has arthritis and I can sometimes see the redness around her joints, and her fingers become very swollen and stiff
Rheumatoid arthritis is a form of autoimmune disease – these diseases are characterized by the inappropriate activation of the immune response against normal tissues in the body. This leads to tissue and joint inflammation, especially in the hands and wrists. Inflammation causes joint stiffness, immobility, and pain – long-term inflammation can lead to scarring and bone destruction.
Synovium and articular cartilage are mostly affected in the highest ratio among others, even the wrist is also sometimes being affected, as the proximal interphalageal and metacarpophalangeal joints. Other joints are not really affected like sacroiliac joints and interphalangeal joints. The joints of Rheumatoid are boggy, tender to touch, and warm, but usually are
Arthritis is a joint disorder, which affects one or several joints in the body. The condition has more than one hundred types of diseases with osteoarthritis being the most common. Osteoarthritis results from joint infection, or age. Patients that suffer from arthritis complain about pain in the joints. In most cases, the pain remains constant in the affected joint. It is worth noting, “The pain from arthritis is due to inflammation that occurs around the joint, damage to the joint from disease, daily wear and tear of joint, muscle strains caused by forceful movements against stiff painful joints and fatigue” (Reid, Shengelia & Parker, 2012, p. 40). However, joint pain could result from various diseases, and in such