| Not everyone gets rheumatoid arthritis. But if you are a | | | | differences. Because of the stiffness in the joints, |
| woman between the age of forty and sixty, you feel | | | | patients find it very difficult to do up buttons while |
| depressed, lose appetite and have regular tender, | | | | dressing and even to hold spoons while eating. |
| painful and swollen joints worsen by movement, you | | | | What differentiates symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis |
| need to see your doctor because these are clear | | | | from every other symptoms of arthritis is the fact that |
| symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. | | | | if a joint on one side of the body is involved, the same |
| Other areas of the body affected by the disease | | | | joint on the other side of the body is usually affected. |
| include the backbone, shoulder, ankle and hip. This type | | | | If treatment is not started within the first six months of |
| of arthritis occurs two to three times more often in | | | | appearance of the symptoms of the illness, irreversible |
| women. | | | | joint damage occurs and the rate of damage appears |
| Although the central cause of the disease is still | | | | to be greatest during the first year. |
| unknown, it occurs when the body's protection | | | | Rheumatoid arthritis used to invoke terrible pictures of |
| machinery loses its ability to tell between the familiar | | | | patients in wheelchairs, laid up by the disease and living |
| tissues in the joints and unfamiliar tissues. This leads to | | | | the rest of their lives limited by the pain of the illness. |
| the breakdown of bones within the joints causing | | | | This notion has been proven to be untrue as patients |
| typical symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis which are | | | | now lead a near normal life due to improved method |
| pain, swelling and stiffness of the small joints of the | | | | of management of symptoms, physiotherapy and of |
| hands and feet. The number of joints affected | | | | course early identification. |
| depends on the severity of the disease and individual | | | | |