What is rheumatoid arthritis and is it caused by any factor?
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disease. In fact, it is the most common chronic inflammatory joint disease there is. It affects approximately 0.5% of the world’s population and is therefore considered a common disease. The cause of this disease is not known, the ultimate cause, but it does appear that there are genetic factors, hormonal factors, environmental factors, such as infections, and exposure factors have been described in recent years, such as exposure to tobacco. But there is no single cause, it is a set of factors that appear in an individual that triggers the disease.
What are the symptoms and can it appear at any age?
Rheumatoid arthritis is a disease that can appear really at any age in adult patients, because in children we are talking about another type of arthritis. But it can appear in patients from 18-20 years old, up to patients of 60 years old. It is not really a disease of the elderly, it is a disease that debuts more in middle-aged people, especially in women after menopause, but it can appear at any age.
The symptoms of this disease, fundamentally, are pain and joint inflammation, inflammation that affects, mainly, joints of the hands, joints of the feet, but it can affect knees, shoulders, elbows, to almost any joint except the joints of the lumbar, dorsal area, where this disease does not usually appear. That is to say, that it would be a disease that inflames the joints, mainly, of hands and feet, but not so much at level of the column.
In addition to pain and inflammation, there may also appear other symptoms that are quite common in this disease, such as fatigue and, sometimes, the appearance of other symptoms at other levels, such as nodules on the skin, lung problems, or problems in another location.
But, fundamentally, joint inflammation is what produces the symptoms in the patient.
How is it treated and can it be cured?
Rheumatoid arthritis is a disease that, in principle, cannot be cured; it is a chronic disease. But with the treatments available today there is great hope because we manage to have the disease with the least possible activity and we avoid almost any symptom or sequelae that, in many patients in the past, left this disease. Treatment is based on the early initiation of what we call disease-modifying drugs, which are immunosuppressive or immunomodulatory treatments, depending, to which we sometimes also associate corticosteroids or anti-inflammatory drugs, to control the patient’s inflammation and pain. But what is essential in this disease is to start treatment by a specialist at an early stage.
How does it affect the sufferer’s life?
Rheumatoid arthritis used to be a very disabling disease and nowadays it can be if we do not start appropriate treatment as early as possible. It is a disease that, left to its own devices, tends to cause sequelae in the joints, mainly, but it can also cause other more serious health problems in other organs. With the treatments currently available and, with a proper approach by a specialist, it is a disease that may not leave any sequelae, may not cause any disability in the patient who suffers from it, and patients with this disease properly controlled, could lead an absolutely normal life.