Rheumatoid Arthritis

Arthritis is a condition affecting the bones and joints of the human body. The word arthritis is derived from two Greek words - 'arthro', meaning joint, and 'itis', meaning inflammation.

There are four types of arthritis seen in humans:

• Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Psoriatic Arthritis
• Septic Arthritis
• Osteoarthritis

Of these, the first two are autoimmune diseases. Septic arthritis is caused by infection of the joints, while osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease, and is the most commonly seen of the four. However, the other three forms of arthritis are also equally painful

In this article, we will discuss rheumatoid arthritis.

What is Rheumatoid Arthritis?

As mentioned earlier, rheumatoid arthritis is a disease of the joints. This is commonly referred to as RA.

Other names for rheumatoid arthritis are Rheumatoid Disease, Felty's Syndrome, Rheumatism, and Atrophic Arthritis. Unlike osteoarthritis, which occurs mostly in elderly people, rheumatoid arthritis is seen in people between the 40 and 60 years can be seen in teens and young adults as well.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic illness, and can last for years. However, this doesn't mean that the patient suffers continuously. There usually are long bouts when the patient doesn't display any of the symptoms attributed to rheumatoid arthritis.

Rheumatoid arthritis is also not limited to a specific body part. It can affect different parts of the body, and is hence called a systemic condition.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease. An autoimmune disease is one which is caused when the immune system of the body attacks a body part instead of a foreign body. This is what happens - sometimes due to certain factors, the immune system ends up causing an inflammation in a specific joint or joints. The lymphocytes, which are the main immune cells in the human body, become active and release chemicals, mostly cytokines such as TNF (tumor necrosis factor) and 1/IL-1 (interleukin) at the inflamed sites.

While rheumatoid arthritis is not a high risk disease, it should not be taken lightly, as it causes pain and discomfort. In the United States, more than 2.5 million people, approximately 1% of the America population, suffer from rheumatoid arthritis. This number translates to 1 in 108 people.

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