What is Rheumatoid Arthritis? Understanding Its Symptoms and Causes

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a long-term autoimmune disorder that primarily affects joints. This condition often results in warm, swollen, and painful joints. Pain and stiffness are usually more intense following periods of rest. The disease most commonly affects the wrists and hands, with the same joints typically involved on both sides of the body. RA can also affect other parts of the body, including skin, eyes, and lungs.

Arthritis, in general, is a term used to describe disorders that affect joints. Symptoms often include joint pain and stiffness, with possible additional symptoms like redness, warmth, swelling, and decreased range of motion in the affected joints. Some types of arthritis can also impact other organs.

Joint stiffness in RA is typically worse in the mornings and after inactivity. Other common symptoms include fatigue, fever, and loss of appetite. Early stages of rheumatoid arthritis tend to affect smaller joints first, such as those in the fingers and toes. As the disease progresses, symptoms often spread to larger joints like the wrists and knees.

Rheumatoid arthritis – Wikipedia |
Arthritis – Wikipedia |
Rheumatoid arthritis – Symptoms and causes – Mayo Clinic

Rheumatoid arthritis is a serious, painful, and chronic disease. It is an autoimmune condition, meaning the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks healthy cells. In RA, this immune response targets the joints and surrounding tissues, leading to various complications.

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), formerly known as juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, is the most common chronic rheumatic disease in children, affecting approximately 3.8 to 400 out of every 100,000 children. “Juvenile” refers to disease onset before 16 years of age, “idiopathic” indicates a condition with no defined cause, and “arthritis” means inflammation within a joint.

In the hand, RA can cause deformities in the finger joints, making hand movements difficult. The main symptoms of arthritis, in general, are joint pain and stiffness, which typically worsen with age. The most common types of arthritis are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Osteoarthritis involves the breakdown of cartilage, the hard, slippery tissue that covers the ends of bones where they form a joint. In contrast, rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that causes joint inflammation.