Rheumatoid Arthritis: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment

In this video SimpliHealth expert Rheumatologist, Dr. Jagpal Pandher is talking about rheumatoid arthritis and its symptoms, causes, and treatment. As a rheumatologist, our expert deals with a multisystemic disease that involves our immune system. This system is designed to fight the infection, but sometimes it goes against our own body and starts fighting with our own body. The prototype disease that we commonly see or more widely known to the general public is rheumatoid arthritis, a type of inflammatory arthritis. 

Still, Our experts should tell you that this is not the only disease as far as inflammatory arthritis is concerned. But yes, it’s a prototype disease. And yes, it is essential to know and understand the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis so that this disease can be identified as early as possible. Because early treatment will help prevent the deformities that this disease is known to cause. So the main symptoms of this disease are that you may have pain in your hands or a small joint in your hands or wrist.

Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms & Causes

Mostly it is the same in both the sides, right or left, and then gradually involves other joints like elbow feet, and sometimes one may have pain in one of the major joints. On subsequent investigation, we can know whether it is a localized problem or a systemic problem like rheumatoid arthritis. 

Also, the pain is very characteristic. It is more so in the morning when you get up, you feel lots of stiffness and pain in your hands, and as the day progresses, you start moving your hands or other joints, it eases off. 

Now our experts will take 30-45 minutes to 1 hour to ease off. It is very characteristic, and if one has this kind of pain, one needs to be seen by the clinician and preferably a rheumatologist as our experts specialize in this kind of disease.

Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment

It is important to know about this disease so that the treatment can be started as early as possible. Because ultimately, if we don’t treat it, one can have pain other than the joint starts getting deform and once that stage comes, unfortunately, the medication won’t be as effective as it would have been in the beginning. And with the drug, this disease can be controlled. Our experts would say the present medicines which we have our experts would say about 99 percent of patients. They can lead a very active and healthy life without any pain or limitations on a day to day activities. 

As our experts said before, they deal with multi-systemic diseases, and this is not the only thing that we treat. As he mentioned earlier, they deal with lots of other multi-systemic diseases. A few others that we should be aware of, and more commonly seen are ankylosing spondylitis where you have persistent pain in the lower back with stiffness which is characteristic in the morning. With the exercise, it eases out a little. 

Another inflammatory arthritis that one should be aware of is psoriatic arthritis. Many people have psoriatic arthritis, but a very small percentage can develop arthritis. So again, it needs to be treated differently from the regular medication available for psoriatic arthritis, from the general management side of what an average person can do at home. 

To prevent and subsequently one has the disease, is to manage it further Is regular exercise and maintaining your weight. Smoking is also a significant risk factor for inflammatory arthritis and specifically rheumatoid arthritis, and one should stay away from it. And eating a healthy, more nutritious, and well-balanced diet with the maintenance of weight and regular exercise helps us treat this or manage this disease in a better way. Thank you.