Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disorder that can affect more than just your joints. In some people, the condition 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.
Rheumatoid arthritis, or RA, is an autoimmune and inflammatory disease, which means that your immune system attacks healthy cells in your body by mistake, causing inflammation (painful swelling) in the affected parts of the body. RA mainly attacks the joints, usually many joints at once. RA commonly affects joints in the hands, wrists, and knees.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) causes joint inflammation and pain. It happens when the immune system doesn’t work properly and attacks the lining of the joints, called the synovium. The disease commonly affects the hands, knees, or ankles, and usually the same joint on both sides of the body, such as both hands or both knees.
Mayo Clinic | CDC | Arthritis Foundation | Wikipedia | Johns Hopkins Medicine | Cleveland Clinic | MedlinePlus | Mayo Clinic on Arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a long-term (chronic) disease that causes inflammation of the joints. The inflammation can be so severe that it affects how the joints and other parts of the body look and function. In the hand, RA may cause deformities in the joints of the fingers, making moving your hands difficult.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease that is chronic (ongoing). It occurs in the joints on both sides of your body, which makes it different from other types of arthritis. You may have symptoms of pain and inflammation in your fingers, hands, wrists, knees, ankles, feet, and toes.
Summary: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a form of arthritis that causes pain, swelling, stiffness, and loss of function in your joints. It can affect any joint but is common in the wrist and fingers. More women than men get rheumatoid arthritis. It often starts in middle age and is most common in older people.
Learn about the two main types of arthritis, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, and how they affect the joints. Find out the symptoms, causes, risk factors, diagnosis, and treatment options for each type of arthritis.
