What is Rheumatoid Arthritis?

Rheumatoid arthritis or the rheumatoid polio arthritis is one of the over 100 known forms of inflammatory chronic conditions reunited under the name of arthritis. The rheumatoid arthritis is one of the most invading forms of arthritis, because it causes pains in articulations and leads to deformed wrists. This is why even the simplest activities like opening a can or walking can become very difficult.

Many suffering people ask themselves what is rheumatoid arthritis. The specific information that refers to this type of arthritis is simply insufficient and most doctors just prescribe treatments without taking the time to properly explain to the patient the exact mechanism of the disease he is suffering from.

You have to know that rheumatoid arthritis also presents a pediatric form, named the juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, which debuts in children under the age of 16 and also includes many types of variations.

As opposed to osteoarthritis, witch is the simple result of excessive wear of articulations, the rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory disease. The causes behind this medical condition are not yet known, just assumed. Some say aliments we eat cause it, other claim that people who experience numerous episodes of colds and respiratory infections are more likely to develop it, others even claim it is genetically transmitted. The disease is actually a disagreement between the immune system and its actions. Instead of fighting infections, immune cells start to attack tissues inside the body, that for some reason are mistaken for swellings and nucleuses of infection. It is believed that if a person suffered for many years consecutive infections, and then suddenly they all disappeared at once and no other infection occurs in the near future, the immune cells will still be looking for infected elements to destroy, and since there are none present anymore, they start the attack of supposed inflammations, like articulations. The thing is they won’t acknowledge fast enough the infections will not occur, and since the information held by genes tells them that specific body is subject of numerous consecutive infections, they will frenetically look for them until they find something to fight against.

What is rheumatoid arthritis' most important side effect some of you might wonder? In truth, besides the fact that it attacks and possibly destroys articulations, rheumatoid arthritis can also cause lesions in internal organs. A side effect of the deregulated immune cells can be registered when they start attacking eyes. If ignored and not treated invasively, it can even lead to blindness. If the heart is attacked, then a condition named of the pericardium is registered, and severe pain in the chest will be felt. Treatment is needed urgently because it can cause palpitations and irregularities in pulse, witch will eventually lead to heart failure.