A medical disorder, known as Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is very difficult to diagnose. The problem is, there are too many factors that triggers the diseases. In addition, the symptoms of the disease are similar to the symptoms of other medical disorders. Although RA is a complicated medical disorder, but they do have certain treatments for it, whether it is to undergo surgery, regular antibiotic treatments, or a change of lifestyle.
As I mentioned in the introduction before, RA has many causes that triggers the diseases. The causes include: abnormal autoimmune response, genetic susceptibility, and environmental or biological trigger, such as a viral infection or hormonal changes. Although all these factors may have something to do with rheumatoid arthritis, but not a single one of these factors causes the disease alone. For instance, the Helper T-Cells in the autoimmune may possibly be the main causes for the development of RA and then the genetic and environmental/biological trigger could help worsen it.
The symptoms of RA are morning stiffness that last for at least an hour and then swelling and pain may later starts to develop in the joints. This would keep up for at least six weeks before it's detected. Usually the swelling and the pain occur in the wrist and knuckles, but sometimes the knees and the joints in the ball of the foot could also be affected. Before the symptoms begins to develop, the victim of RA would be likely to develop a flu-like symptom such as, fatigue, weight loss, and fever. In children, the symptoms usually start with a fever and shaking chills along with pain and swelling in many joints and pink rash.
Although rheumatoid arthritis isn't fatal, but living with one could be somewhat of a torture and for some people they might not live as long as they intended to, depending on what type of RA they have. For example, if that person develops rheumatoid arthritis type two, then over time if they are fortunate, the disease could become less aggressive and symptoms may even improve. There is no cure for RA.
Rheumatoid Arthritis could occur in children, young adults, and elderly. There are also other factors that determine who would be more likely to develop RA. Gender could be one, unfortunately RA are more likely to develop in women than men. RA is a disease of the bone that connects to the joint and since the bone of men has more density than women, the women are more likely to develop it, just like the cases of Osteoporosis. Aside from gender, family history and other risk factors, such as heavy smoking, short reproductive life, and history of blood transfusion could also be used to determine who are likely to develop RA later in life.
Since the disorder of RA is difficult to determine the causes of the diseases, it makes it just as difficult to diagnose the disorder. Like the many factors that cause rheumatoid arthritis, other conditions could resemble the symptoms of RA. What makes it even more difficult is sometimes its symptoms can develop without you even realizing it. There are several ways to diagnose to see if you have RA, such as the various blood tests, imaging techniques, which includes X-Rays, Ultrasound, and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).
To treat these kinds of disorders, you could undergo surgery, treat it with just the antibiotics or change your lifestyle, or both. As for the surgeries, really depends on how serious the RA is, if it's serious to the point where your hands and finger are disfigured, then maybe you would want to do a surgical procedure. If your arthritis isn't that bad, then you would probably just want to treat with specific antibiotics such as, Nonsteriodal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs), Disease-Modifying Anti-Rheumatoid Drugs (DMARDs), Immunosuppressant, Corticosteroids, Tumor-Necrosis Factor Modifiers, and Interleuken 1 Antagonists.
Along with treating the disorder, you might also want to change your lifestyle too. For instance, since the symptoms have morning stiffness, you could rest during the morning then in the afternoon or evening, when the stiffness isn't so bad, you could exercise to build up energy, muscles, and strengths and also strengthening your bones. Along with exercise you could also change your diet to eating protein sources such as fishes and soy and taking vitamin supplements could also benefit the RA patients too.
To get more information about RA and its treatment, you could log onto:
· www.arthritis.org
· www.aaos.org
· www.aidsforarthritis.com
· www.arthritis.about.com
Rheumatoid Arthritis might not be a fatal disorder, but if you leave it untreated, it could make your life an unhealthy one, which could later lead to an untimely death. There are many factors that triggers it. Scientists have not found what causes it yet, but there has been techniques and way of diagnosing it. As difficult as it is to find what causes it, diagnosing it is just as difficult. The best way in treating this disorder is with a specific antibiotic along with a change in lifestyle.
