It would be in your best interests to visit your doctor for a check-up if you have noticed that there is aching in your joints, physical changes occurring in the joints, or if your joints are becoming overly stiff or deformed. These symptoms could indicate that you have contracted rheumatoid arthritis. Problems with the endocrine glands, malnutrition problems, and infections are also warning signs for rheumatoid arthritis. This illness can make it difficult for you to carry out some simple everyday activities.

Poisons and Viruses: Possible Causes

Some poisons, viruses, and bacterial toxins have also been noted as causes of the development of rheumatoid arthritis. This can be true even if the fluids of the joints do not contain germs or pus.

Other reasons why a person can develop this condition are emotional or physical shock; injuries and fatigue and even because of having been exposed to dampness and cold weather. What’s more, women are the more likely to suffer from rheumatoid arthritis as compared to men.

Rheumatoid arthritis is commonly believed to begin soon after childhood years have been completed and just prior to reaching the forties. There are however, also few cases when the disease affects people in their sixties and seventies ??” and, the disease (whichever age it begins in) is slow to develop and not a sudden occurrence. To begin with, patients that are developing rheumatoid arthritis will start to experience low fever, weakened state in all parts of the body as well as will experience headaches.

The knees and fingers are the first joints to be affected by rheumatoid arthritis. Following them are the shoulders and wrists and then the elbows and ankles. Rheumatoid arthritis affects the joints before it begins bring about symptoms related to any other body parts. In some situations, all of the joints of the body will be attacked by this disease, resulting in inflammation and an aching feeling that can be anywhere from mild to severe.

Another ill effect of rheumatoid arthritis is that it is a condition that can cause deformities which in turn occurs because the muscles and tendons near the joints tend to atrophy and contract. Such acts lead the tendons and muscles to bend in unnatural ways and this is reflected in deformities.

Children six years of age and younger can also develop juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. One early symptom of this illness is a high fever.

Tags: Arthritis

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