HOW TO CURE RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

Via ghr.nlm.nih.gov

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic systemic disease which causes inflammation of symmetrical pattern meaning that if one knee or hand is involved, the other one also is. This is a condition that occurs on one or more joints causing painful and swollen joints at the same time due to sudden weather changes. Inflamed joints will destroy joints structure gradually. People with rheumatoid arthritis often have some symptoms and signs as following: joint pain, joint tenderness, joint swelling, joint redness, joint warmth, joint stiffness and loss of joint range of motion, feeling a sharp pain when pressing on inflamed area. The symptoms and signs are very slight occurring at the beginning of rheumatoid arthritis, but if patients pay their attention, they will detect the disease soon.

Early detection of rheumatoid arthritis plays an important role in treatment and management; because it helps patients won’t be at risks on multiple joints and prevent related symptoms. There are many people suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and they are worrying about how to treat it effectively to decrease the pains, what is the best method? Let see below article to know more about rheumatoid arthritis: causes, symptoms and treatment.

WHAT CAUSES RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

There are many studies about the causes of rheumatoid arthritis and researchers have found some basic causes as followings:

1. Pathogens

This disease may be caused by viruses or bacteria, but this is based on several studies, have not had accurate conclusions yet.

2. Genetic factors

Many statistics indicated that the major causes of Rheumatoid arthritis are included genetic factors. There are certain genes that may play a small role in the development of RA, although not directly. If there is a person in the family having rheumatoid arthritis, the next generations in this family may have risks of rheumatoid arthritis up to 60-70% while this rate is normally about 30% in the community.

3. Predisposing factors

Rheumatoid arthritis is related to gender markedly. Women are more likely than men to develop rheumatoid arthritis (about 70-80%). This disease can occur at any age, but it most commonly begins between the ages of 40 and 60 (some people may have risks of Rheumatoid arthritis at the age of 30 or over 30)

4. Other environmental factors

There are some other factors may cause Rheumatoid arthritis such as: air pollution, high humidity, cold infection, surgery or some serious and strong injuries may also cause this disease.

THE SYMPTOMS OF RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

The common symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis are usually:

• Joint stiffness: often occurs in the morning, the patient can not move instantly, often need about 5-10 minutes massage to be able to move

• Joint pain: this is extremely common symptom of the diseases related to joints and bones. It can be a persistent pain, the patient feels pain while moving, especially joints in hands, the feet, the wrists, the elbows, the knees and the ankles .  It usually affects the body symmetrically, which means the same joints on both sides of the body will show symptoms, sometime can not move

• Swelling: Synovial tissue in the caps of joints becomes damaged in rheumatoid arthritis sufferers, causing the tissue to thicken and swell.

• Redness: Joints can be warm and may appear pink, or even red, on the outside during a flare or when inflamed

• If the disease becomes more serious, the areas being rheumatoid arthritis might be deformed after a long period of joints pain.

If you or someone you know are experiencing these symptoms, it’s important to see a doctor as soon as possible. Diagnosing Rheumatoid arthritis early is necessary due to how quickly bone and cartilage damage can occur, it even can cause paralysis.

RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS TREATMENT AND CARE

We need to know that rheumatoid arthritis is not easy to cure, so it is necessary to provide appropriate treatment guidelines for long term.

1. The goal and treatment guidelines

• Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic disease, so patients should have physiological preparation and have to follow patiently and continuously treatment guidelines for long term, even for lifelong.

• It is essential to monitor the rheumatoid arthritis treatment process strictly to avoid accruing some complications. Sometimes, it can suddenly bring serious complications to the body, so it needs to keep a close watch.

• Combine different treatment methods provided by doctor’s advices to get the best result.

2. Using rheumatoid arthritis medications

Medications are the cornerstone of treatment for active rheumatoid arthritis. The goal is to achieve remission and to prevent further damage of the joints and loss of function, without causing permanent or unacceptable side effects. It is divided into different treatment stages to get the best efficiency.

At the first stage: it is recommended to use some medications such as Aspirin, chloroquine or hydrocortisone acetate injection directly into the inflamed joints at the early stage. At this stage, patients need to combine with healthy dietary and reasonable physical activities such as: enhance the activities, do workouts regularly, avoid cold, eat more healthy foods which supplement bones and joints.

At the second stage: Rheumatoid arthritis becomes more severe at this stage, patients need to combine with non-steroid anti-inflammatory medications given by doctor’s prescription such as: Aspirin, Indomethacin, Phenylbutazone, Voltaren, Felden…This combination has to follow doctor’s prescription, the abuse of medications may cause serious health problems. Patients can use some complementary treatment methods such as acupuncture or massage to get the most effective results.

At the third stage: the disease gets worse at this stage and may cause some deformations at the places of inflammatory, so patients can use some medications having higher effects, high doses of corticoid: Prednisolon or Hydrocortison 100-200mg intravenous injection, then lower the dose gradually. Injection of gold salts is once per week and increase the dose gradually, Denicillamine, immunosuppressive drugs: Endoxan, Chlorambucil Methotrexate once per week within 3 months.

Rheumatoid arthritis treatment needs to be as soon as possible. Patients should not ignore until the disease becomes more serious because it requires increased levels of medications while western medicines might have serious side effects. However people will consider the advantages and disadvantages while using medications and select the better one. Doctors recommend that patients should go to the hospital or go to see doctor as soon as they have strange signs on the joints. People also should have periodical heal check, this is the best way to prevent the disease.