what is rheumatiod atritis?

Answer 1

Rheumatoid Arthritis is a disease of the joints. Have a look at the wiki page which has quite a bit of good information on it.

Essentially, it is an autoimmune disease - a disease where the body's immune system makes a mistake and attacks the body's organs, in this case the joints. It causes inflammation: pain, redness, swelling and heat in the joints. Because of the fact that it comes from an immune disorder, it can attack many joints all at once - often the small joints of the hand.

It can have effects other than the joints. It can attack lung, kidney, heart, skin, eyes and nerves.

Treatment is with medications aimed at: relieving pain, reducing inflammation and modifying the disease.

Pain relievers such as paracetamol (acetaminophen) and codeine can help with the pain, but do not actually fix the inflammation.

Anti-inflammatories such as NSAIDS (aspirin, ibuprofen, indomethacin, piroxicam, etc.) and steroid medications (such as prednisolone) are useful to reduce inflammation.

Many medications have now been discovered to have modifying effects on the progression of Rheumatoid Arthritis: methotrexate, gold, cyclosporine, azathioprine, sulfasalazine ... and long term treatment with these medications can slow the progress of the disease and often avoid the nasty end stage situations where the joints and bones are destroyed by the autoimmune inflammation.

Answer 2

I have Rheumatoid arthritis and even on some strong drugs, my joints are starting to deform. The OTC drugs are of little help to bad RA. I started off with steroids to stop the swelling and then moved on to harsher drugs, but i can walk now. I am on an NSAID, a DMARD and a Biologic, with naproxen and vicoden to use as pain management. It took about 5 years to find this cocktail that worked for me.

RA is a joint disease that effects the joints in the body, usually in a mirrored way (both sides of the body at the same time).. and the joints can be hot, swollen, and painful. What happens is that the body starts to see the fluid around the joint as an invader and starts to attack it. this makes extra white blood cells go to the joints causing more swelling. The swelling then causes deterioration of the bones. it is a never ending war in the joints. My worst parts are the knees (prolly moving to OA) and my hands/wrists, but it effects my voice, feet, elbows. I also have nodules on my elbows... they are sometimes hard red bumps that come and go and sometimes they are mushy and fluid filled. I have had my elbow drained 2 times and my knee drained once. The nodules can come and go and i dont know why, but i think stress and other environmental factors like sleeplessness and the like.

If you would like to get more first hand info/someone to talk to try the message forum at 4ratalk.com.... i am on there and there is a great community of people with RA and other similar diseases...

Answer 3

Your father needs to see a GP and to be referred to a rheumatologist. That's a doctor who specializes in all of the more than 100 different types of arthritis. The same is true for your sister. IF your father actually has an inflammatory type of arthritis, then all of the over-the-counter pain meds won't do a thing to help. That's because pain is simply one of the symptoms, and a relatively minor one at that. No, I'm saying that your father's pain is mild. I have multiple types of arthritis and am a chronic pain patient as a result. Chronic pain is not a mild problem. But the pain of inflammatory arthritis is a minor symptom compared to what's actually happening in his body. Anyone with an inflammatory type of arthritis needs to take specific meds, prescribed by their rheumatologist, to slow the progress of their illness. The progression causes the inflammation, the inflammation causes the damage as the pain. Now do you understand what I said about the pain being a minor symptom? Unfortunately, I have no idea if your father can collect disability in Washington state, nor in any other state. In fact, I couldn't tell you if he'd be eligible in any given province in Canada, despite the fact that I am on disability in Ontario. But contact your local office of the American Arthritis Foundation for more information.

Answer 4

Orinoco W gave you the Medical information.

I have it and am in the third year. The things he did not mention that come along with the joint pain is fatigue, total exhaustion, brain fog, memory loss.

It migrates. I have had it in my knees, wrists, right upper jaw hinge. With Prednizone it is now only in my left wrist and upper and lower back. You can also get Rheumatoid Nodes, painful bumps (mine have been on the scalp) but I have had none since I started the vitamin regimen.

I take hydrocodone for pain, ibuprofen for inflammation and a massive assortment of vitamins and minerals that have helped considerably.

Ah Yes the joy of age. But there is Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis that can occur in young people.

Good Luck It is a challenge.

Answer 5

Rhemotroid Arthritis is a crippling of joints, and is painful. It can affect your hands and the joints of your fingers to make them look like knobby fingers(bumps on them). It can affect the joints on your legs also, and make it painful to walk. A rhemotolist Dr. can usually help with this kind of arthritis.

Answer 6

Really... reallllly bad arthritis!